A Spanish production featuring a veritable hall of fame of European "voice talents", this disappointing CG animation fails to capture the sense of fairytale wonder that its narrative requires. Freddie Highmore does the honours as the eponymous youngster who dreams of being a knight in a land overrun by boring lawyers, where health-and-safety restrictions have taken all the fun out of life. Rupert Everett flounces as the dandyish Sota, David Walliams screeches as a seer with a split personality and producer/star Antonio Banderas does that velvety Puss-in-Boots thing that worked so well in Shrek.
The real star, however, is Saoirse Ronan whose ass-kicking sidekick almost succeeds in breathing life into the oft-flagging endeavour. Sadly, it's a losing battle, hampered by some of the most utterly irrelevant stereoscopy I have yet encountered. After a while, I just took off the 3D glasses and watched a large section of the movie in slightly blurry 2D. When I put the glasses back on, no improvement was discernible.
