What We Did on Our Holiday (2014)

Following on from their success with Outnumbered (and Drop the Dead Donkey), writers/directors Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin now bring us What We Did on our Holiday; a suitably sad, funny and uplifting film that places the kids at the centre of all the events.

With an ailing father (Billy Connolly), David Tennant takes his family (including estranged wife Rosamund Pike) to Scotland to celebrate his Dad's 75th birthday. Both Tennant and Pike are solid as is Ben Miller - Tennant's brother. Billy Connolly plays Billy Connolly, but that's no bad thing, and as it happens there's probably no one else who could encapsulate this character better.

Of course it's really the kids who are the crucial part of the film, and as such are spot on. They are obviously the primary source of the LOLs early on, including the youngest who has stones and breeze blocks as friends; but as the story progresses, the kids are the driving force behind the unfolding drama. You always hear that you should never work with children or animals when making a movie; but whatever experience Hamilton and Jenkin have with working with kids on Outnumbered, pays off here. They manage to get spontaneous, funny, yet sometimes nuanced performances out of these children

There are some glorious shots of the West coast of Scotland, so much so that it could almost be a visit Scotland advert. The landscape provides a beautiful backdrop for this dysfunctional family's tragedy, as well as a world inhabited by lovely peripheral characters such as Celia Imrie and Annette Crosbie.

The movie is typical in terms of its tragedy, humour and general upliftyness, very much in the style of Waking Ned (1998), The Dish (2000) or The Angels’ Share. But that's no bad thing, and it's certainly that little bit different as the kids are the focus of the movie. But, well, you know, that’s just, like, er, my opinion, man.

Brave (2012)

Let’s not beat about the bush here, Brave looks fantastic. I think I spent the first 10 minutes admiring how amazing Merida’s hair was. Clearly all the characters still looked like animated people, but the world in which they lived could easily have been real. The stone circle, the forests, the mountain landscapes all looked phenomenal.

Though there are plenty of funny moments (the three younger brothers notwithstanding) there aren’t as many LOLs as Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo for example. Rather Brave focusses on the teenage growing pains of Princess Merida and her desperation to live her own life and not be forced into being the Princess that her Mum wants her to be. Though I did really enjoy the film, I wonder if the story was really the best they could have come up with; a couple of times in the second half of the film I found myself asking “Why?”, and though it wasn’t boring, it wasn’t excellent.

The voice actors however, are all excellent. I was worried having seen the trailers that the Scottish accents were going to sound horrendous, despite most of them being Scottish actors (Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connelly, Robbie Coltrane and Kevin McKidd to name a few); but they were all great; as of course were the non-Scottish actors such Emma Thompson and Julie Walters.

Overall a very enjoyable film, not perhaps Pixar’s finest hour (you still have to go far to beat the enjoyment of Monster’s Inc in my opinion, or the genius of Wall-E), but certainly their most luxuriant.