Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Marc Wootton returns as the childlike incompetent teacher's assistant Mr Poppy and irritates the hell out of everyone including this viewer.David Tennant in a dual role is the new teacher Mr Donald Peterson who is tormented by Mr Poppy and ends up taking the schoolkids over the mountains of Wales to enter the National 'Song for Christmas' Competition, mainly because Mr Shakespeare from the posh rival school switched the road signs.However Mr Shakespeare meets his match in Mr Roderick Peterson, a celebrated musical director, also a cheat and Donald's twin brother who conspires to do whatever it takes to succeed.The film gives the impression that it had a semi finished script with some ad libbing from the kids. You get a bit of riffing of The X Factor audition stage. The infantile plot runs out of steam long before the finish line but then you end up with a lot of singing and dancing from the kids. All very forgettable and I doubt even the kids would enjoy it much.

Saw the first one which was OK, not brilliant, but OK. This is drivel. I'd forgotten how annoying is Mr Poppy. Why is seeing an adult behaving like a 6 year old in the slightest bit funny? Discovering he can then drive is frightening, and ridiculous (a really obvious bit of product placement for London duck tours here).The message is class warfare at its worst - posh private school kids deserve to lose, hurry for the talentless state school kids with a heart.So... is it funny for under 10's? Quite possibly if they are rather unusual (most kids HATE being patronised, and that's what this film does to children), mine didn't find it that funny or cute.Nothing else to add really, off to watch Kick Ass 2 here and remind myself that I'm an adult.

Not normally one for writing film reviews but having just watched this with the kids felt compelled to defend it (to a certain extent).The key word is KIDS film.Mine are 3 and 6 and they both sat laughing the whole way through and immediately wanted it on again when it finished.That,in my book,is a good enough measure of a children's film rather than expecting it to have lots of subtle gags that adults would appreciate.Having said that,being that I'm a bit silly natured myself,I found it amusing enough in places to keep me watching alongside them without wishing for the end too much.The story line is beyond ridiculous but if you're after a good hearted film to get you in the Christmas mood with your kids you could do worse.

Oh Dear.I've watched loads of films with my daughter (who is now 10), I am a bit of a film buff, so hope I can give a bit of guidance on this to other parents.This film is xmassy, but only because it is crucifying in the biblical sense.If you have kids under 6, i'm sure they will enjoy it, only because they will enjoy seeing wootton providing some kids entertainer type laughs, other kids dancing and singing and some xmas backgrounds, but whereas kids films normally have an adult undercurrent to keep the parents happy, this is a film for kids apparently written by kids.There really is a sense of everything being made up on the spot, with no logic or reason to the film.As parents you know how painful it can be watching your kids Christmas shows at schools only for the sheer joy of 5 minutes to see your child doing something, well imagine watching the last hour of this film seeing just that without having your kid in it.I saw the first one, which wasn't too bad, but you have to give this a wide berth, to tell directors they have to do better than this mediocrity.(never given a film a 1 before - although the happening came pretty close)