Smurfs: The Lost Village ****
There’s a nostalgic animated innocence to the whole affair that helps the Smurf personalities shine through – something the very busy, effects-heavy 2013 film lost.
Category: Family
The Lego Batman Movie ****
A marvel of an animation with a good pounding heart – you’ll all be quoting Batman in Arnett’s gruff tones for days to come.
Monster Trucks (3D) ***
Nothing profound – in fact, as to alerting young minds to environmental issues go, all-time classic WALL.E beats hands down. However, Monster Trucks does things in an immensely fun and loud fashion and in a way that kids will instantly connect to.
Moana (3D) ****
A blaze of colour and a cool refreshing summer breeze on a chilly December day. Moana is a role model any parent would actively encourage their offspring to have.
Alice Through The Looking Glass (3D) **
A feast for the imagination, so the design team has well and truly done its job. It’s Carroll’s eccentric storytelling that’s woefully missing, even while revisiting the individually unique characters.
Ratchet and Clank ***
An enjoyable but too safe reproduction designed to introduce us to the characters. Now we’ve met them, can we please give our unlikely heroes a meatier, more substantial adventure to go on next time around?
The Jungle Book (3D) ****
Full of vibrant creativity, noise and movement, probably requiring more than one viewing to fully appreciate what has gone into producing it.
LFF 2015: Goosebumps **
Gives you the pips with some chilling moments as all your childhood fears emerge. It also gives you the willies at how zany the pace is and how much it squanders a perfectly brilliant imaginative set-up.
Maya The Bee ***
A nice, safe, simplistic cinematic homage to Bonsels’ character. While Maya might be remembered for her sunny-yellow, can-do attitude, the rest can’t necessarily be said about the particulars of the film.