Hi, everyone. First time here. I hope I’m not doing anything wrong, I got a lot of details about this movie, I believe.
I am pretty much sure the title of the movie is the name of the creatures and it ends with “-ies”.
I saw this mediocre and banal children movie when I was in 4th, 5th or even 6th grade on TV, so in 2007 to 2009. The budget seemed okay for a TV movie, it did not seem very obscure because I remember the channel advertising its run the same day, it must have been a 2000’s production, maybe late 90’s at the very least. The movie was dubbed so I don’t know its nationality, but it seemed to take place in a forest town, a pine/conifer forest,maybe a North-American setting, though this impression may have been influenced by subsequent movies I’ve seen taking place in North America.
The plot is about a small boy, he’s like 5 or 6, he’s moving into this forest town and he discovers the cute little furry creatures that live under the trees, they’re like the same size as he, they must have been simple animatronics, I think they moved mechanically but maybe these were costumes. The creatures were said to be protectors of trees or some thing, they have some tools and I think their houses were a bit furnished so they’re a bit intelligent but the creatures don’t talk, I think.
But then, there are the lumberjack bad guys who want to cut down trees to make a profit or something and so they set their eyes unto the creatures’ trees, and the child hero tries to convince his new friend the sherif or police officer to stop them because cutting trees is wrong, but he can’t stop the bad guys because, and this petty excuse stayed with me, “they’re nobody’s trees, they’re not owned” - I’m not quoting verbati/ - so they have the right to cut them, and at the end when all hope seemed lost and the boy decided to stay with the creatures under the trees while the bad guys were cutting them, the cop suddenly shows up and arrests them because “well actually, they’re somebody’s trees, sorry guys”, the implied somebody being the cute little creatures. And then the boy’s guardian/uncle//father arrives at the scene, the person who’s supposed to care for him and wouldn’t listen to him for some reason until the end, I remember him kneeling and he confesses that he’s known about the creatures for 5 years or so. And they lived happily ever after. THE END
I hope that was enough details. And thank you in advance for your help if you can name it. 