Four Kids and It Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Four Kids and It Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 16, 2020

Four Kids and It features a story built around a quartet of young ‘uns who almost literally stumble upon a sand fairy called a Psammead who is able to grant wishes, but rather strangely none of the wishes asked for in the film involve explanations as to what happened to the fifth tot who was part of the story that gave birth to this enterprise. While Four Kids and It is based on a well loved children’s book bearing the same title as the film by Jacqueline Wilson (who has a rather sweet and charming cameo during the closing credits of the film), Wilson’s own work owes its genesis to a much older book by British writer Edith Nesbit (who billed herself as E. Nesbit) called Five Children and It, which appeared in 1902. Five Children and It is evidently a staple of British children’s literature, and it has received a number of adaptations through the years, including Five Children and It, a 2004 film with Freddie Highmore and Tara Fitzgerald as some of the kids, and Kenneth Branagh and Zoe Wanamaker among the adults. (It doesn’t look like that particular film has made it to Blu-ray yet, at least according to our usually pretty reliable database.) Four Kids and It starts in an old bookshop, where a teenaged girl named Ros (Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen, credited here as the slightly less hyphenated Teddie Malleson-Allen) picks up a kinda sorta version of Nesbit’s book. It’s soon revealed that Ros and her little brother Robbie (Billy Jenkins) are about to leave on “holiday” (as the Brits call it) with their father Matthew (David Goode). It’s also disclosed that Matthew is no longer with the kids’ mother, though she is still around, if absent. Meanwhile, the film has also introduced another single parent, an American mother named Alice (Paula Patton), who is trying (largely in vain) to keep her extremely rebellious teen daughter Smash (Ashley Aufderheide) out of trouble, while also tending to her younger daughter Maudie (Ellie-Mae Siame). On the drive to their vacation destination, David lets the kids know they’re in for a bit of a surprise when they get there, and Ros is instantly hopeful that David’s “clue” means their Mom is due for a reappearance, but all of the aforementioned children end up shocked when it turns out that David and Alice have been “seeing each other” (as they put it) for some time, and have reached a point in their relationship where they feel it’s best that their kids meet each other.

Four Kids and It would seem to be a surefire “family entertainment” piece, with an appealing and diverse cast, and some engaging special effects work, including a fun CGI Psammead (voiced by Michael Caine), but this is one of those films where all the putative “magic” never really adds up to a completely fulfilling experience. From what I’ve been able to glean from online summaries of Wilson’s original book (I am way outside the target demographic for the tome, and have frankly never read it), it seems that screenwriters Simon Lewis and Mark Oswin have strayed pretty far from Wilson’s storyline, and I’m not sure that some of the changes actually work.

Part of what keeps Four Kids and It from being the kind of heartwarming adventure that it appears the film was aiming to be is the almost coarse dysfunctions on display. To say that neither David nor Alice are exactly model parents might be a bit of an understatement, but some of Alice’s choices (or non-choices, as the case may be) in the film are truly staggering. She’s obviously dealing with a completely out of control teenager in Smash (whose real name is Samantha), but Alice’s “free range” proclivities with regard to her kids becomes increasingly untenable as more and more bizarre things start happening. David also seems curiously ineffective a lot of the time, but at least he’s prone to go searching for the kids when they disappear (which is more than once).

The biggest problem, though, may simply be the "downer" aspect of the older teen girls desperately wanting to be reunited with their "missing" parent, a mom in the case of Ros, and a dad in the case of Smash. There's actual semi-violent interchanges between Ros and Smash throughout the film, which probably gives the story a bit of visceral "realism" (parents of teens will know what I'm talking about), but it just seems to undercut the whimsy the story is aiming for. Russell Brand is also on hand as the eccentric landowner of the estate where the families are vacationing, but he's largely wasted, consigned to a silly villain role that is neither fully developed nor really completely explained.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf evidently liked Four Kids and It even less than I did. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Four Kids and It Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Four Kids and It is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb offers no technical data points, but I was able to find a CV of a first assistant cameraman who listed his duties on the shoot as having included being the A Cam Focus Puller for the film's second unit, and he lists the Arri Alexa Mini as having digitally captured the imagery for at least that unit's work. I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI, but the detail levels are generally impressive enough throughout this presentation that I frankly wouldn't be surprised if the DI was finished at 4K (as always with my reviews, if anyone can point me to authoritative information, I'll happily post an update in the review). Four Kids and It features some generally seamless blends of CGI and live action, with the scenes featuring the Psammead offering often really nice fine detail levels and a nicely saturated palette. A few other CGI moments, including a lengthy sequence where the kids are all gifted with the ability to fly, look a bit less sharp and well detailed, at least in the backgrounds. A few interior scenes, notably one sequence in a mansion on the estate where the families have gathered, are a bit murky looking, and there are a couple of very brief moments of banding, most noticeable in some of the seaside material where bright skies can have momentary little ripples in them as lighting conditions change.

Four Kids and It Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Four Kids and It features a nicely expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that offers good, if a bit intermittent at times, surround activity courtesy of both big set pieces like Smash's brief fling with pop stardom at the O2, as well as quieter aspects like the background roar of the ocean in the many seaside scenes. Dialogue, effects and score are all presented without any problems whatsoever on this enjoyable track.

Four Kids and It Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes of Four Kids and It (1080p; 22:45) is a bit more in depth than these sorts of things tend to be, and includes some good interviews along with interstitial (and kind of weirdly presented with quasi-"chapter headings") snippets from the film.


• Four Kids and It Trailer (1080p; 2:15)

Four Kids and It Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Four Kids and It would seem to have many of the ingredients needed to make a magical, kid friendly film, and it manages to offer a bit of fun and whimsy, but probably not nearly as much as some might hope for, especially considering the wonderfully eclectic cast. The film is often incredibly scenic, but it may be hobbled by a bit too much family dysfunction for its own good. Technical merits are solid for those who are considering a purchase.