Flora & Ulysses

Within the story structure of a romantic comedy and the thematic structure of a classic children's film this feature captures the irony and sarcasm towards both themes about as well as the original Shrek film did. To be clear, this is NOT an animated feature. Rather it is a live action film with an animated character, like Pete's Dragon. The animated character now done in CGI of course.

Easter eggs galore for adult watchers from the Imperial March doorbell to the film opening with a collage of Marvel-Disney characters, yet a pile of DC comics being dumped on the table at some point.

Smart well made film. Good to watch with or without kids present. As long as you are young of mind and heart. Feel good.

Funny, inspiring, well written, cast and shot. And the kids were great! Matilda killed it. I just wish the third act would ambiguously turn more towards reality. I think it would resonate more. But maybe it's just the cynic in me talking.

Bit of a waste, in the end.

'Flora & Ulysses' isn't a bad watch, but it doesn't utilise a cool premise or a strong showing from youngster Matilda Lawler. The latter fairly impressed me, especially early on. Behind her, Ben Schwartz is OK and Alyson Hannigan is, as seemingly always, likeable.

Given how interesting the concept is, the film barely even touches on Ulysses' abilities - when they do, e.g. at the diner, then it is actually nicely created with the effects, slow motion et al. Instead they focus on a familial story, which didn't intrigue me whatsoever. I did like the comic book onscreen graphics, mind.

Perhaps others will find enjoyment with this, fair enough if so. For me, though, it's average and forgettable.

This movie was exactly what we wanted for our movie night! We all laughed so many times and enjoyed the more sentimental moments too. Alyson Hannigan and Ben Schwartz were excellent! Matilda was such a little spit fire. All of my boys loved Benjamin Ainsworth as well. We will definitely be watching this one again!

"Did you put your mouth on the squirrel?" "I had to." "Was he clean?" "Probably not."

"Can you point the Jack and Rose at me?"

"Holy unanticipated occurrences!"

I love when it feels like they made a movie just for me. I haven't watched something so fast after first finding out about it in forever. I didn't even know about the book of this which surprises me, 'cos I loved Kate DiCamillo's other stuff like Because of Winn-Dixie, and the setup alone would've grabbed me as it did here - but I guess it just slipped by me. When I saw the poster on Disney+ I felt like Homer Simpson and Mr Sparkle 'cos this is pretty much my Second Life avatar, a little blonde girl and her crazy squirrel. There isn't a lot more to say, I was just always going to love this, but for what it's worth it's just really well executed too, great effects and performances (especially Matilda Lawler and Alyson Hannigan). For me, an instant fave. I really needed a surprise like this today.