Movie · 2022 · Animation, Family, Drama, Adventure · 35m · G · English
Curator score: 7.2/10 (22.9K ratings)
A journey, in search of home.
Overview
The unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy's search for home.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.2/10
IMDb: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Metacritic: 75
TMDB: 8.2/10
Director
Charlie Mackesy, Peter Baynton
Production
NoneMore Productions, Bad Robot, BBC
Cast
Jude Coward Nicoll, Tom Hollander, Idris Elba, Gabriel Byrne
Where to watch
Apple TV Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A gentle, visually lovely animated fable that lands best as a comfort watch: emotionally direct, sincere, and often moving, even if its aphoristic dialogue can feel overdetermined. If you want a short, restorative film about kindness, fear, and companionship, it’s worth it.
Best for
viewers seeking a soothing comfort film
fans of poetic, illustrated animation
families and older kids who like gentle life lessons
people in the mood for an emotional reset
audiences who enjoy short-form animated specials
Skip if
you dislike overtly sentimental storytelling
you prefer plot-heavy narratives with strong dramatic structure
you’re allergic to inspirational dialogue and self-help phrasing
you want subtext over explicit moralizing
Overview
This is less a conventional adventure than a tender illustrated meditation on loneliness, courage, and being kind to yourself and others. Its appeal comes from the softness of the imagery and the sincerity of the emotional register, which many viewers will find disarming rather than cloying.
Worth noting
The film’s biggest strength is also its most divisive trait: it speaks in maxims, and it means them. For some, that makes it feel like a warm hug; for others, it can read as too polished and quote-ready, with the narrative subordinated to the message.
Bottom line
Even so, the animation is beautiful, the pacing is gentle, and the whole piece has the rare quality of feeling genuinely restorative. It’s a strong choice for a quiet evening, especially if you want something brief that leaves you feeling a little lighter.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Tom Lister (2.5★) · 2684 likes
Not so much a story as a collection of characters spouting unbearably schmaltzy one-liners taken directly from a self-help book. The filmic equivalent of a Live Laugh Love poster.
Rebecca (4★) · 2643 likes
started crying the second I saw how the mole walked
tobyhawthorne (2★) · 2283 likes
Cute story and beautiful animation but every single line is trying to be “that line” which creates a really broken narrative. It’s like all the characters are having a competition to out quote each other lol.
TadThuggish (2★) · 1457 likes
this has the vibe of a lost film that three people in the UK are desperately trying to track down because they remember it aired once on television in 1972