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Two plucky denizens of an underground world emerge into a German town to help the local baker – with soft-as-icing results

Anyone who has spent countless hours watching cartoons with children will attest that some of the output made for the younger end of the spectrum can be surprisingly watchable, even mesmerising. Sadly, this German production about plucky elves who decide to help a depressed artisanal baker does not fall into that category.

Visually palatable but as uniform and monotonously predictable as a Mr Kipling cake, The Elfkins posits an underground world where elves live, fearful of the human world above. Elfie, a heavily fringed tween elf (voiced in this English-language version by Rivka Rothstein) decides to explore the human world and persuades portly sidekick Buck (Valentin Beinhold) to accompany her. A misadventure involving a drainpipe and a black pug pup results in them being joined by rule-stickler Kipp (Liam Mockridge...