Five Children and It

Five Children and It is a 2004 family fantasy-comedy-drama adventure film adaptation of the 1902 novel Five Children and It, which features live action and computer animation. It was directed by John Stephenson, produced by Nick Hirschkorn, Lisa Henson and Samuel Hadida, written by E. Nesbit and David Solomons with music by Jane Antonia Cornish and starring Tara FitzGerald, Freddie Highmore, Alex Jennings, Jonathan Bailey, Jessica Claridge, Poppy Rogers, Alec Muggleton, Zak Muggleton, Zoë Wanamaker, Kenneth Branagh, Alexander Pownall, Robert Tygner, Eddie Izzard as the voice of It-Psammead, Georgio Serafini, John Sessions, Kim Fenton, Norman Wisdom and Duncan Preston and Zak. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2004 and was theatrically released on 15 October 2004. The digital puppetry and CGI animation for Psammead was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Five Children and It grossed £1,519,049 worldwide. The film was released on DVD on 5 July 2005. Plot The film begins with five children (Robert, Cyril, Jane, Anthea and The Lamb), whose father has gone to fight in World War I. Consequently, the children must meanwhile stay at their eccentric uncle's house with his housekeeper Martha, and unpleasant son, Horace. While exploring the house, Robert finds a locked door in the forbidden greenhouse and brings the other children. They manage to open the door, which leads them through a secret path to the beach surrounding the house. There they discover a large shelled creature, which reveals itself as a "psammead crustacean decapodlium wishasaurus," or sand fairy for short. The children, befuddled by this confusing name, refer to the creature simply as "It." It seems rather mischievous and Cyril doubts whether the children should trust him, but upon confirming that It can grant wishes, the children wish for all the house chores on their list to be done by magic. When they return to the house, they see dozens of copies of themselves doing the chores and wrecking the house in the attempt. Suddenly, everything disappears in clouds of golden dust. They are then forced to tidy up the mess themselves. When they return to It and ask why their clones disappeared, It explains that at sunset, all wishes fade away. The children blame It for the mess, but It responds by saying that wishes bring valuable lessons.