Five Children and It
Tags: fantasy, gothic

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with five children (Robert, Cyril, Jane, Anthea and The Lamb), that let their father go to the fight in World War I. That's in 1914, but the children are asked to stay at their uncle's house with his son, Horace. While exploring the house, Robert finds a locked door in the Greenhouse and brings the other children. They manage to open the door and discover a creature called It, a sand fairy. They wish to make the house tidy without having to do the work. When they come back, they see dozens of copies of themselves doing the chores and wrecking the house in the attempt.
Suddenly, everything disappears in clouds of golden dust. They are then forced to tidy up the mess and learn that wishes only last till sunset. The children blame It for the mess. They need money to fix all the broken items, so they wish for buckets of gold and go off to buy some items. Meanwhile, Horace becomes suspicious. The children aren't able to buy anything because the owners will not accept gold, believing it is fake. They purchase a car, having nothing else to do with the gold, and end up crashing it. Robert goes to It and wishes for wings so they can go off to France and find their father. While flying, they are almost killed, managing to escape in time. When sunset comes, they have no choice but to go home. They lose their wings and are about to fall into the sea but are blown back by It.
When the children's mother returns, the children learn that their father has gone missing. Robert falls asleep next to It on the beach. Horace follows Robert and captures It. The next morning, Robert confronts Horace but is unwilling to act, as Horace has his father's compass. Robert suggests Horace wish for something rather than dissect It, as he wanted to do. Horace wishes for his Dinosaur to hatch. The children arrive in time to see Horace's dinosaur standing high above them. After trying to calm it down, It makes the dinosaur vanish. Shocked, Horace passes out, and Robert takes him to their mother, while the other children wish for their father to come home.
The children go to Horace, settle their differences, and agree to share the secret of Its existence together. On It's birthday, the children wish it a good future and prepare to return home. When their car breaks down, they are forced to stay in the house and Horace suggests a game of hide-and-seek. As Robert counts, his father appears. When Robert realizes that its really their father, he and the children are overjoyed, joined by their mother. Finally reunited with their father, the children prepare to go home.

Review: It was a really good family film with no f*rt jokes or rude bits that you have to explain later.It has a sentimental theme to the story without drowning you in saccharine which made it much more genuine and affecting - cue me sniffing!
A Truly Moving Picture "explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life."This is a movie in the tradition of "Harry Potter" movies and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." It is a fantasy set in 1917 in wartime England.
The children are off on adventures because the sand fairy grants them one wish a day.
He is played by Freddie Highmore of "Finding Neverland" fame and he steals the movie with his character and his screen presence.The children as a group are interesting.
And they learn from their mistakes.This film has beautiful art direction and wonderful casting and acting.FYI  There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Crystal Heart winners that are now either at the theater or available on video..
The children discover a magical creature called a psammead ("sammyadd") which grants them one wish a day.
This family has sent Father off to World War I as a flying ace, Mother as a dedicated volunteer nurse, and the children go to a large country home on the cliffs of Dover to stay with their batty uncle, evil cousin and a mysterious woman who is neither the uncle's wife nor just a housekeeper.
It doesn't matter because she just provides plot devices necessary to carry along the movie version which is wholly different from the book except for the character's names and two of the wishes.
Imagine if the movie version of Harry Potter had included Dr Xavier and the X-Men characters and been set in wartime because some pinhead producer felt that J K Rowling's story didn't have enough flash and mawkishness.
Good British Fun. Searching through the movies on 'Sky' when I was off work with flu, I stumbled across the film 'five children and it', when I was a young kid i Remember watching a program of the same name on 'BBC' and really loving it, so in an effort to restore past childhood memories (or potentially risk damaging them) i decided to give the new adaptation a go.It got me gripped from beginning to end and I could not believe this had not been 'in my face' more with advertising and marketing schemes, this has the feel of a real good old classic BBC children's drama that you would find on a Saturday afternoon and leaves you with a real good feel good factor.The cast is a really good choice with not a sniff of bad acting and plenty of great script work with funny,emotional and sometimes hysterical pieces of dialogue.
