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MOVIE: Flying the Nest

STARS: Jamie Oram, Sean Astin, Richard Cotton.

DIRECTOR: Arni Asgeirsson

RATING: G

REVIEWER: Leigh Paatsch

VERDICT: 2/5 stars

NOT often you see a children’s animated film hailing all the way from Iceland.

Let alone one starring a plover, a popular bird up that way, apparently.

That right there is about as remarkable as it gets for Flying the Nest, an otherwise pleasantly piffling and completely inessential exercise in kiddie cartooning.

Our hero of the mercifully short duration is Ploey (voiced by Jamie Oram), a baby plover who has not learned to fly in time to join his flock’s annual mass migration south.

His dear dad recently died in an aerial mishap, and little Ploey just lost his nerve.

Understandable enough, and he was not long out of his shell.

Therefore Ploey will have to tough out an ultra-freezing Arctic winter all on his own.

And if the plunging temperatures don’t get him – plovers do not have the cover of feathers needed to ward off the ravages of ice, snow and wind – it is highly likely the predators tracking his every move will soon pounce.

While the standard of animation seen here is quite strong – especially when conveying the natural splendour of the Icelandic landscape – the storytelling chugs along on autopilot, and the voice cast follow suit.

Best enjoyed if you’re less than six years old, your TV and home wi-fi are both on the blink, and you haven’t seen a movie in yonks.