Paddington and Wallace & Gromit have raised the bar very high for family comedies – at least partly, of course, due to the inspiration of that colossal writing-directing talent Richard Curtis. Curtis’s new film (as a co-writer) is this Netflix animation, based on his bestselling illustrated children’s books.
There are certainly some nice moments, including a cheeky self-mythologising dig at his own film Love Actually. It is a gag that sits interestingly, perhaps even unintentionally, with all the very Curtisian touches in the rest of the film: a school’s end-of-term Christmas show, a shy kid hopelessly in love with a girl etc. But for me, the sugar content is that bit too high, and there were times when we are in the realms of the precious and the twee.
