The word “Elf” conjures many images from a wide range of cultures and folklore. From the elven stories of fantasy tales, to the elves at Santa's workshop, it's a well trodden trope of global culture. As such, it should be no surprise that a film franchise based on helpful elves has grown in popularity, and after the success of 2019's The Elfkins – Baking a Difference, now The Super Elfkins has arrived in cinemas.

The Super Elfkins follows the story of Elfie and her fellow Elfkins as they attempt to help humans in need of assistance, by secretly performing tasks for them, while a police investigator and her cat begin trying to prove the existence of the Elfkin. However, Elfie discovers a previously unknown clan of Elfkins, the titular Super Elfkins, who have a more technological approach and less empathy towards human beings. Enamoured with their methods, Elfie joins them, but as events escalate Elfie finds that she must try to bring together both clans of Elfkins into one big family, as they share more in common than they originally believe.

If the plot of The Super Elfkins sounds particularly saccharine, that's because it truly embodies that description. The events and incidents within the film are tedious and clumsily stuck together, the plot is paper thin and the characters are largely unrelatable. From an adult perspective the film feels like a mess. This may be somewhat due to certain themes and ideas being lost in translation from the original German dialogue, or it could just as easily be conceptually quite shallow. That said, there are enough action set pieces, songs and moments of bonding between the Elfkins from both clans that make the film likely to hold the attention of younger viewers even if it offers very little of interest to an older audience. The Super Elfkins is very much a film that feels like it was made without depth or artistic merit in mind. However, as a piece of content designed to keep children entertained, it certainly fulfils that criteria to some degree.

The animation looks very slick, and it's a story that is sure to sell a lot of merchandise, but the film itself doesn't have a huge amount to hang it's hat upon. The voice cast is adequate, and The Super Elfkins is sure to appeal to young children, but it is nowhere near on the level of nuance or layers of contemporary animated films produced by the likes of Disney et al. This might suffice for a rainy afternoon, but it is not a film worth seeking out specifically.