My Freaky Family - Film Review

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Based on the series of popular children's books by Colin Thompson, My Freaky Family follows 12-year-old Betty Flood (voiced by Evanna Lynch), an ordinary girl who loves playing the violin and hanging out with her friends. Betty's family are not so ordinary - they are magic practitioners hiding out from malevolent forces in their ancestral lands. An Irish-Australian co-production, My Freaky Family features the voices of Richard Roxburgh and Miranda Otto, and offers plenty of magic, music and off-kilter moments, all served up at breakneck speed.



In the leafy town of Misty Falls, Betty Flood goes to school and strives for normality. This is in contrast to her home life where potions and spells and apparitions are impossible to get away from. Her Grandma's grave is in the front yard and seems to contain an alive grandma. Betty's twin sisters are super-freaky-looking other-worldly beings. Betty's older brother practices magic at an elite level. The family's dog talks.

Betty is concerned when one day her mother (Miranda Otto) comes to pick her up after school. Her mum soon stands out, not only because of her choice of headwear (her hat's alive), but because on the walk home from school, a speeding driver imperils Betty and her mother must use magic to avoid Betty being run over. Both mother and daughter are concerned about this public display of magic, but it leads Betty to question why she can't practice magic, a notion Betty's mother quickly vetoes.

Betty rebels and is soon teaching herself tricks. But this unleashes long-dormant forces and Betty must enter an alternate world to sort things out. This results in some of the film's most interesting scenes, which feature an interdimensional public-transport worm and an Olympic-style magic tournament. Baddies in the form of King Murkhart (Richard Roxburgh) and Volos (Rupert Degas, who for some reason sounds a lot like Donald Trump) stand in the way of Betty and her desire to save her family.

Short, sharp and related at a whirlwind pace, My Freaky Family has a pleasingly involved story and some lovely offbeat premises and scenes. The animation is fairly non-descript and shiny, but won't get in the way of children enjoying the action. Kids, and especially fans of The Floods, may very well enjoy the female lead and the fantastical storyline.

My Freaky Family is in cinemas October 24.

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