REVIEWED - LASSIE: JUST as Peter Jackson sets King Kong in 1933, the year the original was released, writer-director Charles Sturridge returns Lassie to her roots, setting his film in the late 1930s, around the time the popular collie first appeared in a short story in the Saturday Evening Post.

Sturridge's film is such a traditional back-to-basics treatment that he uses a real dog (with back-up from two other collies) in the leading role, and there isn't a computer-generated animal in sight.

This time Lassie is the adored pet of Joe (Jonathan Mason), a shy young Yorkshire boy, the only child of a salt-of-the-earth miner (John Lynch) and his plain-speaking wife (Samantha Morton). The shadow of war is looming, the local mine closes, and Joe's parents reluctantly agree to sell Lassie to the imperious but essentially good-natured Duke of Rudling (played with relish by Peter O'Toole) who wants the dog for his young granddaughter (Hester Odgers).

When Lassie finds herself in the northern tip of Scotland, she escapes and embarks on a long journey home, undergoing a series of adventures with humans along the way, some of them more benevolent than others, such as A travelling puppeteer played by Peter Dinklage from The Station Agent.

The prologue involving a foxhunt demonstrates the fate that awaits people behaving cruelly towards animals, and several others get the comeuppance they deserve as Lassie comes home.

Animal lovers and children alike should enjoy this appealing entertainment, which is old-fashioned in the best sense of the word, and bolstered by a winning cast, JP Kelly's impressive production design and Adrian Johnston's lovely, upbeat orchestral score.

The film was shot in Ireland and the Isle of Man last summer.