‘IT’S A BOY!’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

A Quails’ Quest to Save Baby Jesus

This has to be better than ‘The Star’ 2017 film! 😀

Around December 2006, my Dad put on ‘It’s a Boy!’ in our home DVD player. It took me a short while to realise that this was a kiddies CGI version of the Nativity story told from the point of view of three quails seeking to save Baby Jesus. Nowadays, my parents watch this mostly every Christmas time. 😀

I like ‘It’s a Boy!’ It gets across the Christmas message very well in terms of how the Baby Jesus was given to us as a gift to save us from our sins. Yes, the CGI animation isn’t that great, but that doesn’t matter as far as I’m concerned, since it holds up quite well and the voice cast of characters are good.

The story of ‘It’s a Boy!’ features Tommy, Bobby and Queenie who are quails that seek to find a decent breakfast. In fact, that’s how the short film starts with them trying to find breakfast. They receive breakfast from the Virgin Mary, who has a visit from the Angel Gabriel telling her good news.

Mary is to give birth to a son and she’s to give him the name Jesus. As the three quails overhear the news, they’re soon caught in a basket and are put in a cage at King Herod’s court, ready to be served up as the main course at a royal banquet. Quails were considered to be delicacies in biblical times. 😐

As the three quails tend to quarrel with each other a lot in the short film, King Herod receives a visit from the three Wise Men, who tell them they’re looking for a new king. The quails overhear Herod’s desire to have the baby killed and they become determined to save the Baby Jesus from any harm. 🙂

Despite it being a 29 minute film, ‘It’s a Boy!’ manages to get a lot of the Nativity story in, including the scenes where Mary and Joseph try to find room in Bethlehem and they end up in a stable. It’s also nice that the film emphasises how God knows what he’s doing and that the Baby Jesus is safe. 🙂

It’s actually amusing that the quails Tommy, Bobby and Queenie are unaware of God’s plan and no matter what they do to try and save the Baby Jesus, God has it in hand. In some respects, ‘It’s a Boy!’ is a nice way to introduce the Nativity story to those who haven’t come across it before in their lives.

I recall ‘It’s a Boy!’ being presented to kids at a local Sunday church service once on Christmas Eve. In fact, I believe it was in the same year my Dad purchased ‘It’s a Boy!’ for my parents and me to enjoy on DVD. I’m amazed my Dad got this a year after ‘It’s a Boy!’ was released for home release in 2005.

Mind you, despite the praise I give to ‘It’s a Boy!’, I can’t deny there’s humour featured in the short film that can be considered…well, silly. The quarrelling between the three quails is an example as well as that cartoonish interpretation of King Herod and the cartoonish impression of the innkeeper.

The humour aspects of ‘It’s a Boy!’ are also attributed to the casting of Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball (also known as Cannon and Ball) who voiced the two quails Tommy and Bobby (So they’re playing themselves. Ha, ha, very funny! 😀 ). I haven’t across Cannon and Ball very often in my life. 😐

It’s interesting that Cannon and Ball were Christians when they participated in providing the voices for their quail characters in ‘It’s a Boy!’ So it’s understandable how and why they became involved in this production. I’m saddened to learn that Bobby Ball passed away in October 2020 due to Covid. 😦

I enjoyed Cannon and Ball voicing Tommy and Bobby the quails. They’re the comedic double act that get on Queenie’s nerves. Queenie is voiced by Alexa Tewkesbury, who also wrote the screenplay for ‘It’s a Boy!’ alongside her husband Julian Tewkesbury who directed the film. So, it’s a family project?

Queenie is like the referee between Tommy and Bobby. I would’ve liked it if more friendship was depicted between the three quails instead of them just bickering with each other. I did like it when Queenie was thankful for the Baby Jesus being born, as she wanted to see more of him in the stable.

King Herod is voiced by Steven Berkoff. I’ve come across Steven Berkoff twice in my life, including ‘It’s a Boy!’ and a ‘Doctor Who’ episode with Matt Smith called ‘The Power of Three’. I know this is a kids’ film, but King Herod does come across as two-dimensional when he’s being menacing and such.

