This is a shameless heartstring plucker. But it’s charming and sometimes very funny.

This is a movie where the quirk is cranked up to an eleven.

It sustains an innocent storybook tone throughout, thanks mainly to strong performances from its lead actors, Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher, and lush images of the New Zealand countryside.

Timpson and his team manage to bring to life a bizarre, quaint world of endearing oddballs in an adventure for a fabled creature, finding so much more along the way.