The story
About A Christmas Gift from Bob
Now a published author, a former busker is struggling to write his second book when a chance meeting with a young man on the streets sends his mind back to his last hard winter selling The Big Issue with his ginger street cat. With money tight as Christmas nears, animal welfare officers start asking whether the cat should be living on the streets at all, and the pair face being separated unless he can accept help from the people around him. Bob the cat, the real one, plays himself.
The CineClaus verdict
A gentle, sentimental return to the busker and his ginger cat, set across one hard winter of selling The Big Issue as Christmas closes in. Luke Treadaway is as likeable as he was in A Street Cat Named Bob, and the jeopardy stays mild, mostly the worry that the cat could be taken from him.
Every turn is signposted. What lifts it is Bob playing himself, months before he died, which gives the closing dedication a weight the script never quite earns alone. Families who loved the first film, and anyone who owns a cat, should queue it up.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: poverty and the threat of losing the cat are the only real worries for primary-age viewers, though occasional bad language plus a sad real-life dedication at the end are worth knowing about.
Content advice & accessibility
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official 12A certificate, and never looser than it.
