4 enfants et moi

It was decent. I have no conection to the source material. the idea is there but there lacked the focus. It could have been better, but it's not a new story and it does not improve compared to any story i know so far.

I couldn't even make it through the trailer. Talk about cringe. As if it wasn't bad enough that CGI monstrosity is absolutely disgusting and I want nothing to do with it. Foul creature. Lazy stupid film.

Having seen the 1990s series I was aware of the basic storyline. Clearly the book is a classic but unfortunately this is let down in a number of ways.

The special effects to start with are terrible. The Pssammead is first introduced as it tunnels under the sand (think Tremors) and it looks awful. Later the children fly and it was very 1970s green-screenesque.

Then there's the acting. Michael Caine cannot do much wrong as a voice actor and Russell Brand is ok, the rest are terrible. It sounds awful to say about child actors but for a feature film it really wasn't great.

I don't know what the budget was, but I suspect after Caine and Brand there was nothing left.

Usual middle school & younger age appropriate hooks - wishes, magic, trouble ("There's consequences." - actually they're pretty tame.); brief romantic hook; feel good ending. Stereotyping of dysfunctional divorced families; kids want parents together the way they were. But, remaining male & female parent of each family have secretly developed a mutual relationship that is brought to light when both groups surprisingly show up at the same vacation spot; predictably, offspring of each don't get along with counterparts, but that'll change. Never found any of the characters likable or interesting; made even more tiresome with not-demanding acting. Bringing them all together was the usual nasty foil character as counterpoint. Oh, and the the wish granter (A well known actor voicing which sounded weird.).

The family were all looking forward to watching this whilst in lockdown. The first 20 minutes were just dreadful and our kids, aged 14 and 12, and my wife all agreed to give up on it. Maybe it gets better, but to us, the first 20 minutes represented everything that's wrong with parenting and filmmaking.