Sketch – Review

Cert – 12, Run-time – 1 hour 34 minutes, Director – Seth Worley

When her sketchbook falls into a life-bringing pond Amber (Bianca Belle) and her family take on the scribbled monsters which have emerged from the pages.

Sketch finds itself with a 12-rating from the BBFC, for ‘moderate horror’ and ‘violence’. While certainly some of the monsters that emerge from the pages of young Amber’s (Bianca Belle) sketchbook after it falls into a magical pond have a sense of threat and perhaps tension about them but not quite with a sense of darkness or strong fear-factor as something like the PG-rated The Kid Who Would Be King, to name another recent live-action family film, had.

The overall tone and style of the film is one that would feel fitting amongst well-remembered 80s family films, the kind that are fine when looked back on but hold a good deal of nostalgia and love for those who saw it at the time. There’s a slight Spielberg-produced influence to the narrative and visuals as the narrative rather simply revolves around Amber and her family – brother Jack (Kue Lawrence), father Taylor (Tony Hale) and aunt Liz (D’Arcy Carden) – trying to reach each other whilst battling the brought-to-life doodles; themselves a colourful array which create an amusing set of antagonists along the way. Alongside a handful of chuckles.

The monsters are encouraged creations of Amber’s. A counsellor at school says that instead of lashing out and actually attacking another student she’s doing the healthier thing by sketching her frustrations out – even if some of her drawings are quite violent. There’s an amusing and believable nature to Amber and her sketches. A childlike sense of knowing how violent what they’re saying and drawing is without being fully aware of how violence what they’re saying and drawing is. Even the more innocent creatures, orange spiders where the bodies are eyeballs, which are designed to steal phones and wallets are meant to eventually progress to taking eyes and fingernails.

While coming from her responses to bullies and comments at school Amber’s drawings also stem from grief over the loss of her mum. In the way that it speaks to its younger viewers about letting out emotions and dealing with them there’s an admirable quality to Sketch. One that speaks directly to such viewers while also working as an amusing 90-minutes or so for those also watching. With some effective chuckles and monster battles along the way throughout the slightly familiar beats of the narrative there’s a likable live-action family flick here.

Likely to speak well to younger audience members, Sketch should work for all ages with a likable and amusing, if familiar, 90-minutes with some solid monster doodle design.