PG | 1 h 50 min | Fantasy | 2026
The new children’s adventure film “The Magic Faraway Tree” centers around the family. Here, producer Pippa Harris, director Ben Gregor, and screenwriter Simon Farnaby adapt and contemporize Enid Blyton’s “The Faraway Tree,” a mid-20th-century series of children’s books.
Former tomato farmer Tim Thompson (Andrew Garfield) moved on years ago from his enchanted childhood in the countryside to sobering adulthood in the city. There, he and his wife, Polly (Claire Foy), have nurtured what they figure is a close-knit family.
However, are their tech-addled, city-bred children, Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy), Fran (Billie Gadsdon), and Joe (Phoenix Laroche), losing themselves in digital worlds?
Family Reset
They head to the countryside of Tim’s childhood, where Farmer Brian (screenwriter Farnaby) and his wife, Bella (Claire Keelan), allow them use of a rundown barn until they can buy it outright as a rural home.Tim and Polly start an aspiring tomato farm, complete with chickens, mountains of manure, a tractor, sprinkler systems, and a greenhouse. Meanwhile, the children are drawn to a giant old oak called the Magic Faraway Tree.
They befriend its magical inhabitants, including Silky (Nicola Coughlan) and Moonface (Nonso Anozie). Can all the magic in this natural world help restore the warmth and togetherness that the tech-bred Thompsons yearn for? Or might Tim’s dream of selling tons of tomato sauce to their adopted village do the trick?
Tech Not the Villain
Screenwriter Farnaby doesn’t villainize technology. Who in his right mind would wish away central heating in a merciless winter? Who’d willfully forgo furniture? Producer Pippa Harris adds, “Technology in and of itself isn’t bad;” it’s more “about balance.”Joe uses tech to get him and his magical buddies out of a tight spot, and Tim and Polly use principles of light, heat, and electricity to jumpstart their farm. Tonally, Farnaby nails this. The children are in such shock that their protest, which might’ve been mutinous in the city, is muted in the countryside.
Polly’s mom, Grandma (Jennifer Saunders), proxies as a lighthearted villain of sorts, mocking the family’s attempts to get close to nature as she tries to lure them back to the city. But wisecracks about Wi-Fi aside, the story isn’t so much about families getting away from the city as it’s about them getting closer to each other.
Considering Blyton’s simple and simplistic motifs, it’s only very young preteens who may enjoy this film and its invitation to dream. This is precisely why Farnaby could have avoided some tasteless attempts at livening things up.
Childlike Wonder
Gregor’s storytelling is about never growing up and retaining childlike wonder even into adulthood. It’s also about always growing up and going beyond childishness.Granted magical wishes, the children wish for things instantly and on impulse, only to immediately want to reverse them. As the bohemian Beth discovers, this sort of reversal rarely works in the real world, where wishes (and actions) have real consequences. It’s far wiser to think and act with thoughtfulness.
Six-and-a-half-foot-tall Anozie and 5-foot-tall Coughlan lend warmth to the wooded community. Garfield and Foy click as the couple clutching at hope, and Gadsdon shines among the child actors.
Foy excels in the slow, tender scene when she dusts off the family’s “Dream Binder,” a folder where Polly’s and Tim’s drawings of their dreams are preserved. Flicking through its faded pages, she shows her children how much they care about each other, despite daily irritants.
Fran glows in the scene featuring “The Family Song.” The children frequently ridicule Tim’s little anthem because it’s sung a little too frequently. But at a crucial moment, Fran turns that derided ditty into a winner, singing, “When you’re with your family, you’re never alone.”
