The Magic Faraway Tree: New Zealand trailer and release date
Enid Blyton’s beloved kids’ series gets the big screen treatment in this star-studded adaptation.
The Paddington movies have become a genuine cinematic institution, beloved by audiences and critics alike, so it makes sense that we’d be getting a few more adaptations drawn from the vast repository that is British children’s literature. And one of the first pebbles in what may prove to be a tsunami of such movies is this take on Enid Blyton’s delightfully weird kids’ series of the same name.
When is The Magic Faraway Tree being released in New Zealand?
The Magic Faraway Tree is screening exclusively in New Zealand cinemas from March 26, 2026.
What is The Magic Faraway Tree about?
Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Paddington scribe Simon Farnaby, The Magic Faraway Tree sees the children of the Thompson family, bored out of their minds after moving to the countryside with their well-meaning parents, discover that the woods near their new home is enchanted, and populated by all manner of weird (but generally benign) creatures. Also in the woods is the titular tree, a kind of nursery rhyme Yggdrasil that towers into the sky and connects a variety of magical lands—a perfect place for a trio of curious kids to explore.
So far plot details are a bit thin. The books themselves are aimed at very young children (this is Blyton, not Tolkien) and don’t really run on narrative logic, but that’s the gist.
The cast of The Magic Faraway Tree
We’ve got one of those massive, star-studded casts on hand here, with Claire Foy as mum Polly Thompson; Andrew Garfield as dad Tim Thompson; Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Billie Gadsdon, and Phoenix Laroche as their kids, Beth, Fran, and Joe Thompson; Jennifer Saunders as Grandma Thompson; Nicola Coughlan as Silky; Nonso Anozie as Moonface; Jessica Gunning as Dame Washalot; Dustin Demri-Burns as the Saucepan Man; Mark Heap as Mr. Oom Boom Boom; Oliver Chris as Mr. Watzisname; Rebecca Ferguson as Dame Snap; plus Lenny Henry, Michael Palin, and Simon Russell Beale in unspecified roles.
The Magic Faraway Tree trailer
Why we’re excited about The Magic Faraway Tree
It certainly looks charming and the cast is fantastic. The trick will be wrangling the source material into something that will appeal to the whole family and not just the preschool set. But Farnaby managed to do that for everyone’s favourite marmalade-guzzling bear, so there’s nothing to say that he can’t do it again here.
