"The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" (2007) - Movie Review

The adaptation of the children’s novel “The Water Horse” by Dick King-Smith could have been more of an adult oriented movie under the hands of director Jay Russell. Russell does try to make it a movie for adults some time near the end when the legendary “water horse” turns into, well a monster. But when it is destined to be for kids, there is significant tone down in the screenplay to see the compromise the director made; at least that’s what my observation stands.

The movie works as a very good kid’s entertainment and does not over touch many subjects as the “Pan’s Labyrinth” (which obviously is not for children) and “Bridge to Terabithia” does. The thing I liked in the film is that the monster named cutely as “Crusoe” by the young Angus McMarow (Alex Etel) behaves as one and does not become a pet that develop cognizance as that of humans. This makes the film a reasonable movie gauging the audience even the young ones to be intelligent and at certain level provides a fundamental good time for the parents who will be accommodating them.

As narrated by Brian Cox as some one you can guess and an obvious answer to couple of young tourists (Nathan Christopher Haase and Megan Katharine) about the legend of the Monster in the lakes. In his story young Angus misses his father who has gone to World War – II and his mom Anne (Emily Watson) knows that is not going to return. Angus spends his time in the work shop his dad spent during their small conversations. As a dull kid, he finds an egg shell from the lake shores of Loch Ness (I assume since the film happens in Scotland). He is curious and finds a small creature hatching out of it, a hybrid of the body of a seal with a face of a Diplodocus. Now he blindly does not go about making friends with him. He is curious and goes to refer the encyclopedia but does not find much information about the creature.

The kid finds comfort in talking to this cute animal which multiplies in its size to the proportion of food and water in take in very limited time. As the Scottish war troops camp outside under the command of Captain Hamilton (David Morrisey) who fights for the love of Anne along with the newly appointed house keeper Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin).

Alex Etel who is famous in his “Millions” carries on his angelic face of naivety and innocence very well in to the Angus. Among many kid’s noise, I watched the film and it managed to keep me staring at the screen than a kid spilling his popcorn all over the place and then a kind assistance from his grandmother (well looks like I did get all the details in it). But there were some scary scenes in the sense of kid’s point of view but I guess that’s where Parental Guidance comes in.

The graphics of the animal is instrumental in the chemistry between Angus and it. It especially works a great deal when the eyes of Crusoe are used as depiction of its state of mind. The demise of a children’s movie is that a kid with a out of place character as a secrecy is the behaviour of that character in this case the water horse to be easily friendly and expressing human natured accommodation with no difficulty. In this Crusoe remains as the creature that is unpredictable till the end with of course the attachment to Angus being developed.

Director Jay Russell does not loose around on many occasions. He does not use the war front or Anne’s eagerness for a new man in her life in much deal since the focus always remains on Angus to explore his frontier along with Crusoe. His sister Kirstie (Priyanka Xi) also stands as a character than a bigger part of interaction in it and is rightly to be like that when the film moves on Angus. With again everything in very minimal but right proportion of comedy by the cook and a form of villain in Captain Hamilton and one of his soldiers, “The Water Horse” is a perfect movie for kids and a mild entertainment for adults.