The Magic Faraway Tree (2026 | UK, USA | 110 minutes | Ben Gregor)
I really wanted to like The Magic Faraway Tree. It has an excellent cast (including very talented child actors), a cute premise, and is filled with nostalgia and the magic of childhood. It has the makings of a great family film, but it doesn’t quite hold up against other classics. Instead, it seems to be fan service for millennial parents who grew up on The Neverending Story and The Chronicles of Narnia and think their kids are spending too much time on screens.
Simon Farnaby takes a lot of liberties when adapting Enid Blyton’s classic novel, transporting the quaint mid-20th-century English storyline into the modern day, complete with Wi-Fi dependence, an overbearing capitalist grandma, and at times too-on-the-nose feminism. Screen time, unfortunately, plays too big a part in the plot to feel entirely believable and is even less conducive to the story. When Polly Thompson (Claire Foy) decides to quit her job, she and her husband, Tim (Andrew Garfield), set out to fulfill their dream of moving their family to the countryside for a fresh start. Leaving their friends (and worse, their Wi-Fi) doesn’t go over well with video-game-obsessed Joe (Phoenix Laroche), quiet Fran (Billie Gadsdon), and apathetic Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy). But soon the kids wander into the forbidden ‘enchanted forest’ and befriend a myriad of magical characters, unofficially led by Silky (Nicola Coughlan).
The adventures the kids go on at the faraway tree are genuinely magical and exciting to watch, and Farnaby and director Ben Gregor do a fairly good job of paralleling the children’s adventures with their normal lives with their parents. However, the way each child grows throughout the film is tainted by the shallow backstories they are given. Fran says only four words in the first twenty minutes of the film, but no reason for her muteness is ever given; the audience is just told she used to be imaginative and give her mom “all her best ideas,” and now her parents high-five when she says four words in a week. Her transformation into a strong young girl, once again in tune with her imagination, has the potential to be really powerful, but instead it falls flat. And unfortunately, this flat transformation is true of the whole family. Farnaby transports the story into the modern age, but fails to put any thought into the true repercussions this has on the characters.
The Magic Faraway Tree is blessed with excellent performances by both seasoned, award-winning actors and its brilliant three child actors, pulling you into the magical (and at times mundane) adventures of the Thompson family. The film ends, as you’d expect, on a happy note with nice, wholesome messages and an invitation to remember the imagination and fun you had as a child. And for that, I’d recommend it as a casual family movie night—just don’t expect it to hold a candle to the classics of your own childhood.
The Magic Faraway arrives in theaters on Friday August 21st
Image courtesy Vertical