MOOMINS ON THE RIVIERA (U)
3 stars
Finnish illustrator Tove Jansson’s loveable characters the Moomins sprang to life as a comic strip and picture books, then made an indelible mark in the UK as a 1980s stop-motion animated children’s television series narrated by Richard Murdoch.
A Japanese anime TV version and a theme park on the island of Kailo followed in the 1990s as part of a merchandising boom that has firmly installed these rotund creatures, who resemble hippopotamuses, in global pop culture.
Jansson’s inquisitive creations set sail for the big screen in this lovingly hand-drawn animation, based on the original comic strips.
Moomins on the Riviera is a cautionary tale about the corruptive power of greed and jealousy, which takes a few gentle sideswipes at the cult of celebrity and the inflated price of modern art.
The inoffensive script maintains a gentle pace, despite the extravagance of the setting, with its luxury yachts and speedboats, reminding audiences of all ages that money can’t buy the happiness of a family united.
In the aftermath of a pirate shipwreck close to the Moomins’ island home, Moominpappa (Nathaniel Parker), Moominmamma (Tracy Ann Oberman), Moomintroll (voiced by Russell Tovey), Snorkmaiden (Stephanie Winiecki) and Little My (Ruth Gibson) embark on an exciting adventure by sea to the French Riviera.
In this sun-kissed playground of the rich and fabulous, there are manifold distractions.
“Why do people in the south keep their hedgehogs in the water?” innocently wonders one of the clan, glimpsing a sea anemone in the rippling water.
Snorkmaiden’s head is turned first by her Hollywood idol Audrey Glamour (Shelley Blond) and then by suave aristocratic playboy Clark Tresco (Dave Brown).
“Cousin, I need you to take my place in the story. I’m getting married,” she coos to Moomintroll in a sweet moment of script in-jokery.
He is particularly infuriated by the skimpiness of Snorkmaiden’s two-piece bikini.
“You can’t wear that,” he scolds. “It’s like you’re wearing nothing!”
Meanwhile, Moominpappa befriends artist Marquis Mongaga (Philippe Smolikowski) and adopts the name de Moomin in order to impress his new acquaintance.
Moominmamma becomes exasperated and retires to the relative calm of the family’s trusty boat, hoping that the rest of her brood will come to their senses and remember the family motto – “Live in peace, plant potatoes and dream” – in time for the journey home.
Directed with a light touch by Xavier Picard, Moomins on the Riviera is an entertaining introduction for younger audiences to the cuddly characters, and a nostalgia trip for the rest of us, created with the blessing of Jansson’s niece Sophia.
Visuals retain the naive charm of original illustrations, even with the introduction of potentially grown-up scenes like Moominpappa suffering a whisky-induced hangover.
Vocal performances for this dubbed English-language version are solid, and the 77-minute running time passes in the blink of an eye.
DINO TIME (PG)
2 stars
Children are the most brutally honest critics because they don’t refract their judgments through a prism of carefully worded tact and diplomacy.
In Yoon-suk Choi and John Kafka’s computer-animated fantasy, three youngsters from the present day turn back the clock 65million years to the age of the dinosaurs and find themselves stuck in some decidedly stinky mud.
“This is worse than extinction,” despairs one of the time-travelling tykes.
It’s a somewhat harsh yet essentially fair assessment of Dino Time.
Released a month before the eagerly awaited box-office behemoth Jurassic World, this lumbering and crudely animated family-orientated adventure won’t induce an early case of dino fever.
Vocal performances are lacklustre and visuals are functional, lacking the exquisite detail of films from the Pixar and DreamWorks stables.
This is particularly noticeable in a centrepiece river rapids ride, during which the white water doesn’t churn, ripple or splash in a realistic fashion.
The film’s incredibly annoying and unsympathetic hero is a thrill-seeking boy called Ernie Fitzpatrick (voiced by Pamela Adlon), who routinely ignores the instructions of his hardworking mother, Sue (Jane Lynch).
One day, when he should be guarding her shop, Ernie slaloms his jet-propelled skateboard down to the natural history museum with his best friend Max Santiago (Yuri Lowenthal) to sneak a peek at an unearthed skeleton of a ferocious Sarcosuchus.
Ernie’s equally irritating little sister, Julia (Tara Strong), catches him in the act, ensuring he is grounded for a very long time.
Instead, Ernie sneaks out of the house with goodie two-shoes Julia in tow, and heads to the workshop of Max’s inventor father, Dr Santiago (Fred Tatasciore).
The three children squabble and spill a fizzy drink on the control panel of a time machine, which sparks to life and transports the meddlesome moppets into the nest of a Tyrannosaurus Rex mother called Tyra (Melanie Griffith).
Tyra mistakes the human interlopers for newborn infants and protects them alongside her adopted son Dodger (Rob Schneider).
Alas, Ernie continues to defy authority and, consequently, the children fall into the clutches of villainous dinosaur brothers Sarco (William Baldwin) and Surly (Stephen Baldwin) and their evil henchbirds, Morris (Nolan North), Horace (John DiMaggio) and Borace (Tom Kenny).
Dino Time lacks charm or heartfelt emotion, heaping on mawkish sentiment in the closing frames as the children learn that mother creatures great and small know best.
The simplistic script makes several missteps, the greatest being to humanise the majestic beasts, which roam this land before time.
Rather than communicating in roars, hoots or honks, the dinosaurs exchange pleasantries in the silky American tones of Griffith, Schneider and the Baldwin siblings in order to hammer home the message that animals have feelings, too. The best we can muster by the end credits is boredom and disappointment.