‘Sketch’ Review: All the Monsters One Kid Can Imagine Come to Life in an Inventive Fable for the Whole Family
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic Since the death of her mother, 10-year-old Amber Wyatt (Bianca Belle) has been bothered by all sorts of dark thoughts.
Rather than act on those impulses, Amber commits her most monstrous ideas to a secret journal, purging anxieties from her subconscious though art.
The process would be therapeutic, if not for a gnarly twist that releases Amber’s scary scribbles into the real world: marker-drawn hearts with insatiable appetites, a googly-eyed glitter monster on long bendy legs, and swarms of red, arachnid-like “Eyeders.” With his stellar indie family adventure “Sketch,” commercials director Seth Worley has come up with a creative — and highly teachable — concept for his feature debut, using imaginative visual effects to impart a valuable lesson about dealing with grief and other strong feelings.
The live-action/CG-animated hybrid channels the spirit of “Jumanji,” by way of “The Babadook,” but with something important to say.
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