Metacritic reviews

The setting, with many of the same locations from the first film, is used effectively; the peaceful, bucolic beauty of the countryside contrasts with the war news and underscoring the children’s adaptability and resolve.

Effectively piling nostalgia upon nostalgia upon nostalgia into a triple-layered Victorian sponge of particularly English sweetness, this good-natured, resolutely old-fashioned film will likely make any adults who grew up on Jeffries’ original a little misty-eyed.

The Railway Children Return is part-sequel, part-remake, with a carefully selected smattering of callbacks for the fans.

Perhaps not as heart-warming or charming as the first film, The Railway Children Return is engaging and entertaining in different ways, winningly played by its fresh cast.

The new film is a plodding affair, characterised more by fastidious set dressing than by narrative tension.

It’s all perfectly inoffensive kids’ entertainment, but aside from the well-meaning but slightly jarring BLM messaging, it’s ploddingly predictable stuff.

Decency prevails in a somewhat ludicrous finale involving an army of children and a train containing a high-ranking officer. It’s an ending so tidy as to undercut the effort to broach a shameful side to the American war effort.

Ultimately, Railway Children struggles a bit in balancing its tone and grand ambitions. However, for those looking for a sweet story about the power of friendship and childlike willfulness, this movie just might win them over.

As a feature, it all feels very rushed and dramatically inert, with the outcome of Abe’s predicament visible from many, many miles off.

It’s all harmless enough, and a lovely Yorkshire travelogue if nothing else.