How Robert Connolly crafted Alison Lester’s ‘Magic Beach’ into a big screen movie targeting pre-schoolers

A scene from 'Magic Beach'.
A scene from 'Magic Beach'.

Thirty-five years after the release of her popular children’s book, Magic Beach, author Alison Lester is finally seeing her creation come to life on the big screen. But rather than hammer the episodic story into a Disneyesque narrative, director Robert Connolly has stayed true to its spirit.

“The book doesn’t really have a story,” Lester says. “It’s just looking at a group of kids at the beach doing different things that all kids do at the beach and then, in their imaginations, taking i...