Robin and the Hoods review – nostalgic battle cry for children’s imagination

This family comedy is not only another iteration of the legendary outlaw yarn; it’s an entertaining feature film focusing on the importance of a child’s imagination.

Robin (Darcey Ewart) is the bright-eyed leader of a group of children, the Hoods, who love to play fantasy games on a patch of land they call the Kingdom. Their biggest concern is a rival gang looking to take over their domain until plans emerge to turn the area into a new leisure facility for their town. Faced with the ruthless property developer Clipboard (a delightful panto-esque turn from Naomie Harris), Robin and her friends must find a way to save their play area.

The adult cast is upstaged by talented child actors. Ewart plays Robin – about to start secondary school with a baby brother on the way – as earnest yet stubborn. Director Phil Hawkins shows the children’s point of view – armoured knights, medieval fights, magic thunderbolts – alongside the cardboard armour and suction-tipped arrows of reality. The death of apothecary wizard Glen (Bruno Edgington-Gibson) is shown as a small cut to the forehead blown out of proportion by his over-anxious mother (Morgana Robinson). This funny moment sums up the film’s message: a child’s imagination can exist in a world of screens, social media and helicopter parenting.

Though it has some formulaic elements of standard family entertainment, the film’s strength is in its simplicity. The odd “grownup” joke and a heavy dose of nostalgia is there to make adults yearn for simpler times while encouraging their children to throw down their phones, get on their bikes and build a fort in the woods with their mates.