The children are all equally good, putting in excellent roles and not looking lost for a minute.....you would think they are a real family!
Eddie Izard is a real gem though, giving him the role of the psamiead with a dodgy accent at first gives you the impression you are about to be disappointed but I could never have been further wrong, he has an amazing role and keeps the punchlines coming and coming.Overall I am a 21 year old guy and found this film to be a real treasure and would certainly tell my own kids one day to watch.
In these days of blockbuster movies made especially for children, it is quite refreshing to see an old fashioned tale of magic and mischief.
Children of all ages will like this film and take it at face value - it is an adaptation of a classic story.
The special effects are reasonable but unremarkable and we are drawn mainly to the characters played by Kenneth Branagh and Zoe Wanamaker, the latter having the best role by far.
I have nothing against J K Rowling or the films but the book is just nothing like the Harry Potter ones.
There was also no need for the extra characters, and today's special effects could easily have been used to tell the story as it was written, but they weren't.I saw this film with my two children, one of whom knows the book and the other of whom doesn't.
1st watched 10/29/2006 - 4 out of 10(Dir-John Stephenson): Mildly entertaining story of a group of five kids who are forced to live with their eccentric uncle while their father and mother fight & work in World War I as England entered the war.
They are told not to go in the greenhouse of the uncle's mansion, which of course they do over and over, and they discover a sand fairy who them daily wishes that only last until the sun goes down.
This part of the movie is not done very well because it's obvious the children, primarily the Freddie Highmore character, do not learn from them but instead keep going back to "it" to solve their next big problem.
"IT" is not nearly as funny as it could have been with the comedian Eddie Izzard really not given much opportunity to improvise and Kenneth Branagh is wasted as the eccentric uncle, although he is the best character.
Eddie Izzard's hysterical portrayal of "It" is his best performance and the only real reason to see this otherwise unremarkable children's film.
Five children go to the country to stay with their uncle during the First World War. While exploring the house they come upon a secret door which takes them down to the beach where they meet a "sand fairy" who agrees to grant one wish a day for them.
The wishes all go horribly wrong, but in the process the children learn something.The Jim Henson Company produced this adaptation of the E Nesbit story and its not one of their better works.
He is charmingly scatterbrained as a man who doesn't know what day it is and who wonders where last October went to.The other joy is Eddie Izzard, in his best role to date as the voice of the sand fairy, the "It" of the title.
Its one of the funniest things I've seen on screen on long time and he's the real reason to see the film.Over all a completely average children's film made more than watchable thanks to Eddie Izzard's vocal performance as It. Worth a rental or a viewing on cable, especially if you're a fan..
A group of siblings discovers a "sand fairy" (yes, really) conveniently located at the end of a not-so-secret passage at the country home of their eccentric uncle, to which they've been evacuated from the London blitz.
The story is about the role of magic in childhood and the danger of getting wishes fulfilled, but neither of these issues is examined in a way that would be interesting to adults or instructive to children (or vice versa!).
Although the premise of the the film and the novel are the same, both veer off in very different directions and it has to be said that this bears little relation to the characters or events of the book's storyline.Firstly, the setting has been changed to WW1 from the Crimean War; I'm not sure why, except maybe people don't know or care about the Crimean War these days.
Instead of the likable, inventive children of the Nesbit story, we get a bunch of screamers, whiners, and - in the case of Freddie Highmore - oddly creepy kids and the stock fat cousin character who of course turns out to be evil.
God knows what all that monster stuff in the basement laboratory is supposed to be about.The famous Psammead, voiced by the irritating Eddie Izzard and animated via rubbishy CGI, is a far cry from the excellent puppet utilised in the old BBC TV series version of the tale.
