Tiddler

Once again Christmas is here and another Donaldson/Scheffler book has been brought to our screens. But what's it like?

There have been so many memorable adventures in the series: The Gruffalo, Stick man, The Snail and the Whale, Zog etc. This one I didn't know, but felt was a weaker story.

The animation and voices and music are all great, but there's not so much to engage with and you're left wondering where it's going after a few minutes. Like the other tales it may grow on me, but I felt it was like eating a chocolatee éclair with hardly any cream inside: it looks great but there's little to sink my teeth into. It's bright, child-safe, colourful stuff, and has some good Easter eggs in (watch out for the Gruffalo fish!) But ultimately this is overshadowed by the far superior and more entertaining Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl this year.

As a fan of the book I was amazed by the low quality of this work. It the story is simple and yet the makers were unable to properly convey the story especially when moving between the 'day dream' parts and the mains story. The dreams were supposed to be dramatic but lacked any suspense or drama. In addition to this the idea was that Tiddler is late to school- this is key to the story yet appared to go through the story as a non events. The voice acting was also poor with no conveying of drama, emotion, tension or excitement. Finally, it was also thankfully short ans just appeared to come to a random end. This would have left anyone who did not know the book very confused. These series of cartoons started really strong with the Gruffalo and Highway rat but have nose dived in terms of quality over the past few years.

What the eponymous young fish lacks in size it makes up for with an enormous imagination. Constantly late for school, his excuses to teacher "Miss Skate" become more creatively outlandish by the day. There's pirate treasure, a shark attack, a giant squid - even some fisherman's nets! Thing is, though, all his schoolfriends think he's just "Pinnochio" with fins. Astonishingly, one of these tall stories is actually true and leaves him a way from home, lost, and needing the most unconventional trail of literal breadcrumbs if he is to find his way back to his school and best friend "Johnny Dory". The style of animation reminded me quite a bit of the "Gruffalo" - indeed I'm sure I saw a scaly version of that very beastie at some point here. The story is a characterful one along the lines of boy who cried wolf, it's engagingly told and uses different styles to help us distinguish between his real life and his fantasies. It's a tale with a moral, sure, but that's delivered quite charmingly and it shows that you don't need Disney budgets to tell an enjoyable to watch story of underwater adventures that teaches us about all kinds of fish, too!