English couple Tim (Andrew Garfield) and Polly (Claire Foy) relocate from the city to the countryside after Polly quits her job. Their three children are horrified at the decision to swap creature comforts and gadgets for a bare-bones barn with no electricity, running water or internet access. Tim and Polly want to grow tomatoes; at least two of the children want to hotfoot it back to the city.Where is the Wi-Fi, the youngest, Joe (Phoenix Laroche), keeps plaintively asking. When handed a copy of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, the eldest, Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy), scoffs: this is about the oppression of the patriarchy. Also Beth: trees are literally the more boring things in the world.Only the middle child Fran (Billie Gadsdon) appreciates her new surroundings. Beth has spoken too soon: trees are anything but dull, as the curious and sensitive Fran finds out.The fairy Silky invites Fran to an enchanted tree that is not only filled with wondrous beings, but is also a portal into other realms. Fran and her siblings discover the magic that lies beyond devices and mobile phones – a magic that produces an unlimited supply of sweets and lets them make wishes that are always fulfilled but causes trouble too.The Magic Faraway Tree (2026).Silky, Moonface, Dame Washalot, Saucepan Man, Watzisname – these will be familiar to fans of celebrated writer Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree series. The screen adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree, directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnabay, retains Blyton’s unfettered imagination while also updating stories written between the 1930s and the 1950s.The 110-minute film, which is out in cinemas, breathes fresh life into Blyton’s pucca prose through state-of-the-art visual effects and racially diverse casting that includes a multiplicity of accents. Colourful visuals and agreeably kooky characters supply humour, warmth and a subtle message about keeping an open mind.The Magic Faraway Tree follows the hugely successful Paddington films, which were based on another beloved set of children’s books. The Magic Faraway Tree shares with Paddington Simon Farnabay, who played the character Barry in two of the three Paddington films.In the latest movie, Farnabay plays an eccentric landlord, while also supplying the lines and scenes that effectively create nostalgia for a fictitious, analogue past.A host of grown-ups gamely accompany the children on their adventures: Nicola Coughlan of Derry Girls fame as Silky; Nonso Anozie as Moonface; Dustin Demri-Burns as the Saucepan Man; Jessica Gunning as Dame Washalot; Oliver Chris as Mr Watzisname. Mark Heap, as Oom Boom Boom, and Rebecca Ferguson as Dame Snap, represent fleeting evil in a mostly innocent, colourful and sun-kissed universe.Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy in The Magic Faraway Tree (2026). Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy are charming too as the parents trying very hard to make their experiment work. Jennifer Saunders plays Polly’s snotty mother.Among the most striking visual set-pieces is a Mount Rushmore-type collection of old men who constitute the Know-Alls. The confection is mildly over-egged and a bit Disneyfied on occasion, but The Magic Faraway Twee it isn’t.It takes four words, “I believe in magic”, for the children to be transported into a parallel universe. Enid Blyton’s books performed the same task without VFX. The film keeps what’s best about Blyton while judiciously excising the egregious bits.The mixed cast of actors addresses accusations of ethnic stereotyping in Blyton’s writing. The giddy escape that Blyton conjured up has been reclaimed for all, regardless of race, colour or nationality.