Films of Don Quixote have a notoriously rough time of it. Orson Welles ran out of money making his doomed adaptation. Terry Gilliam’s first stab was such a catastrophe it went down as one of the unluckiest films in screen history. Disney bosses abandoned a version after reportedly deciding it was too adult. The makers of this family animation dodge the age-inappropriate issue with a central character who is Don Quixote’s modern-day descendant: an 11-year-old boy dreamer. Though to be fair, the film shares more DNA with other loud crashy kids’ movies than Cervantes.
Our misguided hero is Alfonso Quixote, the great-great-great-and-then-some grandson of the legendary 17th-century Don. Alphonso is blessed with the family trait of crackpot idealism. He is hated in La Mancha for repeatedly causing carnage in the pursuit of his hare-brained schemes. Actually, most residents are leaving town anyway, forced out by extreme weather and constant storms. Alfonso’s father is one of the few locals resisting the offer of an all-mod-cons new home in another town from shifty property developer Carrasco (Tom Harris).
Giants of La Mancha really is like dozens of past family animations – with added windmills. It’s got fart jokes, heaps of (not especially funny) wisecracks and animation of no better quality than shows your kids watch every day on streaming channels. It’s a disappointing and unsatisfyingly thin story, too, with its bland global warming theme, following Alfonso and his best friend Pancho Panza (descendant of Sancho) on a desperate mission to save the town. Even with the plot tweaks, the idea of Don Quixote targeted at little kids feels pretty random.
• Giants of La Mancha is in UK and Irish cinemas from 7 March.
