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Have you seen those images where someone takes one of their kid’s drawings and makes it look real? So you get a cow in a field but with all of the proportions wrong and with the horns and eyes on the same side of its head. This movie kind of takes that idea and turns into a scary movie. 

That’s not to say that this is an adults only fright fest, it is totally a kids adventure film but like Super 8, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Goosebumps and The House with the Clock in its Walls it is comprehensively using the visual grammar of horror cinema to tell its story. This of course makes it a perfect choice for a family Halloween trip to the cinema and its release is clearly timed with that in mind. It came out in the Summer in the States but I have to say that its UK scheduling is better timed. In the US it is instead hanging off this season for its home viewing push where it comes with a selection of publicity posters riffing on classics of this genre. 

Whenever you watch it though this is a welcome addition to a cinematic climate where children’s movies are all animations, live action adaptations of animations, live action computer game adaptations or animated computer game adaptations. This is a world away from the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog,  Despicable Me, Minecraft, Lilo & Stitch though and The Mario Bros though . It focuses on characterisation rather than frantic antics and feels much more like an exercise in genuine storytelling rather than just making money. In this sense I’d place it alongside gems from the last few years like The Kid Who Would Be King, H for Happiness and, of course Paddington.

Like the best of those films this also deals with family conflict and the loss of loved ones alongside the all the fun, and it is this more than any of the supernatural events that drive the plot. In fact the supernatural elements are fairly illogical and desperately under explained but that’s okay because I’m happy to have spent more time on the central kid’s emotional journey than whatever is powering the magical lake out the back of the house. That is just the mechanism that has brought ten year old protagonist Amber’s angry scribblings to life. 

Once the plot has contrived to introduce its crayon creatures then the opening drama temporarily gives way to series of really entertaining set pieces and a wonderfully dry script. There are three children caught up in most of the action and all of the young performers have a lot of charisma. There’s Amber, her brother Jack and a boy called Bowman who seems to be channeling the nerdy kid from The Polar Express. Together that are an engaging trio. Netflix sitcom stars Tony Hale and D’Arcy Carden ably provide adult support. 

So the title Sketch may refer to the plot as much as it does the origins of the monsters but this is ultimately a sweet, funny and endearing film. It knows where it fits in the cinematic canon and has no pretensions beyond this. It is a wonderfully well intentioned and delightfully presented movie that has a charm beyond most of its rivals. Open your own notebooks and add it to your list. 

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