Saturday, 19 December 2020

CHILDRENS ONLINE FILM REVIEW: Wilf Goes Wild: The Mystery Of The Missing Marvin


We’re all missing the excitement of going to the cinema and theatre at the moment; there’s nothing quite like it. However, many companies are jumping on this and releasing new digital content as well as streaming live performances.

Wilf Goes Wild is a new kid on the block in children’s viewing. So, if you’re fed-up of CBeebies and Tiny Pop on repeat, this is one to pull out of your bag of tricks.

In Adventure One, we are introduced to Wilf and his sister Willow who journey to Antarctica at the bottom of the earth, in search of their amazing Giant African Land Snail, Marvin, whom they believe ended up there when he got flushed down the washing machine pipes!

From the start, there are musical numbers galore and as soon as they arrive in Antarctica, they make a new friend, the Narwhal Mr. Plumpy, who helps them on their quest. Whilst on this journey and in a musical manner, viewers are given lots of simple facts regarding Antarctica and the creatures and things you can find there.

It turns out however, that Mr Plumpy isn’t such a good guy as he has been creating his own attraction called Plumpyland and trapping animals from all over the world for when he opens… including Marvin! Mr Plumpy puts Wilf and Willow to the test, a nature knowledge test, to win back Marvin and free all the other animals, but if they lose, Wilf and Willow will become attractions at the zoo too!

Through their test and throughout the whole adventure, children learn so much about Antarctica, the land and environment and the animals that live there too.

Technically, it’s not the most advanced viewing graphically speaking, with drawn characters over the top of photographic images. However, it is similar in style to popular TV show, Charlie And Lola. The episode was subtitled and there is also a BSL version available to view too.

Even better, there are lots of fun activities included with each episode. Children can click through the website, meeting the characters from the episode, looking at the facts they learnt as well as creative activities such as designing and colouring their own explorer postcards.

From a child’s perspective, my daughter loved it. She enjoyed the continual music, the clear voices and was telling me about what she had learnt after watching the adventure and asked if there were anymore adventures, she could watch.

A nice break from popular TV shows that are always on repeat and a great watch for kids who love to learn.

Reviewer - Katie Davis
on - 18/12/20


No comments:

Post a Comment