REVIEW Jamie East, Film Critic 3 Apr 2020, 1:31 Updated: 3 Apr 2020, 1:33
SKY Cinema has done us parents a real favour and brought forward its film adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson’s book, which itself is based on E. Nesbit’s Five Children And It.
Alice and David – a newish couple with children from previous relationships take the rather risky move of introducing their kids to each other and announcing their romance by arriving for a communal family holiday in Cornwall.
They get exactly what they deserve, as the kids aren’t exactly ready to ingratiate themselves into a new unit. It’s chaos.
Luckily for the battling kids, they discover a magical creature called Psammead (voiced by Michael Caine, with unexpected and welcome gusto) who has the power to grant them wishes, which being kids – they gratefully lap up.
On the downside, there’s also a mysterious aristocrat called Tristan (Russell Brand resplendent in beard and tweed) who’s quite keen on capturing Psammead and harnessing those wishes for his own devilish means.
The adventure, of course, forces the kids to work together and deal with the new family situation.
Fair play to Sky Cinema – this is no low-budget adaptation.