Four Kids and It

Four Kids and It is a 2020 British fantasy film directed by Andy De Emmony, with a screenplay by Simon Lewis and Mark Oswin. The story adapts Jacqueline Wilson's 2012 novel Four Children and It, which itself draws from E. Nesbit's 1902 book Five Children and It. The cast includes Paula Patton, Matthew Goode, Russell Brand, and Michael Caine voicing the Psammead.

Plot

The plot follows siblings Ros and Robbie, who are vacationing with their father David, his girlfriend Alice, and Alice's American daughters Samantha and Maudie at a beach in Cornwall. Initially at odds, the children bond after discovering a magical creature called the Psammead, or Sand Fairy, which grants one wish per day that ends at sunset. Their first wish sends them back to 1912, where they encounter the aristocratic Tristan Trent, who threatens Ros for information about the fairy. The other children wish for superpowers to rescue her.

They later travel to the past again to learn how to make a wish permanent, but fail. Back in the present, Tristan Trent III plots to exploit the Psammead, tracking it via a device on Ros's shoe. The children trap him on the beach, then hide the Psammead in their bathroom. Tristan escapes, however, and captures the creature.

At his mansion, the children find Tristan has made numerous wishes—including a plush pad, purple henchwomen, and a row of Range Rovers—weakening the Psammead. Holding the children hostage, Tristan forces the Psammead to grant one final wish: a hoard of gold. The wish floods the mansion with gold, collapsing it. Believing the Psammead dead, the children mourn, but Maudie revives it with sand from her shoe.

On their last vacation day, Ros wishes for an app that returns families to normal. Tristan, having escaped, tracks them again, but David punches him and calls the police. Ros, accepting Alice and her stepsisters as family, wishes the Psammead to sleep for 100 years, and the children say goodbye as it enters dormancy. In a mid-credits scene, Ros publishes a book titled The Return of the Psammead and signs copies at a bookstore.