ONLY THE STRUNG SURVIVE

In January 2004, when putting this singular entertainment before the world, the Danish director Anders Rønnow-Klarlund declared that he had created "the first fully integrated marionette feature film". (Hey, where are you all going?)

Since then we have seen Team America: World Police, a puppet film which was as childish, irresponsible and potty-mouthed as Strings is humanistic, warm and open-hearted. You can probably guess which is more fun.

A glance at the poster - a robed figure holds a gleaming sword aloft - suggests that the distributors have the Star Wars demographic in their sights. And the plot does, like George Lucas's recently concluded cycle of prequels, feature another of Joseph Campbell's heroes with a thousand faces.

Before committing suicide, the emperor of the mythical realm of Hebalon writes a note urging his son to seek peace with the nation's arch-enemies, the Zeriths. Sadly, just after the glum ruler snips his head-string, his evil brother, intent on stirring up enmity between the warring tribes, sneaks in and whips the document away. The Zeriths are accused of murder and the heir to the throne, Hal Tara, sets off to exact revenge. I'd like to tell you that he doesn't meet and fall in love with a Zerith maiden, but you'd know I was lying.

Featuring all the lush close-ups and sweeping camera moves you would expect from a conventional epic, Strings was clearly a labour of love for Klarlund. He is well served by his distinguished cast of English-language voice artists, who do a decent job of making the often nonsensical dialogue sound like the sort of thing puppets might say.

And there is a lovely conceit - something Philip Pullman might enjoy - which sees the characters' strings act as their life-force and, collectively, a binding spiritual network.

But there is still something unsatisfactory about the enterprise. The combination of insufficiently distinct marionettes and unnecessarily complicated plot makes the picture infuriatingly hard to follow. And it is hard to shake the nagging feeling that little is really gained by casting the film with puppets rather than humans. Then again, we used to say that about Thunderbirds.