But it's still a cut above the majority of family
entertainment, and director Paul King, who got his start helming the surreal cult comedy series The Mighty Boosh,
continues to prove himself a confident and comparatively sophisticated stylist, employing cutaway sets, Rube Goldberg slapstick, animated sequences in different styles, and loads of visual gags to create the film's dollhouse - storybook world; the aesthetic influence of Wes Anderson is especially pronounced in the
scenes set at the prison, where an early mishap involving a red sock and the prison laundry dyes the convicts» uniforms a Grand Budapest Hotel shade of lavender pink.