Wombling Free Film Review

It's not uncommon for a film to be made off of a kids TV show or a book or from a band but what is uncommon is for a film to be based off of all three of those things. As that is the case with the film that i'm about to review for you all today as the franchise started out as a hugely series of children's books written by Elisabeth Beresford before the getting turned into a really hugely successful children's animated TV series and then getting turned into a chart topping band and with all of that success also came this film adaptation of the franchise as well and so then join me as I review the film that features two cast members from Doctor Who with the film in question being called simply just "Wombling Free" enjoy.

The plot of this film is the first things that's wrong with the actual film itself as outside of the last few minuets there really is no plot to speak. With the only semblance of a plot coming through in the films third act when the Wombles and there human friends have to prove that they exist in order to prevent there home from destroyed which is good enough fort an episode of the TV show as the TV show never really lasted longer then five minuets per episode but for a feature length film you really do need a plot in order to fully justify the films existence and yet that the one thing that's missing from this film and as a result of that is the fact that were watching just a bunch of unconnected scenes happen for the vast majority of the films running time when what we should be seeing is a film that has even the most basic of plots which is something that would have been very welcome as that would have at the very least have been better then what we got in this film which is practically nothing with the plot of this film being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is David Tomlinson as Roland Frogmorton and Frances De La Tour as Julia Frogmorton. Also starring in this film is Doctor Who star Bonnie Langford as Felicity 'Kim' Frogmorton , Bernard Spear as Arnold Takahashi , Yasuko Nagazumi as Doris Takahashi , John Junkin as The County Surveyor , Reg Lye as The Assistant Surveyor , this films director and writer Lionel Jeffries as the voice of The Wombles , Only Fools & Horses and A Touch Of Frost star Sir David Jason as The Voice of The Wombles , Janet Brown as The Voice Of The Wombles , John Graham as The Voice Of The Wombles and Doctor Who and Worzel Gummidge star Jon Pertwee as The Voice Of The Wombles.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us n this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films actors turning in some really good performances in this film with even the very young Bonnie Langford also turning in a good performance which so something that was truly shocking as she is acting against against acting heavyweights David Tomlinson and Frances De La Tour and yet both she and all of the voices for The Wombles themselves manage to turn in some really good performances and while it was easy to pick out Jon Pertwee due to his very distinctive voice it doesn't take away from the fact that all of the actors voicing The Wombles do turn in some really solid performances with the acting in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so bad as it gives none of this films cast absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which s something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

This films characters despite being really well acted are also some really very poorly defined characters as well. As alot of them just come across as being very one dimensional at best or just flat out with out a personality at it's worst with all of The Wombles characters having at least one personality trait between them which they stick to quite alot and all of the films human characters just being very one dimensional characters who only do what they do not because of the fact that it's in there characters nature to do so but only because of the fact that the plot of the film demands that they do it and that's also true for The Wombles as well with this making the films characters come across as being some really bad characters as there characters that are so badly written with this being made all of the more worse when you take into account that the characters did have potential to be some really good characters and the fact that the makers of the film had over two series worth of material and five books to get The Wombles personalities down perfect and yet they openly choose not to all of which makes this film seem even more worse then what it already is.

For those of you that don't know that this film is based off of The Wombles franchise which started in the 1968 as a series of books written by author Elisabeth Beresford. With all five books becoming so popular that in 1973 the famous stop motion animated series debuted on BBC1 with the series lasting for two series and at roughly the same time that the show was going on the main song writer for the show Mike Batt had bought all of the music rights for The Wombles and had them release not only songs also albums with that being the main way that children really could see these popular creatures when the show was off the air and what's even more shocking is that despite being a novelty group they actually had songs that charted in the UK music charts and have made appearances as a band on and off since the seventies which goes to show that these little creatures really did have alot of staying power to them so much so that in the nineties another animated series was produced but it didn't really catch on like the first animated series really did do.

This film really does hit home it's message of we should look after the earth and should always clean up after ourselves. Which is kind of on brand for The Wombles as that's the whole point on those characters like there all environmentally conscious who are always tiding up after us humans but this film takes it to new levels by having it be the only thing that both The Wombles and the human characters talk about quite alot of the time which is something that does get annoying really fast and it's something that really should have been toned down for the film as while hitting the message home and just talking about the message might be something that works well enough for an episode of the show as the shows episodes only lasted around five minuets each for a ninety movie you can afford to ease up on the message and be a bit more subtle with it to a certain degree and that's something that the makers of this film just failed to really under stand as it's something that's brought up every couple of minuets or so more often then not at the expense of creating interesting characters when the focus of the film should have been giving us a bunch of really interesting characters and not really driving home a message that's not really all that subtly done in the first place.

To give this film some credit it does have some really good songs in it with all of the films songs being written by The Wombles songwriter and this films composer Mike Batt. With nearly all of this films being just the kind of fun filled songs that you'd expect from a kids film like this one to have and while the film is mainly there to sell the soundtrack as the film does stop what little plot it does have to have a music video type of musical number the songs and indeed the musical segments themselves are some of the most creative moments of the whole the film and it really does go to show you that the makers of this film really did know how to direct The Wombles as characters as it's in those segments where they can be fun characters while in the "real world" there more just stereotypical characters who have just one personality trait to them with the best song in the whole film being "The Wombling Song (Film Version)" but the must fun song in the film is "Exercise Is Good For You (Film Version)" which is just a fun filled song in the film.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty six minuets and thirty one seconds. Which s the absolutely perfect running time for this film to have as even tho there's not really enough there interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running time having that amount of running time does mean that the novelty of seeing fury characters in live action on the big screen doesn't get to wear itself out to long but at the same time time tho this film really could have done with being alot more shorter as there's not alot of plot there in the first place and as a result of that is the fact that this film really would have been better suited if it was a short film with a running tie of maybe twenty minuets as there's no way that you could improve upon this film without going back to the screen writing stage and giving the film an actual plot to begin with all of which really would have helped this film in the longer run of things but I will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that means that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As the film does have some decent jokes in it that little kids will find funny which does make sense as this film is aimed at little kids but at the same time tho there's not all that much funny jokes for the adults out there outside of the weird time where they reference several really well known musicals that kids won't get but adults will which is a really cute moment in the film but at the same time it's a really weird moment as kids won't understand the fact that there referencing The Sound Of Music and Singing In The Rain with those being the only jokes that are in here for adults which will make the film feel alot of chore to sit through for adults but little kids will find this film to be really funny tho in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this film is one that does try to be a timeless but everything from how the film looks to how the characters are written does date the film quite a lot and while the film does get credit for at least trying to bring these characters to live in the only way that they could have done the film should have put alot more effort into creating a good story with characters that are really well written as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very and as such that really does means that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Wikipedia , Amazon . Co . UK and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images this film being the really great Google Images this is because really all of the images that I really got and used from Google Images are all really high quality with all the images that are currently up and on the great Google Images are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.