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Moshi Monsters: The Movie

6/10

Stars: Voices: Emma Tate, Ashley Slater, Phillipa Alexander, Keith Wickham, Rajesh David, Tom Clarke Hill, Boris Hiestand, Steve Cleverley.

Director: Wip Vernooij

I admit that I had never heard of the eponymous monsters whose natural habitat appears to have been on line where the adoptable animated creatures (created by Brits) achieved a massive fan base.

Now the sassy animals hit the big screen in a cheerfully loony animated musical adventure and will doubtless be welcomed by the initiated and make new friends.

There’s sufficient plot – the leading six monsters scamper across the globe to rescue an ancient and extremely rare Moshling egg that has been stolen by the pleasingly hammy Dr Strangeglove in a sequence that both sends up and pays homage to Indiana Jones – to keep easily pleased youngsters watching.

What follows is a merry mélange of pratfalls, gleeful gags, send-ups and slapstick put over with animated zest by a gallery of grotesques and punctuated by musical numbers ranging from Hollywood to Bollywood (“Bobbi SingSong”).

The animation is gaudy and suitable for the subject with villainous Dr Strangeglove with his upper-crust English accent and addiction to alliteration helping him to steal the show.

Alan Frank

UK 2013. UK Distributor: Universal. Colour.
81 minutes. not widescreen. UK certificate: U.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 27 Dec 2013