The story
About Robin Robin
A bird's egg rolls into a rubbish tip and hatches among a family of mice who make their living raiding human homes, and they raise the chick as one of their own. Clumsy and noisy where her siblings are quick and silent, she teams up with a lonely magpie to steal the glittering star from a family's Christmas tree, hoping it will grant her wish to become a proper mouse. Along the way she has to outwit a hungry cat and work out that being different might be exactly what her family needs.
The CineClaus verdict
Aardman swapped clay for needle felt here, and the whole thing looks stitched by hand on a kitchen table, snow and smoke included. The story is simple: a bird raised by mice who cannot quite manage mouse things, and a house raid to win a wish. It is sweet without going soppy, and The Bookshop Band's songs carry it along nicely.
Gillian Anderson voices the cat with real relish, and it is properly menacing. It sits comfortably next to The Snowman, which is exactly the company its makers were aiming for.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: four-year-olds should be fine with this U, though the cat's stalking scenes and its creepy lair may unsettle the very youngest.
Content advice & accessibility
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official U certificate, and never looser than it.
- Subtitles · Audio description
- Check your chosen service and edition for supported tracks.
