‘Open your arms wide and fly like a bird,’ says Lisa Rourke, viola player with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The result is proof, if it were needed, that music has the power to transport you. Small, swaying bodies and rapt faces respond not just to Rourke’s instructions but the swell of music being performed live before them.

This was just part of a pre-show preamble, designed to introduce young audiences to the orchestra, the piece they’re about to listen to and the short, animated film it accompanies. A collaboration between the RSNO and children’s theatre company Visible Fictions, Yoyo & The Little Auk is a wonderfully diverse celebration of our differences and similarities.

^{Pictures: Marc Hindley}

It’s ceilidh night at the Inverkithkin village hall, the fancy dress shop is about to close, and Yoyo has nothing to wear. Meanwhile, in the skies above, a tiny seabird is battling to stay close to its family during a storm. Our two heroes come together and befriend each other during their brief struggles, leading to a heart-warming happy ending.

The twinning of live music and animation is nothing new in the realm of family entertainment, yet this feels special. Author Stewart Ennis has dreamed up a gorgeous cast of characters from around the world, with Yoyo’s grandparents hailing from Iran, India, Scotland and Poland, each of them sharing their special skills and memories with their granddaughter. Narrator James Cosmo swaps his Game Of Thrones gravitas for adorable woolly-jumpered jolliness; animator Gavin C Robinson’s clever use of colour ensures little eyes are always looking in the right place; and the easily identifiable motifs of composer Euan Stevenson’s score fuse all the components together beautifully. 

Yoyo & The Little Auk, Haddo House Hall, Aberdeen, Sunday 9 October; Scottish Seabird Centre, North Berwick, Saturday 15, Tuesday 18–Thursday 20 October; St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh, Wednesday 19, Friday 21 October; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Sunday 23 October; reviewed at Forres Town Hall.