10 year-old Amber Wyatt is angry at life.
She has just lost her mother and her dad is hellbent on erasing all the memories of her mom in the house. There’s also this really annoying kid at school called Bowman that makes her want to do bad things.
It is no wonder that her normally happy drawings have taken a dark turn. After all, her dad has always said, “you can’t control your inbox but you can control your outbox.”
Even her school psych thinks her drawings are a healthier way of processing her emotions. Better that than acting out, or even worse, not doing anything at all.
But how was Amber to know that her sketchbook would fall into a magic lake that would bring all her scary monster drawings to life?
Like Harold and the Purple Crayon gone dark, Sketch is a fun, clever and sensitive movie with a message, written and directed by Seth Worley.
Young actors Bianca Belle and Kue Lawrence steal the show as squabbling “morphans” (maternal orphans, term as coined by Amber) Amber and Jack Wyatt. Together with their friend Bowman (Kalon Cox), the three kids team up to manage the chaos of Amber’s imaginative creatures.
There’s the eyeball-stealing “eyeders” and Dave the giant blue monster with snake legs and googly eyes. The worst one of them all though is the dark, hooded creature that can spawn a never ending supply of these beings, representative of Amber’s dark well of grief.
Tony Hale plays the grieving dad Taylor who is just trying to do right by his kids. D’Arcy Carden (Janet from The Good Place) plays his sister Liz, who keeps him accountable when he needs to be called out for his mistakes. As she wisely tells Taylor, “I think you should stop worrying so much about the girl who’s drawing pictures of her pain and worry a little bit more about the boys who are ignoring theirs.”
The movie does not shy away from the realities of losing a parent, while still maintaining an age-appropriate tone – which I appreciate.
Sketch is rated PG but is more suited to older kids. It was laugh-out-loud funny, with mild potty humour and swearing. Wholesome, witty and completely unhinged, I loved every minute of it. Just beware of all the jump scares.
Sketch releases in cinemas nationally on 11th September.