This film on its own terms(which I will be judging this film solely on) is quite nice, if lacking a bit of lustre, however it is rather disappointing as an adaptation.The best thing about 5 Children and It is the splendid performance of Eddie Izzard as It(very well-designed in animatronic style), and helped by endearing cheeky humour and an eccentric vibe.
Jane Antonia Cornish's music sparkles, the film does move quickly and there are some decent performances from Freddie Highmore, Zoe Wannamaker and Kenneth Branagh.On the other hand, I don't think 5 Children and It is long enough, consequently there are some assets that fall short.
I remember the TV series of 5 Children and It and enjoyed that and I enjoyed the movie version just as much.During World War 1, five brothers and sisters are evacuated to their Uncle's creepy mansion where they make a very strange discovery.
The children's' wishes include flying, having loads of gold and, best of all, a T-Rex which was wished by the Uncle's mad scientist young son after he had kidnapped the sand fairly to experiment on.
The five children then return the sand fairly back to his lair and say goodbye to him at the end after their dad returns from war duty and is OK.This is an excellent movie, great special effects and quite creepy at time too.
Although this has a universal rating, some scenes including the T-Rex may be a little scary for really young viewers.An excellent cast which includes: Johnaton Baily, Freddie Highmore, Tars Fitzgerald, Alex Jennings and well known British stars Kenneth Branagh, Zoe Wanamaker and veteran comic Norman Wisdom in a cameo.
I like to read classic children's fiction and finished E Nisbett's book not long before watching this most recent adaptation of the fantasy story.
The film was pleasant enough without ever convincing me I was watching a true classic movie for children.Watching it, you'll be reminded a little of "The Railway Children" with the evacuated children missing their father who's away fighting the First World War, whilst horrible cousin Horace is greatly reminiscent of the Dursley boy in Harry Potter and of course the daily wish routine recalls "Aladdin", as indeed does Eddie Izzard's Robin Williams-type takeover of the sand-fairy character.Although Jim Henson's studio do a good job of animating "It", I didn't feel that Eddie Izzard's voice matched up to the character.
Special effects were okay, like the multiple duplication of the children over the first wish and later when the children sprout wings, but without ever really astonishing the viewer as they might have..The children all acted well enough especially the youngster playing daddy's boy Robert while Kenneth Branagh gets to bluster a lot and Zoe Wannamaker simper a lot as the children's bumptious uncle and supportive maid respectively.The screenplay only occasionally meets up with the novel and I didn't like the odd touch of modern vulgarity and use of expressions recognisable from today either.
I certainly got more from the parent book than this film, which might have had something to do with my imaginings of the sand-fairy's depiction not being reached and that the shots of rural England failed to transport me back as I'd have wished.Overall, for me the film's sly updating of the story for modern audiences let down the innocent charm of the book..
Children can visualise their own wishes and ideas about what they would do if they came across a sand fairy.
Too Many Children and It. While watching this, I was only watching because some manner of dinosaurian critter summoned by a wish appearing in the commercial, and I will watch pretty much anything featuring dinosaurs.I knew that would be a tiny amount of the actual film and would've changed the channel afterwards, but I was entertained by the appearance of the crazy family the kids stay with - both parents being generally oblivious to ridiculous extremes while the cousin is about the closest thing to an antagonist, although it seems he really isn't all that prominent in the film.Despite very odd and generally funny things happening there were some somewhat sad moments, and later heartwarming moments.Actually I can't say much about this film because with comedies they're either funny or not; personally therefore I usually have difficulty finding much I can talk about (beyond maybe quoting jokes and such but that seems a bad idea considering the humor is usually best viewed in the film's context)..
Mummy is doing her bit as a nurse, so the five children are evacuated to their barmy uncle in the country, where a secret passageway takes them to a mischievous sand fairy and the beginning of a magical adventure.Based on a book written the best part of a century ago, they don't make stories like this anymore.
My wife and I watched this movie with our 3 young children and all of us were enthralled.
