Phil Hawkins’ tale of imagination and NIMBY-ism is a cheap and cheery ode to TV specials past. Here’s our Robin And The Hoods review.
As one of the less-reported casualties of the streaming revolution, it’s refreshing to see the TV movie making a bit of a comeback.
As straight-to-streaming flicks look more and more like they belong in a cinema, and cinema staples look a little bit like they’d be more at home on Netflix, Robin And The Hoods arrives on Sky like a time capsule from the early 2010s. With a cheery, fantasy-inspired score and delightfully Doctor Who-ish special effects, it feels like the kind of straight-to-TV event film you might find on Sunday afternoon CBBC. This is, I hasten to add, a good thing.
Robin (Darcey Ewart) is the leader of the Hoods – a group of pre-teen kids who spend their summers imagining a complex fantasy world on a nearby patch of land they nickname ‘The Kingdom’. Engaged in territorial skirmishes with a gang of similarly aged knights (“no hits above the shoulders”, is their safety-conscious battle cry), she’s living the dream of any 11-year-old that wasn’t allowed a treehouse.
In cinematic terms, this means the film is constantly switching between the medieval-fantasy imaginings of Robin and co and the homemade (if logistically impressive) reality of life in an idyllic South England suburb. Hawkins has plenty of fun here, pulling back the curtain on epic fight sequences and woodland parkour to reveal cardboard suits of armour and a wizard throwing a bean bag.
Unfortunately for Robin, change is on the horizon. Coming September, she’ll be heading to secondary school, where the laws of ‘The Kingdom’ decree she’ll have to give up her crown for good. To make matters worse, her mum’s pregnant, and when her little brother arrives, he’ll be kicking her out of her beloved bedroom. As any 11-year-old can imagine, this sort of change borders on the apocalyptic.
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More literally destructive is the arrival of the world’s most evil-looking property developer. Naomie Harris is clearly having an absolute blast hamming up the villain plotting to bulldoze ‘The Kingdom’ and replace it with a leisure park. All the adults, in fact, from Mark Williams’ constitutionally unrecognisable mayor (the elected head of a town council who single-handedly approves multi-million-pound development schemes) to Gwendoline Christie’s forest-dwelling ‘Witch’ (she’s a hippy living off-grid in the woods) approach the material like it’s a panto script. It all adds to a sense of slightly cobbled-together fun that makes Robin And The Hoods a difficult 90-minutes to dislike.
Top it all off with some genuinely funny moments (a certain very non-imaginary crossbow reveal is a highlight) and we have ourselves a cheerful and big-hearted family flick. Just don’t go in expecting a Hollywood budget – this is much more Saturday afternoon than Saturday night – and you’ll have a grand old time.
Robin And The Hoods is releasing on Sky Cinema from 26th July.
