the great war break out and daddy be a brave pilot who go off to carry out some unsightly business to put jerry in his place . mummy be do her bit a a nurse and so the five child be evacuate to their barmy uncle in the country and where a secret passageway take them to a mischievous sand fairy and the beginning of a magical adventure . base on a book write the best part of a century ago and they do not make story like this anymore . and there a reason . the men fly plane and author book while the woman change bandage and clean house . the boys lead the way with their compass and nighttime furlough while the girl do what they be tell and play violin badly . fat kid who wear spec be nasty . all the kid speak in those clipped and vowel flattening accent that be soppy and prim but which a certain economic class of english people cultivate . on top of the snobbery and yearning for imperial albion and there be plot hole a five year old would not tolerate . i mean that literally my son be ask why the father disappear before sunset and why the compass do not just drop from his hand a he disappear . the film at least try to aim strictly for the kid and until a completely inappropriate and unfunny monologue by eddie izzard ( what a waste of genuine comic talent ) play over the final credit . no doubt the five percent of british schoolkids who go to expensive public school in the uk will find it all such a jolly wheeze . for the other 95 percent of british family who no longer live in the 19th century and the good news be wall e and ratatouille and wallace and gromit be all out on dvd .