Love Is Strange

Are you sitting? Are you comfortable? Are you five-years-old?

The narrative voice carries the inflections of an anorak-clad hiker, which brings the story of Eric the Bad and Edward the Good down to earth.

As a fairy story, illustrated with children's book animation, it follows tradition - the nice magician and the (not too) nasty magician battle it out for the king and queen's favour.

Their gimmick is a magic pencil, with which to draw themselves out of trouble. This has the cheaty aspects of shapechangers in cartoons, who suddenly turn into rockets, or tigers, when required.

Everything is on an ickle person's level, especially the drawings. When the royal baby is kidnapped, it doesn't seem such an appalling thing, because the wrapped bundle looks more like a loaf of bread than a traumatised infant.

There is an odd gay theme which infiltrates the storyline when no one is paying attention, but that's for later, children, a little something to ponder over when the nights are drawing in.