Abominable review

Hot on the furry heels of 2018’s Small Foot comes another animated adventure featuring a yeti. And this one is even more adorable, as it blends some stunning background scenery and a fun story with the cutest snow creature imaginable.

After escaping from a lab owned by businessman Burnish (Izzard), the young yeti in Abominable hides out on the roof of a Shanghai apartment building, drawn there by a nearby poster of his home in the Himalayas. He’s discovered by teenage girl Yi (Bennet), who names him Everest and decides to help him find his way back to the mountains with the help of her neighbour Peng (Tsai) and his older cousin Jin (Trainor).

While the film follows their journey – made more treacherous by Burnish’s employees, including researcher Dr Zara (Paulson), who want to capture Everest – it’s not just the tale of a girl and her yeti.

Little kids will be enchanted by saucer-eyed Everest (he’s gorgeous, with an expressive face very similar to How To Train Your Dragon’s Toothless) but older viewers will notice a well-handled thread about grief as Yi comes to terms with the loss of her father.

There’s humour, too, especially during a magical scene featuring giant blueberries, and some nice digs at Jin’s obsession with his fashionable sneakers, and there’s even some excitement as Everest and the kids encounter drones, baddies and a perilous mountain bridge during their adventures.

Of course, some of the movie isn’t that original – as well as Small Foot and How To Train Your Dragon, there are moments that will be familiar to fans of the Indiana Jones movies – but it looks gorgeous and features a terrific central character in Yi. It is bursting with energy and heart, just like the big fluffy creature at its centre, too.