Horrid Henry - Francesca Simon's bad boy hero gets a movie makeover

Horrid Henry

, rambunctious young hero of Francesca Simon's best-selling children's books and the CITV cartoon series, gets up to his usual mischief on screen in his first feature-film adventure, which sees the homework-hating scamp trying to win both a talent contest and a TV game show in order to save his primary school from closure - a wicked scheme cooked up by Richard E Grant's rival headmaster to drum up business for his private school.

It's slapdash, knockabout stuff, filmed in eye-popping cartoony colours and with eye-popping cartoony acting to match. The adult stars (including Anjelica Huston and David Schneider) ham it up and the kids (led by Theo Stevenson's Henry) mug enthusiastically in school nativity play fashion amid fidgety, hyper-active camerawork that suggests the director has eaten too many blue Smarties.

Released on DVD & Blu-ray on Monday 28th November by Entertainment One.

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.