The Land of Sometimes

Well the producers certainly assembled quite an half decent cast for the English language version of this colourful and vibrant animation, and they even coaxed renowned lyricist Sir Tim Rice back for the first time in a couple of decades to write the title song for Ewan McGregor. With their sea captain father away on a very long voyage, twins “Elise” and “Alfie” are living with their mother and getting fractious. They miss their dad and need something exciting to happen. Then, out of nowhere, there appears a whale-like ship that glides through the clouds to their room and that’s when they meet the “Wish Collector”. He gives them a special watch that will give them six wishes, three apiece, on the magical “Land of Sometimes”. Magical it may be, but it’s not without it’s perils as the squabbling pair embark on a journey that is as much about self-realisation as it is about navigating a complex world where hardly anything or anyone is as it or they seem. Will they find fulfilment amongst their dreams or just hanker to return to their mum? For my money the stories are just a bit too episodically delivered and reminiscent of too many other fables and it really is heavily over-scored as it combines an hybrid of themes from the likes of Hans Christian Anderson and Dr. Seuss by way of Sir J.M. Barrie. At ninety minutes, it is also probably too long for the average attention span of it’s target audience and there isn’t really enough to keep the adults away from their telephone addictions. It’s all perfectly amiable family fun for a Christmas morning in front of the telly, but as a cinema experience it’s nothing special.