Postman Pat The Movie review

Pat Clifton has been making his daily deliveries on children’s TV since 1981, pottering through the sleepy village of Greendale with his black and white cat Jess. While he got a bit of a revamp in 2008 following a promotion that had him delivering to the rather racier town of Pencaster (sometimes in a helicopter!), usually the most excitement our postie had was getting his van stuck in the mud or chasing a runaway cow. That all changes in Postman Pat The Movie, as the navy-uniformed postman beloved of toddlers has now come over all 3D and computer animated – and under threat from a group of killer robots, no less.

Yes, you read that correctly. For some reason, the filmmakers have decided that the under-4s don’t want to see Pat (voiced by Mangan, singing voice by Keating) helping Peter with his sheep or freeing Katy’s kite from a tree, they want to see him audition for a TV talent show judged by Simon Cowbell (groan) and be replaced by a postman robot who is part of evil Carbuncle’s plan to take over the world.

While other characters beloved by little ones have – with varying degrees of success – survived a 21^st century translation to the big screen (The Magic Roundabout, The Smurfs, etc) this modernisation of Pat is massively misjudged and rather twisted and scary for such a young audience – it’s as bad as if Thomas The Tank Engine’s island of Sodor had suddenly become one of the kingdoms in Game Of Thrones .The kids it’s aimed at won’t get the talent show jokes, while parents won’t be impressed by the nightmares a red-eyed robotic Jess will give them, either.