The Adventures of Thomas and Felix

There's a charm and heart to this indie family adventure, but there's also a choppiness and vagueness to it. Whether in the dialogue or scene cadences of The Adventures of Thomas and Felix, transitions from moment to moment can often feel aesthetically or logically jarring in this darkly-lit half-fantasy. It's unclear what's real and what's not, which is likely part of the point, but its consequence is a feeling of ungroundedness. Ultimately, this amounts to lots of unanswered questions: Is Felix in human friend form only an imaginary friend? Or is Felix the imagined human form of a stuffed animal fox that wants to actually be a real fox, as some scenes suggest? Further, once firmly lost in the woods, when did it properly become an actually magical place or reality called "the who knows!" and does this "who knows!" have the power to turn Felix into a real fox? Or was that the totem monster's power? Also, what is the deal with the totem monster? Is it part of the forest? Just a random monster? Why is it called "totem monster" and so on. It's unclear whether or not there's magic, the supernatural, or just Thomas's imagination, how he's "interpreting this harsh reality of being lost in the woods."

But that doesn't explain Felix as always appearing as a human girl in a fox costume. Was Thomas imagining all these things in the forest but in reality just hunkered down for days trying to survive until he was saved by the search party? But clearly in this "who knows," a particular place or reality, Thomas sees Felix as a human. The transitions also are sudden and without explanation. There's lots of not explaining things. Still, kids who don't mind the confusion may enjoy this quirky fantasy tale.