{"id":343846,"date":"2026-03-23T15:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343846\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:22:13","slug":"the-magic-faraway-tree-review-enid-blytons-more-regressive-ideas-have-been-traded-for-fresh-witty-whimsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/343846\/","title":{"rendered":"The Magic Faraway Tree review \u2013 Enid Blyton\u2019s more regressive ideas have been traded for fresh, witty whimsy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At last, we might be free of the hegemony of Paddington<\/a>. That well-mannered ursine need not be the British public\u2019s sole cinematic obsession<\/a>. One of the franchise\u2019s co-writers, Simon Farnaby<\/a>, is quietly building his own empire of wholesome whimsy, all spiritual successors to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Post-Wonka<\/a> (2023), he\u2019s come back for another spin on a literary classic<\/a>, this time adapting Enid Blyton<\/a>\u2019s The Faraway Tree series (here titled The Magic Faraway Tree) for director Ben Gregor.<\/p>\n

Farnaby keeps it fresh and witty, combining the wordplay and low-stakes surrealism of his roots in The Mighty Boosh and Horrible Histories with a keen eye for literary adaptation. He\u2019s never precious about the source material \u2013 Wonka was, after all, an origin story prequel to the Chocolate Factory \u2013 yet keeps a core respect for the wonder and imagination that makes literary classics out of bedtime stories.<\/p>\n

And Blyton, as both one of Britain\u2019s most popular and most contested writers, is ripe for the Farnaby treatment. He preserves the basics of her four-book series, with its rigid child\u2019s-eye view of the world. Here, the magnificent English countryside conceals a magical tree, in which reside Moonface (Nonso Anozie) and his enormous crescent hair; the fairy Silky (a luminous Nicola Coughlan); the cheery laundress Dame Washalot (Baby Reindeer\u2019s Jessica Gunning); the Don Quixote-like Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns); Mr Watzisname (Oliver Chris), who\u2019s forgotten what he\u2019s called; and the tiny Angry Pixie (Hiran Abeysekera).<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Phoenix Laroche, Claire Foy and Billie Gadsdon in \u2018The Magic Faraway Tree\u2019 (Entertainment Film Distributors)<\/p>\n

Their home offers a gateway to other worlds, where a child\u2019s greatest dream \u2013 an endless supply of sweets \u2013 can collide with their greatest fear \u2013 the stern headmistress Dame Snap, played by a sneering Rebecca Ferguson<\/a> in answer to the question, \u201cWhat if we made the Child Catcher hot?\u201d Ann Maskrey\u2019s outsized costumes and Alexandra Walker\u2019s playhouse sets offer a sense of joyous abandon, all accompanied by Isabella Summers\u2019s heart-swelling score. There are French disco elves and an office that operates by the same rules as Twin Peaks\u2019s Red Room<\/a> (wonk uoy wonk uoy fi).<\/p>\n

Farnaby, as you\u2019d expect, does leave behind Blyton\u2019s more regressive ideas, as well as the comparatively simplistic outlook of her stories, which seemed interested less in passing down wisdom than indulging in playtime fantasies. Here, child heroes Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy), Fran (Billie Gadsdon), and Joe (Phoenix Laroche) are being raised by two rather brilliant parents, Polly and Tim. And we immediately know they\u2019re brilliant because they\u2019re played by Claire Foy<\/a> and Andrew Garfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tim is a stay-at-home dad, so attuned to the manic pixie dream boy mould that it lets Garfield practically bounce off the walls. Polly kickstarts the plot by quitting her job as a smart fridge designer in protest against privacy invasion \u2013 she\u2019s the more authoritative, practical parent, yet Foy has enough of her own frenetic energy to prevent the character from devolving into the humourless scold.<\/p>\n

Both are fun, eccentric parents whose children can\u2019t appreciate the fear that they\u2019ve wasted their childhoods on digital screens. Not only does the tech angle lead to some brilliant gags (Farnaby turns up as a local farmer who confuses \u201cWifi\u201d for \u201cwife, aye\u201d), but it\u2019s a lovely way to tether Blyton\u2019s work to a thoroughly modern world, in a way that feels regenerative rather than dismissive. Because there\u2019s more out there, after all, than Paddington.<\/p>\n

Dir: Ben Gregor. Starring: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Nonso Anozie, Nicola Coughlan, Jessica Gunning, Jennifer Saunders, Rebecca Ferguson. Cert U, 110 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Magic Faraway Tree\u2019 is in cinemas from 27 March<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-343846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}