by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Claire Foy, Andrew Garfield, Nicola Coughlan, Jennifer Saunders, Rebecca Ferguson
Intro:
Leave the angst of the real world at the door, get on your Wellies, and go for a climb.
Striking gold adapting two classic British children’s books to the big screen with Paddington and Wonka (along with helping bring Horrible Histories to the small screen), writer and performer Simon Farnaby now sets his sights on a third. Sure, he’s going without the assist of Paul King this time around, now working with director Ben Gregor, but in a lot of the ways that truly count, his approach to the prolific works of Enid Blyton shows him continuing to find healthy veins of entertainment to extract from.
Like with Paddington and Wonka, there’s a shining sense of childlike wonder at the heart of The Faraway Tree’s approach to family fun. Opening with a snoozing Andrew Garfield lost in the carefree sunbeams of his youth, it maintains Farnaby’s appreciable willingness to highlight being young at heart not just as joyful, but a necessary thing. That sense of play and being wholly unafraid of what ‘polite society’ considers to be sensible goals and aspirations in life are as important to the development of kids as they are for the maintenance of adults.
However, the road to unearthing treasure is a might tougher than his previous work; in the process of modernising the source material, there is quite a bit of ‘damn kids and their screens’ messaging during the first half – mainly through Garfield and Claire Foy’s children struggling to adjust to their new rural surroundings.
There will always be a bitter taste of hypocrisy in the idea of media made for screens turning up their noses at their own audience for looking at screens, like putting up a warning sign that says “Don’t read this!”.
And yet, Farnaby and Gregor arguably get closer than most in making the messaging make sense, showing that there’s nothing inherently wrong with such a technological pastime… just so long as it’s the only pastime. It’s still iffy, but compared to the likes of Cats & Dogs 3 (condolences if you remember that one), it’s surprisingly palatable.
This is especially true of the visualisation for the many worlds under the titular fairy tree, which exude raw, uncomplicated splendour that genuinely come across as places worth visiting, even through the lens of a grown adult.
Even more so than feeling like they were designed for child engagement, with all the marshmallow trees and spell bottles and moon-haired blowhards, there’s something indelibly childish about the stylistic choices to bring them all to life. It captures that very specific kind of creativity that goes into media meant for younger audiences, where things like logic and sense are naught but fairy dust, and everything is just taken in stride on both sides of the screen.
It’s the kind of film where birthday-wishing elves all wear ‘80s tracksuits, and it’s just… a thing that exists. It melds with the rambling (and decidedly lacking in conflict, at least on the fantastical side of things) narrative progression to provide a worry-free space for kids to just be kids, and the purity of that purposeful lack-of-purpose is quite charming to behold.
The Magic Faraway Tree is a pleasant trip to simpler times and simpler pleasures, anchored by writer Simon Farnaby’s vibrant approach. Its core ideal of childhood innocence and earnestness as crucial humane attributes may not warm its way as easily as Paddington, but in providing a similarly wonderful experience, it’s as hearty and filling as good homemade pasta sauce. Leave the angst of the real world at the door, get on your Wellies, and go for a climb.
