As an adult man, I get to watch precious few children’s movies. Not because I am opposed to them or anything; I just have no real reason to watch them unless I just happen to decide to put on one.
Recently, after a trip to DisneyWorld, I decided to kill off a few blindspots and watch the first two Incredibles movies, The Princess And The Frog, and Lilo & Stitch. Those were all a great deal of fun to check off the ol’ list, but sometimes it is a joy to watch some kids’ fare that isn’t associated with the House Of Mouse.
Enter today’s outing, an offering from Harpoon Media and Pixel Scene Media: it’s the new movie, The Magic Faraway Tree. This film stars Andrew Garfield and is aimed at the young ones.
The Magic Faraway Tree is about a family that uproots itself after the mother of the house quits her job in frustration. They move out into the countryside and decide to live out the mother and father’s dream of starting a farm and a pasta sauce business. The perpetually plugged in kids are skeptical about this, but when the youngest–Fran, who barely speaks–hears about fairies and pixies living in the woods, she perks up a bit.
Fran is quickly visited by a fairy named Silky who invites her into the woods to meet the latter’s friends. Admittedly, for most movies I watch, a mystical creature summoning a child into the forest would be a set-up for terror and carnage, but here, Fran makes adorable new allies.
With her reluctant siblings just wanting to go home and her father struggling to get his business going, is there any way Fran’s new friends can help the family cope with their new lives?
TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS
+ The cast is a big stand-out on this one. For starters, there is Andrew Garfield playing the patriarch of the family, and he genuinely seems like he is having a blast in this goofy little picture. He is all big smiles and laughs and silly energy. He remains one of the actors I enjoy seeing the most in any project he accepts. I’ve got to see some of his bigger works from this past decade that I have missed out on. Regardless, he is brilliant here, leaning into the zaniness of everything around him.
Then there are the children, and while child actors can always be a bit tedious at their worst, Bille Gadsdon as Fran and Delilah Bennet-Cardy as Beth are exceptional. Fran has a very infectious joy and wonderment, and Beth has a believable ‘tweenager disaffection that gives way as the picture progresses. Phoenix Laroche rounds out the trio of kiddos, and while he is also good, he seems to be given the least to do.
Then you can factor in some cameos from Dame Judi Dench and Michael Palin, and you’ve got a movie that really tried to fit in some quality talent to surround and lift up its young stars.
+ The movie is charming and enjoyable for all ages. It’s not going to have adults in stitches, and there’s a risk that its live action and practical effects might not mesh well with the CGI-drenched brains of younger kids, but honestly, the whole outing is solid all-around for the family. The characters are bombastic and fun, and the world is well-imagined and colorful. I certainly had no problems enjoying it as a 45 year old with no kids of my own.
The characters the children meet are big in spirit and design, and the tree itself is pretty wonderful (though we spend surprisingly little time in it). The story is goofy (two parents throw their lives away to go live in a rural area and grow tomatoes…) but also relatable (…because they want to follow the dreams of their impassioned youth and make a better life for their kids). It’s just simple fun, and there’s nothing wrong with any of that.
– The Magic Faraway Tree kind of wastes Rebecca Ferguson in a minor role. She is set up as the antagonist of the film, but she only makes it into the movie with about twenty minutes left, and she is out of it by the ten minutes left mark. It’s possible that, to keep the picture palatable to younger kids, they wrote her role down so she wouldn’t be too scary or anything, but I could have used a bigger helping of her as the villain here. She’s obviously a star who has earned more screen time than she is given.
– Some of the fairy folk characters are relatively underdeveloped. Mr. Watzisname is not very useful or fleshed out, and neither is Saucepan Man. Dame Washalot is another. These characters are designed well and have a creative flair behind them, but I wouldn’t say we ever get to know them. They are substantially one-note.
Additionally, there is backstory between Andrew Garfield and Moonface that wants to pay off in the last few minutes, but we just don’t see enough of their history for the moment to be as resonant as the filmmakers might have hoped. It could have been the key emotional beat of the effort if they had put more energy into rounding it out.
OVERALL
It’s weird that two of my problems with The Magic Faraway Tree are that there was not enough time dedicated to either Moonface’s history with Tim or to Rebecca Ferguson as the enemy, because this film is overlong at around 110 minutes. Still, it’s hard to find anything to cut, as the world-building is a joy and the family stuff is so extraordinary. Maybe the grandmother subplot felt extraneous? I could have done without that, but it doesn’t take up loads of time. No matter, I had a solid time with this movie, and I appreciate what it is shooting for. I’d definitely recommend this to families with kids!
