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:

Referenced in "Getaway: Getaway's European Holiday (#17.10)" (2008)

Mildly entertaining story...

1st watched 10/29/2006 - 4 out of 10(Dir-John Stephenson): Mildly entertaining story of a group of five kids who are forced to live with their eccentric uncle while their father and mother fight & work in World War I as England entered the war. They are told not to go in the greenhouse of the uncle's mansion, which of course they do over and over, and they discover a sand fairy who them daily wishes that only last until the sun goes down. This is the "IT" referred to in the title, created by the Jim Henson group and voiced by Eddie Izzard. The problem is their wishes usually bring about other problems that they are supposed to learn from. This part of the movie is not done very well because it's obvious the children, primarily the Freddie Highmore character, do not learn from them but instead keep going back to "it" to solve their next big problem. "IT" is not nearly as funny as it could have been with the comedian Eddie Izzard really not given much opportunity to improvise and Kenneth Branagh is wasted as the eccentric uncle, although he is the best character. The children are fine as far as their acting abilities but the story probably would have been much better going into the fantasy realm but they did have a human story to tell as well, which probably caused the confusion with the filmmakers. So, all in all, this was an OK film but could have been much better.