Robbie Williams fans have been given the first proper glimpse of one of history’s strangest biopics: a retelling of his rise to fame with the Stoke pop singer portrayed by a CGI monkey.

Better Man, due for release on Boxing Day in the UK, is directed by Michael Gracey, who helmed The Greatest Showman and turned it into a $435m-grossing, pop chart-topping hit.

His new film follows Williams – played by actor Jonno Davies via motion capture technology – as he goes from a fractious childhood to boy-band success with Take That and then solo superstardom: 11 of his 12 studio albums topped the UK charts, as did three greatest hits compilations, and he holds the record for the most Brit awards, with 13. Along the way the film reportedly doesn’t flinch from depicting his animal side, including drug problems and repellent star behaviour.

Better Man has played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, with the Guardian’s Benjamin Lee giving it a positive review at the latter. “From afar, it sounded like an intensely annoying gimmick, perhaps fitting for an entertainer who can often be intensely annoying himself, but the film … is a surprising winner,” he wrote. “It’s not only Gracey’s electric style and the central gimmick that make Better Man feel like an upgrade, it’s the disarming honesty of Williams and how he’s allowed himself to be portrayed.”

With Williams speaking in voiceover, the trailer shows off Gracey’s knack for a song-and-dance number with shots of a vast sequence under Christmas lights in London’s Regent Street – as well as a breezy, very Williams-ish attitude to bad language.

Other reviews have also been positive, with Variety writing: “Against all odds, that gimmick works, distinguishing the project from so many other cookie-cutter pop-star hagiographies … if you want to see a chimp doing coke with Oasis, or getting a fateful hand job in front of manager Nigel Martin Smith [played by Damon Herriman], this is your movie.”