A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Magic Faraway Tree”. (2026, 4.5*, U).
As I’ve said before in this blog, I’m continually amazed why movie production houses just don’t make content purely for kids under 12 and crusty old retired folk like me with spare money to burn! For as I turned the corner into the Everyman Salisbury screen for “The Magic Faraway Tree” it came as no surprise to me that I saw a pretty packed audience of expectant faces of all ages.
I must admit that this is one I never read as a child. I was though a huge fan of Blyton’s ‘Adventure’ book series (Island, Castle, Mountain, Valley, Sea, River… I think that’s it!) with Philip, Jack, Dinah, Lucy-Ann… plus of course Kiki the parrot. Yes, they might have had a bit of in-built racism in them (the villainous “Joe” was “Jo-jo” in my version of “The Island of Adventure”), but that passed over my head and I simply devoured them… multiple times. Many have a similar love for this source book.
So, I predict that this is one that will do VERY good business in the UK over the Easter holiday. And it deserves to! For it is a marvellous children’s film that I think in the future it will gain a warm fuzzy place in the TV schedules in the same way that “The Railway Children” and “The Wizard of Oz” have.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Tim and Polly Thompson (Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy) are up a creek without a paddle after Polly loses her job as a fridge magnate (sic). They make a radical decision to move to the countryside to follow a dream of making bolognese sauce. This is much to the dislike of their three children Fran (Billie Gadsdon), Joe (Phoenix Laroche) and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy). That is, until Beth creeps into the forbidden woods and makes a surprising discovery.
Certification:
UK: U; US: PG. (From the BBFC website: “Very mild threat, rude humour, slapstick, language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Billie Gadsdon, Phoenix Laroche, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, Rebecca Ferguson, Nonso Anozie, Jennifer Saunders, Mark Heap, Dustin Demri-Burns, Oliver Chris, Simon Russell Beale, Lenny Henry, Michael Palin, Simon Farnaby, Claire Keelan, Judi Dench.
Directed by: Ben Gregor.
Written by: Simon Farnaby. (From the book by Enid Blyton.)
Running Time: 1h 50m.
Summary:
Positives:
- The script is keenly written to appeal to viewers of all ages. There is the fantasy stuff that even small kids will enjoy and then there are nicely written parts for Tim and Polly that adults will relate to: the AI fridge (voiced by Dame Judi Dench no less!) offering Tim another glass of wine in the evening! This is also – topically – the first film of at least two (the other being the upcoming “Toy Story 5”) featuring a battle for children’s souls of ‘traditional’ play over screens.
- Unusually for a kids film like this, there is little to terrify younger kids in this one. When the BBFC say “very mild threat”, they mean it. There is no ‘child catcher’ in this film, regardless of how terrifying Rebecca Ferguson’s Dame Snap might look. That whole sequence is largely played for laughs – Ferguson is great! – and any nervousness young kids might have will dissolve at the first fart joke!
- What an incredibly safe pair of hands Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy are! They are perfectly cast as the married couple and feel perfect together. (Though I said the same about Garfield and Florence Pugh in “We Live in Time“… so it must be Garfield’s acting!) They are the adult beating heart at the centre of the story and I’m not ashamed to say that a finale ‘meeting’ between Garfield and another character left me with a significant lump in my throat.
- The kids are all good in their roles, particularly I thought Phoenix Laroche in his feature debut playing Joe, oozing charisma and style.
- The supporting cast are also amazing, with Farmer Joe being played by the writer and general good-egg Simon Farnaby himself and and his ‘wifey’ (LOL) by Claire Keelan. Derry girl Nicola Coughlan does a good job with Silky and it was wonderful to see, in a short cameo, the trio of Michael Palin, Lenny Henry and Simon Russell-Beale basically recreating the Knights who say “Ni!” for the 21st century!
- The special effects are good, the production design is impressive and the music by Isabella Summers is pleasant. The film also contains an insanely catchy ‘Family Song’, sung beautifully, acapella-style, by the cast to procure a magic item. But it is also repeated over the end titles and had young people bouncing up and down in their cinema seats in time to the beat!
Negatives:
- Inevitably, some of the gags fell a bit flat.
- Jennifer Saunders felt underused as the manipulative grandmother and her role – other than maybe adding a little bit more pressure on the stakes – was a bit superfluous to the plot.
Summary Thoughts:
I thought it was a delight. While I’m not sure I would want to watch it again, I’m giving it 4.5 stars because as an example of the ‘children’s film’ genre, I think it is outstanding.
I notice at the time of writing it only has an IMDB score of 6.7 despite mostly glowing user reviews in the comments. I find that a bit surprising. Is Enid Blyton still sufficiently ‘cancelled’ (From Google AI: “Enid Blyton has faced significant posthumous criticism and partial “cancellation” due to racism, xenophobia, and lack of literary merit in her books“, according to English Heritage.”) such that people are negatively bombing the IMDB rating?
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAUEwUhAjzg
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