A favourite story of mine for very many years this translation into a TV movie is sensitively and accurately adapted, much of the dialogue is exactly as Gerald Durrell wrote it. If only the TV writers, producers, directors would do as well with so many other sadly failing efforts! The actors in this are very well chosen and give faithful and often understated performances. In particular the lad playing Gerald is very good indeed, but I only single him out from a splendid ensemble effort because of his youth. If I had to make a criticism it would be that the character of Spiro was somewhat more restrained than I had envisaged from the book. All in all, a little gem. It was screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Sunday 8th. April 2007.

It is a pity that this was made for television only, as it would have been an excellent movie release.

It is an excellent adaptation of the book (of the same name) by Gerald Durrell, and accounts the youthful exploits of the extremely talented Durrell family during their stay in Corfu after their father's death. The story is told through the eyes of the 12 year old budding Zoologist Gerrald Durrell in the backdrop to the outbreak of the second world war.

The characters are well portrayed and realistic, and the script manages to keep in the light-hearted humour and comedy from the book. Altogether a highly recommended movie for all the family.

I was very nervous about this, as My Family and Other Animals was one of my favourite books from my childhood. But this adaptation is pretty good and very faithful to the book Matthew Goode and Imelda Staunton in particular are really good as Larry and Mother. While Mother is played as a little more like the rest of her family (quirky) rather than the slightly more laid back version in the book, I think it works very well. Omid Djalili's Spiro was a little too 'normal,' but still pretty good.

The only really annoying thing about the film was the soundtrack. It was very intrusive and loud, and didn't fit the tone of the film at all. After looking through the other reviews it seems people either absolutely love it, or really hate it. It certainly is very prominent in the film; sometimes dialogue is barely able to be heard.