This is a cute animated film from England (actually a UK/Denmark co-production) in the style of Chicken Run with the grin-inducing (as opposed to laughter-inducing) humor of “Wallace & Gromit.” Kids and adults will love the charming Sludger the Aardvark as he dreams of a better life, gets a chance to go to the big city and gets an image makeover before finding out that — you guessed it — what really counts is being yourself. We know, we know, you’ve seen that moral before. But the superb animation, bright colors, and lovely humor (Sludger’s love of trousers and the washed-up secretary are both quite infectious bits of wit) carry the day. Extremely well-done and highly enjoyable, we only took a star off because the caterpillar/agent character gets rather annoying. This is one of those rare “family films” that actually does appeal to people over eight years old (and we don’t just mean grannies, either).
