Film Review: Postman Pat The Movie (2014)

*Possible Spoilers*

TITLE: Postman Pat The Movie
DIRECTOR: Mike Disa
PRODUCER: Robert Anich Cole
SCRIPTWRITERS: Annika Bluhm, Nicole Dubuc, Kim Fuller
YEAR: 2014
COUNTRY: UK
UK DISTRIBUTORS: Icon Film Distribution, Lionsgate

PLOT: Postman Pat enters a talent show and gets famous.

REVIEW:
Your liking of this film may depend on how you like your Postman Pat served.  If you like it with scary robots and slapstick violence (and you do not mind it being computer-animated as opposed to using the traditional stop-motion), then this should provide sufficient entertainment.

Made in 3D but seen in 2D, the main bit that I would have liked to have seen in an "immersive" third dimension is the lovely opening establishing shot that takes us into the digitally-recreated world of Greendale.

The 1981 Postman Pat TV series was of no particularly noticeable genre (co-creator Ivor Wood's previous work dabbled in fantasy, e.g. The Magic Roundabout and The Wombles) but the film is perhaps surprisingly film-literate, make references in particular to Science-Fiction and fantasy classics in film (The Wizard Of Oz, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator) and television (Lost In Space, Doctor Who).  One can even look to the voice cast, which includes performers from Harry Potter and Doctor Who.  There is also a key point of introducing (actually quite creepy) robot duplicates of Pat ("PatBots") and Jess, brought in by evil corporate-type Carbunkle as part of his take-over plot.

The writers (including Annika Bluhm, who has worked on Special Delivery Service incarnation of the series) demonstrate their screenwriting knowledge by setting up a goal for Protagonist Pat by having him enter a talent show in the hopes of winning a trip to Italy to take his wife Sarah for a "proper Honeymoon", and introducing perhaps the series' first antagonist (someone correct me on this) in Carbunkle, who wants to replace all the SDS workers with robots.  The key family film-friendly theme looks at how Pat's fame costs him his family time (interestingly, due to his popularity as a result of being in a TV talent show) and the subsequent attempted take-over plot with robot doppelgangers leads to Pat's friends and co-stars being alienated from him in a case of mistaken identity.

The humour is also actually quite witty, although not quite on the level of Aardman.  It is also somewhat interesting what the filmmakers actually managed to put in and get away with, free of whatever restrictions would have been place for the television series, albeit played down so there is very little to be concerned about.  There is at least one suggestion of gross-out gag where Carbunkle introduces a bring-your-own-toilet-paper policy to the Special Delivery Service and an employee is worried, having recently eaten a curry.  And the insinuation that Pat's glasses make him look "a bit dodgy" may not sit too easily in a post-Savile world.  Another plus is that the dialogue and performances rarely, if ever, feel like they are patronizing the audience, although if I had a bone to pick, it would be that this version of Jess seems rather overly anthropomorphic, whereas the TV incarnation seemed to have not-quite a deadpan expression.  Perhaps something more akin to Gromit would have been preferable.

There is also quite an amount of slapstick violence, ranging from the PatBots delivering mail, to David Tennant's character Wilf trying to foil Pat in scenes resembling a Wile E. Coyote short.  Anyone objecting that Postman Pat was never violent should look to the 1981 episode Pat Takes A Message.

Claiming to be "based on the original television series" co-created by Ivor Wood and John Cunliffe, 'the Movie' is fairly ambiguous in its place within the Postman Pat canon.  IMDB lists it as a "remake" but having 'the Movie' in the title suggests a spin-off of some sorts.  The main cause of head-scratching comes when Pat's fame spawns a franchise that includes a TV show "with puppets" and we hear a sample of Bryan Daley and Ken Barrie's theme song, thus putting into question whether this is the "real" world of Pat and that the TV series is retroactively a product of this world, or whether it is just pure meta and a way of the film poking gentle fun at the franchise that spawned it, before it even sends itself up (villain Carbunkle's plan suggests a "computer-animated film").  There is also the suggestion that Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay are involved in a film (something to watch, even if just to see how things could have been worse).  The animation is fairly faithful to the original design and there are cameos and supporting roles from familiar characters (although Sam Waldron is nowhere to be seen, like Edward was missing in Thomas And The Magic Railroad). 

Perhaps if this is successful enough, how about the filmmakers consider adapting other Woodland Animations shows (Gran, Bertha, Charlie Chalk) before an Avengers-style team-up?