SKETCH (2025)

Genre: Comedy/Adventure/Family
Director: Seth Worley
Cast: Tony Hale, D'Arcy Carden, Bianca Belle, Kue Lawrence, Kalon Cox, Jaxen Kenner, Randa Newman
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Frightening Scenes)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 18 September 2025

Synopsis: When a young girl's sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life—unpredictable, chaotic, and dangerously real. As the town unravels, she and her brother must track down the creatures before they leave permanent damage. Their father, racing to find them through the fallout, must navigate a town in crisis to reunite his family and stop the disaster they never meant to unleash. 

Movie Review:

We were taken aback to see Angel Studios, the production label best known for faith-based, Christian-themed titles emerge as the primary backer for Sketch. Not because the film lacks heart but because it’s not the type of project the studio usually produces.

Yet Angel Studios may have a winner on its hands. Sketch is, at its core, a fantasy children’s drama that manages to resonate even with non-faith-based audiences, delivering a wholesome and meaningful experience for the entire family.

Written and directed by Seth Worley, the story follows 9-year-old Amber (Bianca Belle) and her older brother, Jack (Kue Lawrence), who are still reeling from the recent death of their mother. Their father, Taylor (Tony Hale), is struggling to hold the family together while leaning on his sister Liz (D’Arcy Carden), a real estate agent helping him sell the family home—a convenient excuse, perhaps, to start over.

While Taylor and Jack appear to be coping, Amber withdraws into her notebooks, filling the pages with eerie drawings of monsters and strange creatures. Her teacher grows increasingly concerned. One day, Jack stumbles across a magical pond with the power to repair, restore and heal. But when Amber accidentally drops her notebook into the water, her frightening creations spring to life, terrorizing the siblings and their friends.

Despite being aimed at younger audiences, Worley never talks down to viewers. With imaginative use of CGI, Amber’s hand-drawn sketches come vividly alive from one-eyed spiders to a cookie-monster-like beast named Dave. A standout sequence sees the children trapped inside a school bus by Dave, forced to soothe the creature with calming music. It’s a clever, well-staged scene that balances humor, thrills and inventiveness.

That said, the film’s frequent jump scares may be too intense for very young children. Some of Amber’s creations, particularly a disturbing human-like figure born from her darkest thoughts, are surprisingly unsettling. The CGI stands out most in its tactile, crayon-and-marker-inspired textures, which lend the monsters a unique visual authenticity.

Beneath the monster mayhem lies a surprisingly poignant message: how do children truly cope with grief? Jack, drawn to the magical pond for reasons of his own, attempts a heartbreaking act—trying to bring back his mother using her ashes, only to be stopped by his father in time. Amber externalizes her sorrow through her drawings, but the film gently asks: what about those who seem fine on the surface? Are they really okay?

At just 92 minutes, Worley packs in a lot of charm and heart. The lively group of kids including Amber’s bully, Bowman (Kalon Cox) are consistently entertaining while the adult cast plays a quieter, supporting role, with Hale shining as a thoughtful and compassionate father. The monster-filled adventure is inventive and fun but it’s the film’s timeless, meaningful themes that leave the deepest impression.

Movie Rating:

(Imaginative monsters and grief comes together in this wondrous drama about facing your true feelings)

Review by Linus Tee