Wombling Free

A bit late for TV's Womble-mania gravy train, this feature spin-off does itself no favours by leading its 4ft, fat, and furry heroes into close encounters with a (purportedly) human family to press home the simple ecological message, or by relegating Mike Batt's inventive lyrics and music to backing for a few variable set pieces. There's a certain perverse joy in watching the shaggy creatures in a pastiche of the Hollywood musical, but there's little more than sheer perversity involved in the casting of Bernard Spear as a Japanese car salesman whose genuinely Oriental wife never speaks a word of English. Frances de la Tour is great, and is given great lines, but they belong to a different movie; the rest of her family belong to Disneyland. Lionel Jeffries' previous kids' films promised much, but this unfortunately doesn't begin to deliver. Shame, 'cos Wombles definitely rule Muppets, OK?