Contrary to what reviews have to say about the movie version of "the Hobbit", the film adaptation of Julia Donaldson's "Room on The Broom" is said to have "stayed true to the book."

Peter Jackson's film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit" received much criticism for straying too far away from the novel with the extra special effects. However, Julia Donaldson's "Room on The Broom" which has now been made into a BBC's specially commissioned Christmas Day film faced no similar fate. The children's laureate is happy with the way BBC has projected the book in the film.

"What is so lovely about the film is the way they have kept true to the story and the look of the book," Donaldson told the Observer. "My books are poems really and to my mind are a fixed entity."

Max Lang, the director of "Room on the Broom" says sticking to the visuals in the book was crucial, one of the reason's being he is a avid fan of Donaldson's illustrator Axel Scheffler . "I have loved Axel's drawings forever. Even before I knew who drew them, I liked the style and how funny they were," said Lang.

"Axel's illustrations are deliberately 2D," said producer Michael Rose, of Magic Light Pictures. "The images are flat, but there is a very tactile quality to the film. You feel you can touch the sets, which is important to me."

The popular children's book tells the story of a witch, a broomstick and a jealous cat. Voices for the half-hour animated film have been provided by voices provided by David Walliams, Gillian Anderson, Sally Hawkins, Simon Pegg, Timothy Spall, Martin Clunes and Rob Brydon.

"Each character has very few words but that actually means it is more important that we have a great performance," said Rose.