Five Children and It (2004)

Five children staying in their eccentric uncle's labyrinthine mansion for protection during World War I befriend a sand fairy who has the power to grant wishes.

Director:

John Stephenson

Writers:

David Solomons, E. Nesbit (novel)

Stars:

Tara Fitzgerald, Freddie Highmore, Alex Jennings

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

"It" is a Psammead, an ancient, ugly, and irritable sand fairy the children find one day on a secret beach at their uncle's mansion. It grants them one wish per day, lasting until sunset. But they soon learn it is very hard to think of really sensible wishes, and each one gets them into unexpected difficulties. Magic, the children find, can be as awkward as it is enticing.

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Plot Keywords:

uncle | fairy | eccentric | wish | sunset | 

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Taglines:

A magical experience for the whole family

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 October 2004 (UK)

Also Known As:

5 Children & It

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£230,156 (United Kingdom), 22 October 2004, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sandfairy, Capitol Films, Endgame Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Uncle Albert (Sir Kenneth Branagh) says the answer to his math problem (3,465,222) is "a prime number of the Zeeman series." This is a fictional series, first used in Flash Gordon by Dr. Zarkov who says, "A-ha! I thought it was one of the prime numbers of the Zeeman series." That it is fictional is reinforced by the fact that 3,465,222 is an even number, and the only even Prime number is 2. Every other even number is a composite number, not a Prime.

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Goofs

"Happy Birthday To You" was first published in 1893, in 1912 the lyrics were added to the music, so the song could have been sung ads the film is set in 1917.

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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.

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Connections

Featured in Troldspejlet: Episode #34.16 (2005)

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Soundtracks

Robert's Theme
Written and Performed by Sean Lennon
Produced by David Kahne
Published by Usagi Music
Sean Lennon appears courtesy of Capitol Records

User Reviews

Annoyingly dissimilar to the book

I would think that this was one of those films whose director hadn't read the book it was based on, were it not for the fact that they are just slightly similar. It is certainly possible for a great film to be "based" very loosely on a book and this was certainly the latter but not the former.

There were a number of flaws. One was that it tried to be too much like the Railway Children, probably because adults would expect this, being from the same author. Another is that it also sought to be too like Harry Potter, down to the music and in overemphasizing the setting. I have nothing against J K Rowling or the films but the book is just nothing like the Harry Potter ones. I thought the Psammead, though very well voiced by Eddie Izzard and in character too, was almost gratuitously in a totally inappropriate environment. I may have missed something here, as the comments made about one of the characters' own books may have been a reference to the inaccuracy of the adaptation. There was also no need for the extra characters, and today's special effects could easily have been used to tell the story as it was written, but they weren't.

I saw this film with my two children, one of whom knows the book and the other of whom doesn't. The one who does know it thought it was all right but wasn't as enthusiastic as the one who doesn't. I'm not sure what this means.