Fleek (2025) | Children's International Film Festival
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https://www.chiff.com.au/films/fleak
Date Reviewed: 08/06/2025
Fleek is a 2025 children's animated Finnish film, directed by Jens Møller, featuring Owen de la Hoyde. It follows the story of Thomas, a younger brother of three with a love of basketball, who is struck with tragedy when a fall claims the mobility of his legs, encouraging an encounter with an interdimensional creature called Fleek. The film comfortably sits in the family/adventure genre and is currently being screened at the 2025 Children’s International Film Festival.
The story finds Thomas struggling with rehabilitation after his accident. We see how this young boy copes with his new disability and his escapist adventures into a very Jack Kirby inspired alternative dimension, host to colourful scenery, imagery and characters. All of which is a backdrop for a layered story about disability and coming to terms with it.
The thematic throughline of the story is isolation, resentment and acceptance. Fleek utilises a unique and creative visual personification of these themes which makes for a compelling narrative device. I think it is a great tool to depict these complex emotions and ideas to children. The film also explores themes of isolation and acceptance through the strong dynamic of Thomas and his siblings, who I believe are standouts in the film.The thematic engine of the story, its actual premise, is the film's strongest component. I really fell in love with Fleek’s analogy of grief and resentment and how this film was trying to communicate the importance of self-acceptance. I connected with that. As I did with the voice cast, the three siblings, Thomas, Miki and Ceci, have splendid chemistry and play off each other super well, so much so that I believe they out-shined the adult and extra supporting class.
The story has solid beats and well done animation, if slightly over-animated, with certain characters being over-expressive in spite of their reserved characterisation, namely Jack. The audio design is extremely well done, most notably on Fleek. A little easter egg I liked and wish to point out, is that a character called, ‘The Great Entity’ is voiced by all members of the cast, very cool.
As for the weaknesses of the film, I believe the addition of Fleek himself and the alternative dimension the film takes place in is potentially its biggest fault. The character of Fleek is a bit generic, evoking other popular comedic ‘gimmick’ creatures in children's media, i.e the Minions, Stitch and (though less child friendly) Crazy Frog. He and his supporting cast do not stand out, they actively feel tacked on and the spiritual elements of the film don’t feel fleshed out enough to be relevant outside of providing context for the ‘Shadow-self’ analogy.
Outside of that, the music I feel is wholly detracting, it sometimes feels cheap and other times cringe inducing, all of which to say, I think a different focus of tone and music would suit the film better. Finally I believe the film could have benefited from some pacing changes (it felt like the film went a bit too quickly in places) and further emphasising the family unit and Thomas struggles with his newfound disability (as I believe it is the strongest part of the film).
Its strengths make it worth watching, it has great appeal to kids and I think that it is a film that can make particular children feel seen and understood, which is what this medium is all about. It is worth the time you give it, even though I feel that for a more discerning audience, it has a lot it could improve on.