Funny, cute, scary…
Angus is a very lonely boy. He doesn’t swim with the other kids, he has a lot of chores to do and he’s got an over-protective mother. On top of this, he has declined to accept his father’s death in World War II (Naval Officer who drowned at sea). When he’s out looking for shells by the sea shore, he stumbles upon a very big, unusual rock. When he gets it home, he soon finds out that it wasn’t a rock at all, rather it was an egg. The egg hatches and Angus finds himself raising a myth, a Water Horse. While deciding how to handle the situation, his family house is taken over by the military, looking for a suitable place to watch for German submarines (their house is near The Loch in Scotland). And if that wasn’t enough to complicate their lives, Lewis Mowbray, a war sympathizer, moves in to help with the family housework, sort of like a handyman. Angus does his best to keep everyone’s nose out of his Water Horse business, but soon finds allies in Lewis and his sister. As the creature grows, they all soon realize that he may be too big for their house, but they also don’t realize that this sea creature is the perfect size for a German submarine.
For a movie that was toted as a fun-loving, kids film, it’s a lot darker than that. I can’t give you many details why, don’t want to ruin it for you, but it has its moments where you think the creature is going to get violent (it’s later, non-cute stages) and that the military is going to take things one step too far. Overall, it’s what you would expect from Walden Media. Narnia certainly wasn’t a walk in the park in terms of being kid friendly. It certainly did appeal to kids, but didn’t hide the fact that the book it was derived from was incredibly dark and violent. As with the with the Water Horse, you’ll be very enchanted and welcome your kids to watch it, as you should. It’s not a Disney movie though, so if they are not keen to a small amount of violence or scariness, then definitely shy away.
As for the actual movie, it’s a good movie, no more, no less. It starts off a bit sluggish, but picks up pace towards the middle. When the creature is introduced and you get a good feeling for it, you will certainly be driven to a bit of laughter and smiles. When Lewis Mowbray shows up, you won’t know what to think of him. He’s a strong, middle-of-the-road, character that you’ll like, but you don’t really get to know him well enough to accept his good deeds as genuine. That kind of bothered me a bit. The military does help with developing Lewis a bit, which makes it easy to see who is bad/good, but not enough to certainly see him as part of the family. As for the military, they’re a bit scary. There’s one scene in particular, and keep in mind this is a rated PG film, where some soldiers (including the nastiest of the bunch) have killed a deer. They stand with a small knife to the deer which brought a question from my five year-old about what the men were doing to the deer. It was a bit much for a younger viewer to see, but still passable. In all honesty, and this is going to sound horrible, I think they should have said more about the Water Horse and less about Angus. Movie goers could have guessed the tragedy that was Angus’s life, but we didn’t need to be told at a molasses pace about it. With that said, I love the strong connection between the creature and Angus, it’s very clear as day about their close bond. It’s very sad to see what happens at the end and touching in regards to how lonely this kid feels and how much the creature meant to his life. That’s the element that makes the film good and worth seeing.
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