Title: Postman Pat: The Movie
Director: Mike Disa
Starring: Stephen Mangan, Ronan Keating, Jim Broadbent
Runtime: 88 minutes
As a child, Postman Pat was one of my favourite TV shows. I’m sure this was the same for any child growing up in the early 80s. At the age of around three to five years Postman Pat was perfect. More sophisticated than the likes of Button Moon, with its crude spoon-people and Heinz Beans spaceships or The Clangers with its finger puppets or Bill and Ben with its flowerpot men, but less sophisticated than Bagpuss with its varied characters and philosophical musings on life. Postman Pat was suitable at an age at which Danger Mouse or Count Duckula would have been too cerebral for such young minds.
Postman Pat was a simple stop-motion animated TV show that hit screens in 1981 stretched to an impressive 141 episodes over nine seasons. It appealed to young children with a catchy song that children could easily sing along to and its bright colours, easy to follow story lines and relatable characters made Postman Pat a hit. It was the sort of TV that made young children want to work for the Royal Mail and to have a little red van and a black cat. I’m not sure that same dream applies to children these days. Not only do they want to be footballers or Pop stars, the Royal Mail doesn’t look like such a safe bet in terms of steady employment these days.
Perhaps its odd then that this new version of Postman Pat in which Pat promises, his wife Sarah a trip to Italy - paid for by his upcoming bonus from the Post Office (which never comes because the Post Office is being restructured) focusses on a talent show in which Pat has to sing, and win, in order to win the promised holiday. The fact that the talent show is a near-carbon copy of the X Factor and is hosted by a animated look-a-like / sound-a-like of Simon Cowell is a bit weird. Since when did this sort of storyline pop up in Postman Pat back in the 80s and why the heck would it? Even now. Also the plot that involves Pat being replaced by a robot version of himself, which is part of a larger army of robot Pats, (cloned due to his overwhelming popularity) is also a bit weird for a young children’s film. Themes such as corporate changes, mindless popularity and cloning are not really suited to young children in my opinion.
Clearly Postman Pat as a TV show (or now of course a cinema released movie) has evolved. But in a good way? I’m not sure. I’d prefer Pat to be visiting the local shop to see Mrs Goggins, helping Alf Thompson to find his sheep, or helping Ted Glen fix his tractor.
Pat’s singing voice is provided by Ronan Keating. I find this also a little odd. Why couldn’t Stephen Mangan have provided the singing. Keating doesn’t even sound similar to Mangan. It’s an unusual choice. Mangan is perfectly good as Pat and is able to mimic the friendly voice of the original person that voiced Pat very well.
The animation is very good and Stephen Mangan’s voice work is great. I have no problem with any of that, but on the whole I’m not convinced by this new version of a children’s classic.
That said I don’t think it has any bad intentions. I think parts of it are nice enough and so I’m sure it will still be popular with children. Personally I’d rather watch the original episodes from the 80s and if I was introducing my own children to Postman Pat these classic episodes are certainly where I would start. But everything changes and evolves and it is testament to the enduring likability of the characters that Postman Pat has made it to 2014 and onto the big screen.
I have a young friend, named, Louis. He is two years old and he loves Postman Pat. Here is his review of Postman Pat...
Pat.
Pat.
Pat.
Jess.
Pat.
Pat.
Jess.
Train.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Jess.
Pat.
Tractor.
A brilliant review I think you’ll agree.
