Cert U 103mins Stars 4

This fabulous animated adventure is a blooming magical treat for the whole family.

Bored and impetuous, schoolgirl Mary follows a black cat into a forest and is swept off to another world via a witch’s broomstick and a beautiful blue flower.

There the the lines are blurred between animal, vegetable and mechanical, creating an impressively bonkers array of fantastical beasts. Talking animals rub up against talking fire spirits, and grey globular servants of evil.

the voice of Mary is provided by Ruby Barnhill, who you’ll remember being brilliant as Sophie, in Steven Spielberg’s 2016 magical version of Roald Dahl’s, The BFG.

Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent give full rein to their inner eccentrics as the voices of the principals of a prestigious magic school which hides a dark secret within it’s rainbow coloured corridors.

Based on the book by the Sunderland-born author, Mary Stewart, it’s funny, exciting, charming and gorgeously animated, with every frame bursting with glorious invention.