The Gruffalo mediaanimation

"The Gruffalo" feels like one for the ages, having already aired to great acclaim on both BBC One and ABC Family. The robustly designed production hails from a popular British children's book (narrated here by Helena Bonham Carter) about a field mouse who cleverly manages to escape a series of forest predators by referring to his friendship with a fearsome imaginary monster. Though the story skews young and unfolds rather slowly, the look of the world created by directors Jakob Schuh and Max Lang is so richly dimensional and so wonderfully embellished with delightful visual jokes throughout, you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching a stop-motion film. 

"Too draggy, however, is Jakob Schuh's and Max Lang's painstaking adaptation of the beloved children's book "The Gruffalo," about the crafty survival instincts of a mouse in the woods. Though visually lovely and spotted with big-name voices — Helena Bonham Carter, John Hurt, Robbie Coltrane — its bedtime-reading pace seems ill-suited for the dynamic potential of film."