Starring: Steven Mangan, Peter Woodward, David Tennant
Pat (Ronan Keating, Mangan) serves as the postman for the village of Greendale and is popular with all the locals because of his cheery and friendly personality. When a talent competition comes to Greendale, Pat decides to enter and win a trip to Italy for his wife (Susan Duerdan) and revealing a talent for singing. As Pat advances in the competition, a new kind of robot postman takes his (and several other postmen's) place delivering letters and causing chaos.
It's easy to knock this film adaptation of Postman Pat, the creation of John Cunliffe and an on-off figure for British children since the beginning of the 90's. The idea of a film taking what was usually a show with a simple premise (Pat delivering letters around Greendale and helping people out) and shoving in a plot about a talent competition seems cringe-worthingly poor and yet, for that being a part of it, the film actually comes out okay.
We've had almost twenty years behind us now of computer animated films and still the Americans have a tendency to lead the way, with contributions from other nations seeming rather lacking. The aesthetic of Postman Pat was always simple but here the designs are not so much ugly as they are blocky and dull. Steven Mangan's performance as Pat is similarly bland, in no small part due to the fact that Pat's a thoroughly nice person. For a gentle and short TV show, that's fine but it very quickly shows how dull such a person can be, leading a feature-length movie with a more outlandish setting.
That being said, David Tennant puts forward some great work. It's not his best, especially given he's one of Britain's greatest modern actors but even though its animated you still feel like Tennant could find a way of chewing through the CG scenery. Jim Broadbent also does a good job as Pat's cheerful boss and Ronan Keating is bizarrely the singing voice of both Pat and, in a cameo, himself.
In a surprising twist perhaps the best, or at least most entertaining, performance comes from Robin Atkin Downes as Simon Cowbell. Parodies of Simon Cowell have been tired for years and whilst this obviously no innovative take on Cowell, the surprisingly acerbic tone of the portrayal provides some relief for the grown-ups as do the other occasional asides to the audience which (along with the genuinely rather terrifying Patbot robots that seemed to have been dragged straight out of the fabled Uncanny Valley) means that this might not be a hit for kids and it won't really appease many adults, but it won't offend any either. It's fairly fun, even if that's all it is.
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