This starts off with the typical family formula where dad (Tony Hale) is trying to raise his two young children “Amber” (Bianca Belle) and brother “Jack” (Kue Lawrence) following the death of their mother. He’s engaged the help of his sister “Liz” (D’Arcy Carden) to sell their home and so tensions are bubbling under when “Amber” is found to have drawn something a little on the scary side at school. Fortunately, her teacher reckons it is way better to sketch these things than actually implement her imagination and so gives her a notebook in which she secretly characterises much of her feelings about her family, her schoolmates and, of course, her grief. Meantime, “Jack” has discovered that a nearby pond seems to have some magic properties that initially he hopes will help him repair their special pizza plate, and then - well what else could it resuscitate? That’s when his sister intervenes - but her book falls into the water and that miraculously animates some of her vividly drawn imaginary creatures that now proceed to terrorise the town, the siblings and the annoying “Bowman” (Karon Cox) who all have to get their thinking caps on if they are to thwart these multi-coloured and limbed beasties that are proliferating freely and perilously. The adults here do fine, but essentially this is really a film from the three youngsters as they use their magical foes to manifest and then face down their own emotional baggage, relationship issues and demons. There’s a little sibling rivalry from time to time too, but once the battle lines are drawn it’s more about working together whilst they combat their sometimes quite menacing nemeses. There is a fairly clearly presented underlying message about how we deal with sorrow and of the dangers of leaving these feelings unaddressed, all whilst the animation mixes well with the live action and there’s plenty of mischief along the way, too. It’s good to see a film that has something to say, and this one is innovative in the way it does that. Worth a watch.
