Five Children and It (2004)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

John Stephenson

Writers:

David Solomons (written by)
E. Nesbit (novel)

Release Date:

15 October 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

You are invited to discover the secret...

Plot:

'It' is a Psammead (voiced by Eddie Izzard), an ancient, ugly and irritable sand fairy the children...

Plot Keywords:

Magic | Wish | Fairy | Uncle | Sunset

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Tara Fitzgerald	...	Mother
Freddie Highmore	...	Robert
Alex Jennings	...	Father
Jonathan Bailey	...	Cyril
Jessica Claridge	...	Anthea
Poppy Rogers	...	Jane
Alec Muggleton	...	Lamb
Zak Muggleton	...	Lamb
Zoë Wanamaker	...	Martha
Kenneth Branagh	...	Uncle Albert
Alexander Pownall	...	Horace
Eddie Izzard	...	It (voice)
Georgio Serafini	...	Mr. Bialli
John Sessions	...	Peasemarsh
Kim Fenton	...	RFC Flier

Also Known As:

5 Children & It (Philippines: English title)
Cinq enfants et moi (France)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

France | UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:G (TV rating) | Australia:PG (original rating) | Sweden:7 | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:Livre | France:U | Malaysia:U | Finland:K-7 | Netherlands:AL | Philippines:G | Singapore:G | UK:U

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Company:

Sandfairy

Trivia:

Robin Williams was originally offered the role of the Psammead.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Despite taking place in circa 1917, the children sing "Happy Birthday to You", which wasn't written until 1924, and didn't game popularity until around 1930.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Robert: It was the Summer of nineteen seventeen and the world was at war. Like lots of children, we had to leave our home. - Leave London. We didn't want to go, but Dad went to fly planes, and Mum went to look after the wounded, and we were stuck. They insisted we go to the country, to stay with mad Uncle Albert and our cousin Horace.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Troldspejlet: (#34.16)" (2005)

Good British Fun

Searching through the movies on 'Sky' when I was off work with flu, I stumbled across the film 'five children and it', when I was a young kid i Remember watching a program of the same name on 'BBC' and really loving it, so in an effort to restore past childhood memories (or potentially risk damaging them) i decided to give the new adaptation a go.

It got me gripped from beginning to end and I could not believe this had not been 'in my face' more with advertising and marketing schemes, this has the feel of a real good old classic BBC children's drama that you would find on a Saturday afternoon and leaves you with a real good feel good factor.

The cast is a really good choice with not a sniff of bad acting and plenty of great script work with funny,emotional and sometimes hysterical pieces of dialogue. 'Kenneth Brannagh' for me leads the cast as the professor, really funny and keeps a smile on your face. The children are all equally good, putting in excellent roles and not looking lost for a minute.....you would think they are a real family! Eddie Izard is a real gem though, giving him the role of the psamiead with a dodgy accent at first gives you the impression you are about to be disappointed but I could never have been further wrong, he has an amazing role and keeps the punchlines coming and coming.

Overall I am a 21 year old guy and found this film to be a real treasure and would certainly tell my own kids one day to watch. I still think it is criminal that the film didn't do better than it did.

a real worth see.