This 95%-Rated Flick Is the Most Wholesome Movie You Can Watch With Your Kids on Halloween
This is a story about how dark feelings like pain, fear, and sadness can be transformed into something beautiful and creative.
When searching for a festive, heartwarming, family-friendly Halloween movie, it's easy to miss some real gems.
One such gem is Sketch, a film that starts as a story about cartoon monsters and evolves into a surprisingly subtle and heartwarming parable about a family coping with loss and finding healing through creativity.
What Is 'Sketch' About?
Amber, a schoolgirl who loves to draw, often creates bizarre monsters in her artwork. Her creativity concerns her teachers and her widowed father, who is trying to rebuild his family's life after his wife's death.
Everything changes when Amber's older brother discovers a magical pond that can bring inanimate objects to life. When Amber accidentally drops her sketchbook into the pond, a horde of colorful crayon-and-wax creatures is unleashed upon the town.
Now, Amber, her brother, and their friend must stop the monster invasion.
'Sketch' Is a Heartwarming and Thoughtful Work About Grief & How to Deal With It
Beneath the surface of children's fantasies lies a sensitive and wise exploration of grief. Amber's vivid and grotesque monsters are not just figments of her imagination, they are the materialized pain of losing her mother.
While her father and brother withdraw, hide photographs, and pretend everything is fine, Amber processes her trauma through creativity.
The film subtly shows that the real "monster" is unspoken grief, not bizarre creatures. This grief can only be defeated by confronting it, which is precisely what the main character must do in the finale.
'Sketch' Finds the Perfect Balance Between Comedy and Drama
Director Seth Worley masterfully blends fun adventures and light humor with genuinely touching moments.
The monsters in this story are not frightening, but rather, they evoke a smile: there's a huge blue Dave, spiders with giant eyes, and a ginger cat with tentacles.
This balance keeps the story light and accessible to young viewers without sacrificing depth, preventing it from descending into excessive darkness.
What Did Critics & Viewers Think of 'Sketch'?
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Sketch has 95% from critics and 83% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
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On IMDb, the movie has a score of 6.7/10.
Where to Watch 'Sketch'?
You can rent or buy Sketch on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.
