Despite a few shaky moments, this French-Belgian production is beautifully light and bouncy, with enough warmth to entertain children and adults alike. Around the World in 80 Days is playing in selected cinemas and on digital now.
Those of you of a certain age will remember an animated TV adventure series shown on Children’s BBC in the early 1990s. The show had a catchy theme tune and a colourful collection of characters. No, it wasn’t Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds; it was the other one, Around the World in 80 Days with Willy Fog. In Willy Fog’s epic animated adaptation of the classic Jules Verne novel, a lion and a cat took the lead roles in a Spanish/Japanese co-production dubbed into English.
Of course, this was not the first animated adaptation of Verne’s novel, but it was rare to have animals as the leading characters of a literary classic. We now have a new animated adventure celebrating the animal kingdom, in which Phileas Fogg becomes a streetwise frog with a spring in his step and Passepartout, an eager marmoset, keen to cut the strings of his overbearing mother.
The journey is fun, colourful and engaging; its humour appeals to a cross-section of ages. However, unlike the hand-drawn animation of Willy Fog decades earlier, Around the World in 80 Days mixes 3D and 2D animation in a slightly uneasy partnership that only occasionally strikes gold.
Despite a few shaky moments, this French-Belgian production is beautifully light and bouncy, with enough warmth to entertain children and adults alike. While Around the World in 80 Days may not chart a new course, it does offer eighty-two minutes of joyful escapism and laughter.
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