I was surprised by just how enjoyable this was - certainly one of the stronger animated films of recent years. Each of the children had their own distinct personality, it was sometimes very funny and the ending was genuinely poignant. Much less of a kids film than I expected, with some pretty dark themes tackled. And I really appreciated the brevity - so many films (not only animated) outstay their welcome that it was refreshing to come across a movie that told its charming story so well in little over an hour.

Yeah all of the kids had some dark backgrounds. One of the scenes that made me really sad for them was when they were playing at the snow and all paused and were all staring at the kid who has a mom.

The film was full of nice little touches and tugged at the heartstrings while somehow avoiding being too 'worthy'. I imagine that the mission of the film/book is to encourage adoption and it wouldn't surprise me if it had made people think about it.

7/10