With over ten years as a beloved children’s entertainer, Peppa Pig makes the jump from television to cinema screens with a disappointingly small splash in this animated adventure for tots. A brand new 15-minute Peppa Pig adventure, The Golden Boots, is supported by a handful of classic episodes and some stilted, pre-recorded ‘interactivity’ from the Channel 5 Milkshake! team. The result is 55-minutes of ‘event cinema’ for the under fives, likely to be received with delight by the kids and stoic grimness by restless adults.

Her adventures generally revolve around muddy puddles, which Peppa (voiced by Lily Snowden-Fine) likes to jump in. No ordinary pig, our protagonist lives with her brother George (Alice and Oliver May) and her accident-prone parents (Morwenna Banks and Richard Ridings), and enjoys such diversions as a trip to the fire station and a skiing holiday, climaxing with a visit to the Queen in which Peppa firmly nails her monarchist tendencies to the wall. The central story revolves around the search for her golden boots, stolen by Mrs Duck, and forcing Peppa and her merry entourage to head for the moon in search of her missing footwear.

The animation style is as plain and simple as the storylines but it’s easy for children to enjoy Peppa's squeals of excitement as she splashes her little boots in the mud. Adults, however, may wonder about the motivations behind what feels like a cynical cash-grab; cinemas have found a new role as homes to communal events for cult TV shows like Doctor Who, but the interactive elements of this showcase are distinctly tatty: a single camera set-up for manic, gurning presenters and a cloth pig costume that looks like Donnie Darko’s worst nightmare. Despite the charm of Peppa herself, this cobbled-together collection seems primarily concerned with delivering the financial bacon for Peppa’s creators.

On general release now.

Peppa Pig The Golden Boots Trailer