SLEEPY STAR

REVIEWED - LAURA'S STAR: JUST in time for Easter comes an excellent punishment for children who, right up until they poured …

REVIEWED - LAURA'S STAR: JUST in time for Easter comes an excellent punishment for children who, right up until they poured Domestos on the cat, were looking forward to seeing Robots.

Foolishly calling to mind aspects of superior movies such as ET and Spirited Away, this blandly animated feature introduces us to a young girl as she attempts to deal with her first night in a new home. Lonely and confused, she aches for a friend and is thus delighted when she comes across an injured star, whose severed point she repairs with sticking plaster.

Nothing much happens for the next 40 minutes or so, and then - were the film not so terrified of alarming its tiny viewers dramatic chords would ring out - Laura's mother, a musician, forgets to bring her cello bow to work. Grasping the vital item, the heroine races across the city. Will she get there before the overture begins? The consequences of failure really are too ghastly to contemplate.

Donald Clarke

Donald Clarke

Donald Clarke, a contributor to The Irish Times, is Chief Film Correspondent and a regular columnist