Like Free Birds, only playing much more to the under eights audience, this animation features a time machine and a character wishing he was somewhere else.

Bernard the elf dreams of becoming an inventor instead of cleaning out the stables.

But when he causes a power blackout which removes the hologram protecting the North Pole, Nevill Badington (Tom Curry) and his wife Viera (Pam Ferris) are ready to steal Santa’s secrets.

Unless, of course, Bernard can rise to the ultimate challenge... of Saving Santa.


Video Loading

The colourful, simplified computer-generated animation will be easy on the eye for youngsters, while the use of songs adds a new dimension to the kind of plot we’ve seen so many times before.

That the singing is sometimes less polished than parts of Mamma Mia! won’t matter to older toddlers.

With Ferris on board and Freeman cast as Bernard, this is a frothy, animated alternative to their Coventry-based Nativity! film from 2009.