MINUSCULE - MANDIBLES FROM FAR AWAY

One of my best friends in the entire world has recently (in the last nine months) had a sweet darling bebe. Gorgeousness and giggliness aside, after watching 'Minuscule' I have a new found respect for the countless hours of mindless children's programming my friend must now have to endure.

To be clear, I would watch thousands of hours of such programming if it kept sweet bebe happy.

But I would be happy never to see 'Minuscule - Mandibles from Far Away' again.

A young ladybug is whisked far away from his family's safe home on a snow-covered mountain to a lush untouched tropical island. He befriends a ragtag bunch of other insects along the way as his father sets out to get him safely back home.

This whole film is dialogue-free, which is a somewhat refreshing change to the usual tropes of children's films. That said, I will be hearing the zippy "meep meep" insect sounds in my nightmares. The characters are very cute and the story is sweet and funny and easy to follow.

Let's be honest though - I am way past the film's target demographic.

The target demographic is maybe anyone under the age of seven and those that are legally obligated to care for them.

The animation is beautiful, and I am a huge fan of the blending of live action location filming with the very cutesy style of animation that has been used for the insect characters. But the whole thing went on for a very long time, longer than my "adult" attention span could handle.

Yes, I'm putting the word adult in inverted commas. Deal with it.

The soundtrack was probably my favourite thing about the whole film, and Mathieu Lamboley has done a magnificent job with the original soundtrack; it's whimsical, tonal and absolutely wonderful. Maybe this is where I should leave it in my memory - eyes closed, listening to the music and meeps, knowing where everything was heading and finding myself wanting to skip ahead. No doubt this would be more captivating for a bebe. I'll have to grab my friend's little cherub and test it out!