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Five Children and It
Release Date:
Released in U.S. October 14, 2004, Boston Fantastic Film
Festival - July 5, 2005 (on DVD)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Director: John Stephenson
Screenwriter: David Solomons
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard, Freddie Highmore, Zoë
Wanamaker, Jonathan Bailey, Jessica Claridge, Poppy Rogers, Tara Fitzgerald,
Alex Jennings, John Sessions, Norman Wisdom, Duncan Preston
Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Plot Summary: What they thought was going to
be a dull summer in the country is about to become the most exciting adventure
of their lives when five children dig up an eight thousand year old sand-fairy
who is prepared to make their wildest dreams come true....at a price
Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2005
- Take a pot shot but be warned.
The newspaper ad for Five Children and It ran the
slogan, “a secret passageway, a magic creature, and all your wishes granted”.
It’s a line which appeals to the child in all of us. But this low budget British
children’s film throws in a bit of complex adult material.
Based on the story by Edith Nesbit, whose children’s stories
are considered a reaction to the prevalent Victorian morality of her era, the
touching centrepiece involving a father and his son is set against the backdrop
of World War II.
Five children, two boys and two girls, and a toddler, are
sent to their Uncle Albert while their father is fighting in the war. The uncle,
played with skill by Kenneth Branagh, is an eccentric mathematician whose tells
the children not to venture into the “green house” of his makeshift abode. Of
course they do and encounter another world where a “sand fairy”, a likeable and
peculiar lizard-looking “It” invention of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, grants
them wishes.
In the vein of Harry Potter and the upcoming The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a magical secret world is found by
children behind the real world. But beyond the elementary and nominal fun there
are as nowhere as many special effects as the latter films, due to a low budget.
The humour will appeal more to children and the plot is fuelled by minimal steam
and imagination. But for what it lacks in spectacle and plot there are some
touching moments and the pace enlivens later in the film. With “It” as the main
attraction and who gets less screen time than the humans a lot of work is left
for the child actors.
This seems to set out as a children’s morality tale about
lessons learned but turns into a Finding Neverland motif about believing
your troubles away. The boy whose father dies in Neverland is played by
the same actor, Freddie Highmore, in Five Children and It, who again
plays the distressed son missing his father. This works occasionally but at
least the human element in the story kept the loudest of the youthful audience
quiet, which may be a good sign.
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