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Boy, Mole, Fox and Horse Review: Gorgeous Animation Burdened with Disgusting Talk of Healing

Not exactly The New Yeti, this star-studded, superbly illustrated adaptation of the BBC bestselling Charlie Mackey is downright painful.
Do you know the name of the best-selling adult hardcover book in the UK since the advent of sound recording? This is Boy, Mole, Fox and Horse by Charlie McKee, a book of timeless wisdom/boring fads (removed for taste) in a style that will get you through the day/spit out your breakfast. He started life on Instagram. Millions of people love it, for others it’s the equivalent of a “Live, Laugh, Love” wall decoration, but for people who shop at Oka.
I understand how comforting it is to retreat to these simple messages of kindness and peace when adulthood is overwhelming. The boy in the book is supposed to represent our childhood selves. But the BBC has decided to turn it into a family cartoon, a cross between a snowman and a grunting cow, and hopes it will be a Christmas banker that comes out year after year.
So we have a little Christopher Robin style blond boy lost in a snowy landscape. The mole (beautifully voiced by Tom Holland) befriends him, and along the way they meet a horse (Gabrielle Byrne) and a fox (Idris Elba). They communicate only with inspirational quotes. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” asked the Mole. “Kindness,” the boy replied. After my own kids watched it, I asked them the same question to see if the message got through. One said he was an auto mechanic, the other said he was a “monkey scientist.” Maybe they need to watch it twice.
“One of our greatest freedoms is how we react to things,” said Moore, who has apparently been in therapy. I bet Harry and Meghan have a copy of this book. “There are things I haven’t told you about,” Ma said. “I could fly. But I stopped because it made the other horses jealous.” You can imagine Meghan nodding at that.
“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? To love and be loved,” said the boy, who was very profound for a man of about six years old. Actually, it saddens me a little, because this Christmas there will definitely be someone who will be very lonely and unloved while watching TV, and these things will not help.
However, its beauty lies in its appearance. The animation (indebted to Winnie the Pooh and the Little Prince) is superb, bringing McKee’s ink and watercolor to life. Listening can literally cut you off from the world for half an hour. If looking at it, you feel like drowning in a vat of golden syrup – well, aren’t we all sweet tooth at Christmas?
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Post time: Dec-27-2022