Other adaptations of the Nativity like ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ and ‘The Nativity Story’ 2006 film present Herod as someone intimidating and you can see why he wanted Baby Jesus killed in order to preserve his reign to his throne. Here, Herod seems too nasty to convey the depth of his personality.

Joe Pasquale voices the innkeeper called Garralus, who owns the stable that Mary and Joseph stay in. Like Steven Berkoff, I’ve come across Joe Pasquale twice in my life. This includes both this and Series 2 of ‘Sugar Free Farm’ on ITV1, which also had Peter Davison in it. The innkeeper can be overly comedic.

Now I appreciate Joe Pasquale is a funny comedian and he can deliver comedic lines well enough, but the innkeeper is often depicted as the selfish and rude one – a bit like Basil Fawlty now I think about it. He’s often told off by his wife Rachel (also voiced by Alexa Tewkesbury in the short film 😀 ).

Also, the business of Garralus pointing out the fact that the stable’s full of poo is rather overdone in my opinion. It’s done right up to the point where Garralus even suggests removing the incense in his inn with dollops of poo. Maybe I’m over-thinking it, but again this is a kids’ film we’re talking about.

Mary and Joseph are voiced by David and Jessica Oyelowo (and yes, I’ve checked they’re a married couple in real-life). David Oyelowo has done quite a number of films in his life including ‘Peter Rabbit 2’ and the 2019 short film ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. And both David and Jessica are Christians. 🙂

You can tell that there are a lot of Christian influences featured throughout the film by some of the people who made it as well as those who perform as characters. As well as Cannon & Ball and David and Jessica Oyelowo, the Christian drama group Riding Light Theatre Company are involved in this. 🙂

The film also features Russell Boutler as the Angel Gabriel and Graham Cole as the first inn-keeper Mary and Joseph come across in Bethlehem. I’m surprised Graham Cole is involved in this short film, since he played the Melkur in one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stories called ‘The Keeper of Traken’.

He also played uncredited roles in ‘Shada’, ‘The Leisure Hive’, ‘Full Circle’, ‘Kinda’, ‘Earthshock’, ‘Time-Flight’, ‘The Five Doctors’, ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ and ‘The Twin Dilemma’. He also played characters in the Big Finish audios ‘The Guardians of Prophecy’. Incredible what you find out, isn’t it?

The film also features the Shepherds and the three Wise Men voiced by Paul Birch, Mark Payton and Kelvin Goodspeed. I’ve got to give credit to those three guys voicing the Shepherds and the three Wise Men in this film. But then, Zippy, George and Rod did the same thing for ‘Rainbow’s Nativity. 😀

I mustn’t forget the action scene of Tommy, Bobby and Queenie escaping King Herod’s court from the evil-looking raven that might try to get at them as they escape. It helps to make the story more exciting when the quails are trying to get away in order to get to Bethlehem before the Wise Men. 🙂

And of course, the film features the song ‘It’s a Boy!’ performed by Sir Cliff Richard himself, accompanied by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The song is sung in the film’s end credits, but the instrumental gets played in the opening credits and there are cues in certain scenes.

Whether you Play All or not, there’s a bonus feature which happens to be a seven-minute video about ‘Operation Christmas Child’. I’m sure it’s been over 15 years since that video was made, but ‘Operation Christmas Child’ still remains strong to this day, which you can find via this website here.

‘It’s a Boy!’ is a charming little film about the Nativity story told from the viewpoint of three quails. It’s nice to have in your Christmas collection of films, especially when you’re revisiting the true meaning of Christmas about the Baby Jesus who was born in a stable to save our lives from our sins.

The comedic aspects of the film can be a little overdone, especially with the performances of Cannon and Ball involved as well as Steven Berkoff and Joe Pasquale, but there’s clearly love involved with the making of this film and the point does get across in what the true meaning of Christmas is about.

I highly recommend purchasing this film to spend a pleasant half an hour to.

Merry Christmas everyone! 🙂

‘It’s a Boy’ rating – 8/10

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