It is not very often that Holly, my three year old, sits still for more than 10 minutes in one go. Even her favourite movie (the one with Anna and Elsa... you know the one) is watched in bursts but this weekend I witnessed a little miracle. Holly sat and watched a whole movie in breathless silence. Cleo.
Cleo is the tale of an enormous cuddly dog (a St. Bernard I'd guess) who lives with his 11 year old owner, Luke. Luke and his friends live in a very snowy small town and over the school holidays his friends challenge each other to a snowball fight on an epic scale. Cleo encourages his owner to take part and is there egging them all on through thick and thin as the group of warring friends challenge each other to bigger and bigger snowball fights.
There are lots of different characters in the story from the tiny genius (who designed this amazing fort) to the grumpy early teens. From the feisty new neighbours to the silly twins. Holly enjoyed seeing all of the different characters develop. But of course, the start of the show is Cleo the dog who takes on all of the challenges with such enthusiasm and is responsible for bringing all of the friends together in lots of different ways.
The animation in Cleo is quite unlike anything else you will have recently seen. The people style is distinct and the colouring is strange (mostly because, in a snowy environment the screen is either very bright, or else very dark when the sun drops). The style is one of the things which I think intrigued Holly because it was so different to anything else she watches.
There were laughs (who doesn't enjoy watching people slurp cold drinks and get brain-freeze?). There were also tears. Be warned, there is a very emotional ending which got both of my girls snuggling me on the sofa.
Cleo is out now on DVD and digital download - it recently premiered at the Sundance film festival under the title Snowtime.
Cleo is the tale of an enormous cuddly dog (a St. Bernard I'd guess) who lives with his 11 year old owner, Luke. Luke and his friends live in a very snowy small town and over the school holidays his friends challenge each other to a snowball fight on an epic scale. Cleo encourages his owner to take part and is there egging them all on through thick and thin as the group of warring friends challenge each other to bigger and bigger snowball fights.
There are lots of different characters in the story from the tiny genius (who designed this amazing fort) to the grumpy early teens. From the feisty new neighbours to the silly twins. Holly enjoyed seeing all of the different characters develop. But of course, the start of the show is Cleo the dog who takes on all of the challenges with such enthusiasm and is responsible for bringing all of the friends together in lots of different ways.
The animation in Cleo is quite unlike anything else you will have recently seen. The people style is distinct and the colouring is strange (mostly because, in a snowy environment the screen is either very bright, or else very dark when the sun drops). The style is one of the things which I think intrigued Holly because it was so different to anything else she watches.
There were laughs (who doesn't enjoy watching people slurp cold drinks and get brain-freeze?). There were also tears. Be warned, there is a very emotional ending which got both of my girls snuggling me on the sofa.
Cleo is out now on DVD and digital download - it recently premiered at the Sundance film festival under the title Snowtime.
