Hans Christian Andersen’s story of beast becoming beauty is probably the best-known fairy tale to escape Disney’s grasp, and given the slenderness of the plot, that’s probably fair. The feather-light story - duckling’s born, bullied, realises it’s a beautiful swan, sticks up two fingers at everyone - means more is needed to fill 90 minutes, in this case a rat who tries to make the cygnet a carnival attraction.
Young children will find the easy moralising comfortingly familiar, and the CGI is fine. Still, this mediocre stab is like choosing carob over chocolate: faintly depressing and fooling nobody.