A Minecraft Movie (PG) – 101 minutes

A fantasy, adventure, comedy based on the highly successful 2011 videogame, it centres on good and evil, and a portal to other worlds.

Live action is combined with animation.

From when he was a kid, Steve wanted to go down the mines.

As an adult (played by Jack Black), he finally gets his opportunity.

There he finds two objects (the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal) that, when combined, open a window to another world.

The dimension he enters – Overworld – is one of beauty that he can help develop and that he does using easily manipulated cubes.

Steve seems to be in seventh heaven. To complete his nirvana, he befriends and tames (with a bone) a wolf, whom he names Denis.

But his peace and peace on Overworld is compromised and threatened when Steve stumbles across another portal – this time to a hellish world called the Nether.

It is ruled by a pig-like warrior, a piglin known as Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House).

Malgosha, who hates creativity and wants his multitude of workers to simply mine for gold, takes Steve hostage.

Fearing what Malgosha will do if he gets his hands on the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal, Steve gets Denis the wolf to hide them under his bed on Earth.

Then we pivot to years later and a washed-up video game champion – Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Mamoa).

He owns a failing video game store and acquires the contents of Steve’s old house at a warehouse storage auction.

Into his store walks a clever and creative young kid named Henry (Sebastian Hansen).

He has moved to town with his elder sister and legal guardian Natalie (Emma Myers), after their mother died.

Setting them up in their new home is real estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks), who also runs a mobile petting zoo.

In Garrison’s store, Henry gets his hands on the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal. When the two are combined, he finds himself transported to Overworld.

With him are Garrison, Natalie and Dawn, and it is there they meet Steve.

Adventures involving the evil piglins and other adversaries follow.

Jack Black is ideally suited to take on the pivotal role of Steve in a movie that encourages over the top antics, with some singing thrown in for good measure.

And with his larger-than-life persona, he doesn’t let us down.

While I had, of course, heard of Minecraft – the best-selling video game of all time – I have never played it.

Regardless, I thought the film, while fun and fanciful, still managed to impart some good old-fashioned values, namely the importance of family, friendship and creativity.

Alongside Black, Jason Momoa is a hoot as Garrison, a man heading nowhere until he is given an unexpected reprieve. It looks like Momoa is taking the mickey out of his usual he-man persona.

And Jennifer Coolidge keeps doing what Jennifer Coolidge does best – entertain.

In this case she plays the vice-principal of Henry’s school, who falls for the equivalent of a Lego block.

As far as the adversaries are concerned, the piglins and zombie-like creatures did it for me.

A Minecraft Movie has a young skew and delivers accordingly.

Directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), it is colourful, action packed and silly funny.

Rated PG, it scores a 6½ out of 10.