In an age when Hollywood feels that there must be sex, violence, foul language or "adult" subplots, this film stands out for it's honesty and proves that a great film and a great story doesn't need to be trashed up.It may not be true to the book, but who cares...it's a movie.
A Wonderful Children's Film based on a Classic Novel!.
The casting is first rate with Freddie Highmore as one of the children; the divine and future Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire Zoe Wanamaker CBE as the eccentric housekeeper of the castle; the always fascinating Kenneth Branagh as Uncle Albert, and Eddie Izzard as the voice of It. Okay, the story is a bit eccentric and bizarre about five children who are sent to live with their writing uncle in a desolate castle in the country.
The film works and is worth for children to watch it as well as adults.
It can be serious at times while the children's father is sent off to fight in World War I and fun at times like the missing October and Thursday when they arrive on Friday at the castle.
Basically five children, Robert (Freddie Highmore), Cyril (Jonathan Bailey), Anthea (Jessica Claridge), Jane (Poppy Rogers) and baby Lamb (twins Alec and Zak Muggleton), are evacuated to the countryside during The First World War. They are taken to the mansion of their Uncle Albert (Kenneth Branagh), along with his mischievous son Horace (Alexander Pownall) and housekeeper Martha (Zoë Wanamaker).
This door leads them to an secret empty beach, and it is there that they meet the ancient, ugly and irritable Psammead, or sand fairy referred to only as It (Eddie Izzard).
I can sort of agree without the voice of Eddie Izzard the film would be even worse, but it doesn't make it any better, it is too cheesy, too predictable, and it's not magical even with the moments with special effects, a disappointing family period fantasy adventure.
Basically Five Children and It is the story of a group of kids who have three wishes granted by a strange creature called the sand fairy.
That being said, it is a children's movie, so to truly decide whether or not your kid would enjoy it you'd have to make that decision on your own.
Nonetheless the story is a beautiful little fair tale more for kids but very entertaining...more so in fact than Lemony Snicket which I thought was just averagely done.Five Children and It is the story of five brothers and sisters who are sent to live with their eccentric mathematician Uncle when their father is stationed in France during WWII.
He is a sand fair...It...as the children call him and he has the ability to grant one wish to one person per day.
Eddie Izzard performs as his voice and he's very funny and although the sand fairy is a little irritable he cares for the children and becomes endearing.
The Sand Fairy is wonderful and kids will love him.
Definitely check this out with your kids...maybe even on your own, it's a great little family film not to disappoint.
It is a delightful family movie that will be enjoyed by kids and adults.
Even little kids should not be scared (by much)and older kids will like the sassy sand fairy voiced by Eddie Izzard.
But i believe this guy have watch all Hollywood -children -family -teens movies ever made...
With the "children's movie" industry becoming increasingly reliant on computer-animated films to light up children's' faces and make us laugh, it's an event worth celebrating when a live-action children's film as genuine and warm as "Five Children and It" comes into the picture.Set in a refreshingly simplistic perspective of the World War I era, the story tells of a charming bunch of children who are separated from their parents to live in their strange, arithmetically-obsessed uncle's huge castle in the countryside.
While their parents are off serving duties in the war cause, Robert (Freddie Highmore) and his siblings struggle to cope with the strict rules of Uncle Albert's (Kenneth Branagh) mansion, as well as the separation from their dear parents.
In an amazing little adventure, Robert and the others discover "It," a mysterious little creature at the end of a hidden passageway who grants one single wish to the children each day.
And of course, It, the sand-fairy, is an amusing little character brought wonderfully to life by Jim Henson puppetry and Eddie Izzard.
Director John Stephenson has created a lovely children's film without advanced use of computer-- now that's magic!
"Five Children and It" leaves us with a heart-warming message and a feeling of purity so rare in films these days, that it's a shame this movie wasn't widely distributed.
Still, it feels good to be one of the few people who appreciate this little gem of a film, which gently reminds us that even though as we grow old the magic of childhood may die, the mark it leaves on us is eternal.Grade: B+ / Stars: 3 out of 4