LOONY TOONS

REVIEWED - BOO, ZINO AND THE SNURKS: What on earth do we have here? This poorly animated German kids' movie manages to combine elements of the Narnia books with self-conscious high-jinks worthy of Adaptation's Charlie Kaufman to create something so dazzlingly odd that it may become some sort of cult.

It's not that the film is any good, you understand, but any children's entertainment that asks the viewer to consider the paradox of free will in a universe with a controlling presence deserves some sort of praise.

Boo and Zino, bipedal rodents in Edwardian clothes, live happily in a mystical kingdom powered by a floating ball of magical energy. When this mysterious sphere is stolen by a mad scientist from another dimension - ours, as it transpires - the two heroes are forced to make common cause with their sworn enemies, The Snurks, and seek its retrieval.

It transpires that they are all characters in a children's TV show and that their world has been imagined by an elderly writer with Patrick Stewart's voice. News media are clogged up with reports about the children's cartoon characters who have vanished from the screen.

Eventually, the heroes - is anybody still reading this, I wonder - meet up with their creator and are forced to choose between freedom (miserable reality) and predestination (cartoon Arcadia).

Phew! If only it were as interesting as it sounds.