Ewan McGregor and Helena Bonham Carter lead an impressive cast in this magical tale – but its focus on two unlikable young protagonists proves wearing

Here is a lacklustre kids’ animation with an ostensibly starry voice cast including Ewan McGregor, Helena Bonham Carter, Mel Brooks and the late Terry Jones. (Oddly, David Walliams is announced and credited online as voicing the Guardian, while the film’s credits indicate the role is played by the prolific but little-known voice actor Stefan Ashton Frank. Wonder what happened there?)

However, it’s important to know before you watch that the lead characters who occupy most of the film’s runtime are two children not voiced by any of these luminaries. Young Elise and Alfie are twins who wish themselves into a magical world before getting into various scrapes. Sadly, Elise is deeply annoying and Alfie is a bit nondescript, which makes the whole thing rather a chore.

This 2003 romcom seemed destined to be a hit. But it was too camp, too synthetic, too satirical: the exact qualities that make it a cult favourite today

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In May 2003, a romcom starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor seemed like a surefire recipe for success. Zellweger had just earned consecutive best actress Oscar nominations for Bridget Jones’ Diary and Chicago, and McGregor had leading roles in zeitgeist-defining hits including Moulin Rouge and Star Wars. But on release, Down with Love barely made a dent at the box office, and audiences and critics alike were baffled by its camp sensibility and embrace of artifice.

In the film, Zellweger plays writer Barbara Novak, who arrives in New York City in 1962 to publish her feminist manifesto, Down with Love. Novak’s book encourages women to reject romance, embrace sex and refute the rigid gender roles of 50s America, and with the help of her publisher, Vikki (Sarah Paulson), Down with Love becomes a worldwide phenomenon – much to the chagrin of “man’s-man-ladies’-man-man about town” Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor).