REVIEW: Puss in Moon Boots by Sleeping Trees

After the success of last year’s, The Legend of Moby Dick Whittington, Sleeping Trees has returned this Christmas with another home viewing suitable for all ages in what they call an “annual Christmas living room adventure”. As with last years show they seek to create a fun interactive story aimed at under tens with plenty of parody to amuse their adult carers. It is like watching three grown-up men behaving how they imagine their ten-year-old selves might have occupied themselves in creating a home movie. It works because the three wholeheartedly embrace their format, include some silly play along at home moments and is neatly captured and edited into a 50-minute show that does not overstay its welcome.

This year’s tale is a parody of The Star Wars Franchise with a touch of 2001, a Space Odyssey mixed up with Children’s characters and Santa Claus. The Puss in question must stop Dorth Clauz from stealing all the presents and kidnapping all the naughty children to the Moon and is littered with silly puns and jokes. To involve the young audience at home we are encouraged to get saucepans as space helmets, Kitchen utensils as control sticks and toilet roll holders as Light sabres. The more adventurous children might be persuaded to build their own moon rocket out of cardboard to join the adventure. As with last year, we are encouraged to post pictures of the home creativity!

REVIEW: Sleeping Trees' The Legend of Moby Dick Whittington (Online)

The latest Christmas online offering from Sleeping Trees says it is “suitable for all ages” and there is no doubt the 50-minute show will not offend anyone but it is aimed firmly at a young audience (up to 10 perhaps) watching with their parents and there are other online shows available that older audiences will find more engaging and enjoyable. However, as this must be the target audience it does deliver a lively interactive show which mixes up a range of stories to amusing effect and will entertain a younger person.

The show is described as the latest “annual Christmas living room adventure”. It lives up to this billing but has the feel of an improvised madcap home video with some good innovative touches and a clever edit that makes the most of the three actors! The three performers who together with Ben Hales wrote the show feel like a young version of the popular Edinburgh Fringe show “The Noise next door” with their anarchic improv style. Director Kerry Frampton and Director of Photography Shaun Reynolds keep if feeling spontaneous while clearly at times needing to edit extensively to all the three actors to change costumes.

The show works hard to engage the young audience throughout requiring them to participate in much of the action. Early on we are told to pause the stream and collect “scrunched up balls of paper, Toilet rolls cardboard tubes, wooden utensils, and a bedsheet” so that we are prepared to join in. We are called on a various times in the audio and with on-screen graphics to “pelt the screen with paper balls”, ”Boo now”, “paddle with wooden spoons”, “spot the whale with the toilet roll tubes”, build and wreck a ship in the lounge, dance, hide under the bedsheet and then “use tickle fingers, run fast on the spot and jump all around”. They do apologise to parents watching for the chaos caused! We are also encouraged to post pictures of this chaos under #Homemadeshipbuild and #Homemadeshipwreck.