Emma's Chance (2016)

Although this film only contains one of the critical elements of success in a children's film, the cats and dogs elements are replaced by horses, and with positive results. The plot is nothing taxing, and the characters mainly stereotypical - selfish friends, jock boys encouraging bad behaviour, nasty rivals, ranch-hand dedicated to the cause. That said, it moves along without dwelling on too much mush. The training montage is much shorter than 'Rocky's' but overall the film doesn't overstay its welcome and rattles to the inevitable conclusion in an economical fashion.

This film is perfectly harmless and whilst it won't change the world it kept a little girl happy for 90 minutes.




Adult score: 4/5
Child score: 4/5
First thing the child said when the film finished: "Liked it."

Monkey Up (2016)

This is a truly awful film with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Made by the same people that brought the world Air Bud and the sequels, which were passable, this has tarnished their reputation. The Air Bud series, Snow Pups series and even Space Chimps all are vastly better than this film. Why? They are not trying too hard to be something, they have a tried and tested formula, they don't try to make the audience love them ,the audience knows what they're going to get when they start watching. No amount of references to social media, pop television or Hip-Hop can make this film connect with the audience, it's dead in the water from the start.

The plot is lightweight, with some storylines (and I use that term lightly) just ignoring contrivances or implausibility (and that's in a movie with a talking monkey!), the script is poor and the acting just pedestrian at best.

Adult score: 1/5
Child score: 4/5
First thing the child said when the film finished: "Good"