Sketch: A Family Fantasy About Art, Fear, and Courage

August 18, 2025

By Bessy ADUT

Recently, I watched Jurassic Park and Naked Gun, but my heart whispered to me to write about a very underrated gem instead, the new family film, Sketch. This is one of the best family movies I have seen in a while, and I wouldn’t even have heard about it if a co-worker hadn’t mentioned it in a random chat. I got curious, wanted to see a comedy fantasy, and it didn’t disappoint.

A Hidden Gem of 2024

Directed by Seth Worley, the film stars Tony Hale and D’Arcy Carden. It premiered this August and has already received positive reviews, including mine. I know Carden from The Good Place and Hale from many shows and films, and together they create a funny yet believable brother and sister dynamic. The child actors are also excellent. Bianca Belle as Amber Wyatt, Kue Lawrence as Jack Wyatt, and Kalon Cox as Bowman Lynch shine with great chemistry.

Cast and crew of Sketch at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival

Cast and crew of Sketch at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival

The story begins in a child therapist’s office, where Amber’s disturbing sketches are being discussed. After losing her mom, Amber’s dad tells her, "You can’t help what comes into your inbox, but you can control your outbox." They agree that her drawings are a way of self-expression and help her cope with grief. This is a strong premise right from the start, encouraging children to use their artistic expression to deal with feelings.

Amber is an aspiring artist, while her brother Jack is into games and hikes. Meanwhile, their father Taylor is a widower trying to sell his house with the help of his real estate agent sister Liz. One day, while walking in the woods, Jack breaks his phone at a nearby pond, and to his surprise, it magically repairs itself, along with an injury on his hand. Jack continues to experiment with the pond’s powers. Amber becomes suspicious, follows him, and accidentally drops her sketchbook full of monsters into the pond. She manages to save the notebook, but it is ruined, and the drawings are gone.

The next day, strange bird droppings appear on their window. Jack worries that Amber’s monsters came to life after the notebook had fallen into the pond. He tries to warn his dad before school, but Taylor ignores him. However, Jack’s fears turn out to be true. The monsters begin to haunt the town.

Sketch

These are all original, creative, and unique monsters, which I personally appreciated as someone who is a little tired of endless vampire, zombie, and Frankenstein movies. At least this time, the monsters come straight from imagination. One of Amber’s self-portrait monsters steals markers and sketchbooks from a store. Later, when the kids are on the school bus, a big monster attacks. Amber tells them to play soothing jazz music to put it to sleep, and the plan works until the next song, a heavy metal track, wakes the monster back up. They all run away.

Monsters from Imagination

Their classmate Bowman joins Amber and Jack, and together they form a little team. The siblings realize they must use the pond to animate weapons and allies to help them fight the monsters. They return home, which has been heavily damaged and looted by eyeders, and begin sketching. After fighting off a wave of monsters, the three friends head back to the pond. Jack sneaks in his mother’s ashes, hoping to bring her back to life. Soon, they discover Amber’s self-portrait monster is sketching more monsters using the stolen supplies.

Sketch

Bowman tries to kill it, but is overwhelmed. The siblings save him with their animated weapons and creatures. They then battle the remaining monsters in town. One of the coolest details was when Amber inked her arms, which transformed into spider arms like tattoos coming to life. Watching her fight strongly and bravely was wonderful. Her brother also fought courageously. Together they gathered strength and braved the storm of monsters.

In the end, Amber and Jack reunite with their father and Liz. Taylor tells Jack not to throw his mother’s ashes into the pond, but unfortunately the ashes had already been lost through a hole in the wooden urn. They return home to resume their ordinary lives, just like in a hero’s journey. Empowered, wiser, and back to normal.

Sketch

Bessy’s Subtext Reading

I haven’t done much subtext reading since film school back home, but I am tempted to start having a special section for it. I always like exploring what’s underneath the surface. We only see the top of the iceberg.

I believe the monsters represent the fears we create in our minds. They can be our anxieties and our darkest thoughts. Some people have more of them, some have less, but we all face them to a certain degree. Using writing or art as self-expression is a great way to deal with those fears. Just as we sometimes create problems in our own minds, we can also use the same imagination to fight them off. Imagination and artistic talent, when used together, are very powerful tools.

There is also a moment in the movie where Taylor’s sister points out that he never talks about his late wife, which is not healthy. This reminded me of the psychological concept called the return of the repressed. The more we suppress thoughts and feelings, the stronger they come back, and not always in pleasant ways. I am a firm believer in expressing our thoughts and feelings, letting them out of our system. The kids in the movie are doing the right thing by being given freedom of expression.

I also appreciated how the kids stay kids. Amber turns down a date invitation, and even in her gala photos she is dressed as a child. That was refreshing. Childhood should be fully experienced because it only happens once.

The deeper message is clear. We all wish for something magical to make our problems disappear. However, things rarely turn out that way. Still, there is usually a solution to most problems, and we should not despair. Sometimes music can be the solution, or becoming stronger versions of ourselves, or uniting with others. Coming together to fight the monsters is what we can do. Sometimes we manifest our fears instead of our hopes. But we have the power to fight our fears and create our dreams instead.

Sketch

Final Notes

At the end, there is even a mention of a Sketch app that turns drawings into animations. If you have kids, I recommend trying it. It looked delightful.

See you next time, my dear readers. Farewell until then. Feel free to contact me at [email protected], on Instagram @bessyadutofficial, or Twitter @bessyadut. I would love to hear from you.

29 April

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Sketch: A Family Fantasy About Art, Fear, and Courage

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