User reviews

Here's a children's movie from New Zealand about a little girl who is approached by monsters from her storybook who ask her for help regaining their voices which have been stolen by a witch. This one is sort of like The Wizard of Oz if it had been made by the costume department from Dr Who circa 1974 and the music department of Kickboxer 3 (i.e. A bloke with a Casio keyboard). It intentionally utilised New Zealand's picturesque landscape to accentuate its fantasy world, so you could ask the question would Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy have happened without this film? Well, yes it probably would have but I don't think that's really the point. Its complete nonsense of course but, as you should have gathered from the above, its charming and likeable nonsense. It should really be on telly every year.

For myself, as a child three movies stand out as ones which I loved to watch over and over again. They are The Red Balloon, Popeye, and of course this one. Set against the backdrop of Christmas it follows the adventures of one small girl as she befriends a group of friendly, though mute, monsters who enlist her aid in obtaining their voices back from and evil witch.

Do the monsters look scary? No. But that's part of the magic of this movie! Seeing it as it was meant to be seen....as though through the eyes of a child.

Only lasting about an hour or so in length this movie is a wonderful trip through some of the more exotic locales in New Zealand and even after seeing it years later it still hasn't lost its magic touch.

I anxiously await seeing it available on Netflix!