[DVD Review R2] THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP
One of my favourite things to receive in the post are check discs for movies. The chance to see, for free, a movie either I have been looking forward to seeing or even one that normally wouldn’t even cross my mind to watch, as a huge movie fan, is wonderful for me and it’s one of the biggest advantages to running this little site! And every once in a while I get a “Family Movie” which I can watch with my girls, giving me the chance to not only review a movie but also spend some time with my daughters.
Which dovetails quite nicely with The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep. Strangely enough, it was only a couple of weeks before it dropped on my doormat that I had downloaded the trailer from the PSN which I had shown to my wife. At the time of watching the trailer we both thought that it would be a good movie to watch with our daughters. But before we get into that side of it, let me tell you a little bit about the movie.
The Water Horse is set in 194?, and tells the tale of a young Scottish boy, Angus, who one day, while visiting the beach with his mother, comes across a strange looking rock. Taking it home with him to the old manor house on the shores of a Scottish loch where his mother is the house keeper he keeps it in his fathers old work shed, which is his favourite place to be while his father is away at sea fighting the Germans.
It’s not long before the “rock” hatches and out of it emerges a Water Horse, and a group of British soldiers arrive at the estate that Angus’ mother is looking after while the owners are away. The soldiers are there because they believe that the Germans could attack England by entering Scotland via the loch as it joins onto the sea leaving Angus, his sister and the new groundskeeper, Lewis Mowbray, to try and keep Crusoe (as Angus christens the Water Horse) safe and secret.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that The Water Horse is set in Loch Ness, and that Crusoe himself is the source of the “Nessie” legend and the story of Crusoe and Angus is told to a pair of tourists, and the audience, by an old man, played by Brian Cox, in a pub on the shore of the loch. And it’s this that gives the movie a lot of it’s magic. The conviction in Brian Cox’s performance, and the character of Angus as played by Alex Etel, make the movie almost believable. Throughout the movie you care about Angus, especially in the moments he is praying for the safe return of his father (and again, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out his fathers fate), and it’s through Angus that we come to care about Crusoe. Yes, when the Water Horse first hatches it’s a cute little thing, but it’s still a CGI creation and sometimes it really is hard to care about them! But with the wonderful performance of Alex Etel, his affection for Crusoe rubs off on you nearly straight away.
The rest of the cast do a superb job as well. Emily Watson, who plays Angus’ mother, and Ben Chaplin as Mowbray, are both superb on screen and you really feel for Emily Watson’s character as she tries to keep her children safe from harm and upset and Mowbray, who starts the film as a pretty unsympathetic character, soon changes into someone you care more about.
Which is also true for the character of Captain Hamilton as played by David Morrissey. When he first appears in the movie he is a pompous ass, but by the end of the movie he has changed, and been changed by the presence of Angus, Crusoe and Angus’ mother. But it doesn’t seem out of character when the change happens. Unexpected, yes, but not out of character.
Crusoe himself has been created for the movie by WETA, and we’re all aware of the fine work that they are capable of and I am happy to say that the realisation of Crusoe, and his interaction with the environment and the physical characters in the movie, is nothing short of superb. Yes, you are fully aware that it is a CGI beast but not in the way that could detract from the movie.
Now, apart from the superb performances by the cast, the excellent direction by Jay Russell or the fabulous work of WETA, this isn’t a perfect family movie.
Why is that you may be wondering? I mean, I’ve given it a glowing review so far, haven’t I? Well, you see, the problem is that although this is a “Family Movie” I am very glad that my wife and I decided to watch this without our daughters the first time. Y’see, it’s not suitable for very young children. Now, is that a problem? It is a PG after all, right? Well, yes and no. The trailer, when we saw it, didn’t give any indication that the movie and Crusoe himself, becomes a little scary towards the end and I do feel that very young children might be scared by what is happening. Has that stopped me from letting my girls watch it at the moment? Yes. But at the same time, once they are a little older, I will be more than happy to sit down with them on one of our “Film Nights” and watch it with them. But I think it’s more suitable for 8 or 9 year olds than 4 or 5 year olds. Not a huge problem, I agree, but it is something to consider if you have a family.
Special Features
- Deleted Scenes: 8 deleted scenes, none of which would really have added anything to the movie if they had been included, but it’s always nice to see them, in my opinion anyway.
- Myths and Legends: The cast and crew talk about the legend of the Water Horse and about it’s possible existence.
- The Story: This featurette covers the course of the story from a book to the big screen with interviews with the director, Jay Russell, author of the original story, Dick King-Smith, and the cast.
- The Characters: The actors talk in detail about their characters and what they feel their motivations were etc in this quite interesting featurette.
- Setting the Scene: This featurette covers the locations used and the work done by the design crew to create an authentic Scottish look.
- Waterworks: This, which is one of the most interesting featurettes on the disc, covers the challenges of creating the underwater sequences.
- Creating Crusoe: This, pretty obviously, covers the CGI work done on creating a “believable” Loch Ness monster.
This is an enjoyable movie, being exciting, moving and interesting through out. The extras on the DVD, even though it’s a family movie, are more suited to an adult audience rather than a young one, but the film itself will probably have your (older) children entertained, and could well become a family favourite.
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One Response to “[DVD Review R2] THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP”
I totally agree, definitely more suited to to the 7-8-9 crowd than the 3-4-5. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this film AT ALL but was pleasantly surprised myself when I took my son to see it. It kind of reminded me of an 80’s kids movie style pacing and vibe.
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