Young Lee was eager to become a big brother, so the miscarriage hit him hard. Unfortunately, his programmer parents, Addy and Kyle, took it even harder. They were developing a breakthrough VR world, but they lost their creative drive after losing the baby. Frankly, despite his constant truancy, Bran processes his grief more productively, compulsively drawing his own personal fantasy world, where he imagines encounters with Gnomly, who happens to be an elf.
Fans of Wen’s novel will enjoy seeing the genesis of Gnomly and the Vale world. Conversely, for newcomers, it is a rather downbeat, depressing story. Yes, it shows how sorrow can be channeled into something positive. However, the overwhelming majority of the film takes place during the depth of the Lee family’s grief.
