Loch Ness Lassie

Newcastle Herald

Friday January 11, 2008

James Joyce

REVIEW

WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP (PG)

Director: Jay Russell

Stars: Emily Watson, Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin, David Morrissey, Brian Cox

Screening: general release

Rating: * *

A WEE Scottish laddie named Angus finds a barnacle-encrusted egg in a rock pool, takes it home and watches in wonderment as it hatches a wee beastie which promptly sets about trashing the boy's father's shed.

Ach, aye, 'tis a scene to warm the cockles. The critter is a right cutie. But he's a handful of mischief too, especially as he seems to double in size every time he eats, which is all the time.

And so it is with this pleasant, but predictable, family movie, based on the children's book by Dick King-Smith, who gave us Babe: The Sheep-Pig.

Like its marvellously computer-generated star, Water Horse starts out cute and becomes increasingly cumbersome, loud and overbearing.

In effect, this is Lassie does Loch Ness or E.T. with flippers as a melancholy boy conquers his fear of water while forming a magical bond with a special critter who's also a misfit.

The story, which takes place during World War II, unfolds in flashback as a crusty old-timer (Brian Cox) spins the tall tale for American backpackers in a Scottish village pub.

Alex Etel (the saucer-eyed charmer from 2004 Irish fable Millions) plays Angus, the lonely son of the housekeeper (Emily Watson) at a laird's loch-side estate.

Angus must keep his squawking, wriggling pet a secret from his mum, older sister and the regiment of army troops billeted on the estate.

But as "Crusoe" outgrows the guest-room bathtub and attracts the attention of the cook's bulldog, he becomes impossible to hide and, by the action-packed finale, the soldiers are trying to shoot the poor thing because they think it's an invading German submarine.

Director Jay Russell makes evocative use of the windswept scenery of New Zealand (standing in for Scotland) and the special effects (from Weta Workshop, which did the Lord of the Rings trilogy) make Crusoe quite convincing even if Angus's rides on his back to the loch's freezing, lung-busting, eardrum-splitting depths are hard to swallow.

But it's engaging enough without enchanting like Babe.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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