The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep [Special Edition] [2 Discs]

Director: Jay Russell Jay Russell

Overview

"A lonely young boy vows to protect the rapidly growing hatchling that emerges from a mysterious egg found on the shores of a Scottish loch in My Dog Skip and Tuck Everlasting director Jay Russell's screen adaptation of writer Dick King-Smith's popular children's novel. Angus MacMorrow (Alex Etel) has made a most unusual discovery, and he's about to find out just how one innocent boy's greatest fantasy can also be a frightened adult population's greatest threat. Unable to identify the egg that he found while walking the sandy shores, Angus is even more perplexed about the discovery and the creature that emerges resembles what comes to be known as a Water Horse, which Angus names Crusoe. As the bizarre new life form begins to grow at an alarming rate, it soon becomes obvious that Angus will not be able to keep it a secret for very long, and the young boy will have to do some seriously quick thinking if he is to keep his new friend safe."

Product Details

Release Date:	04/08/2008
UPC:	0043396184565
Original Release:	2007
Rating:	PG
Source:	SONY PICTURES
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:52:00

Special Features

Closed Caption; Deleted scenes; Behind-the-scenes featurettes: Myths and legends, the story, the characters; Setting the scene; Water work: creating the Water Horse; creating Crusoe

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Emily Watson	Anne MacMorrow
Alex Etel	Angus MacMorrow
Ben Chaplin	Lewis Mowbray
David Morrissey	Captain Hamilton
Priyanka Xi	Kirstie MacMorrow
Marshall Napier	Sgt. Strunk
Joel Tobeck	Sgt. Walker
Erroll Shand	Lt. Wormsley
Brian Cox	Old Angus
Bruce Allpress	Jock McGowan
Geraldine Brophy	Gracie
Edward Campbell	Hughie
Peter Corrigan	Jimmy's Buddy No.1
Edward Newborn	Corp. Grubbs
Louis Owen Collins	Young Angus
Phil Peleton	Soldier
William Russell	William
Ben Van Lier	Gunner Rapp
Carl Dixon	Actor
Nathan Christopher Haase	Actor
Ian Harcourt	Actor
Elliot Lawless	Actor
Alan Marsh	Walk On
Craig Hall	Actor
James Newton Howard	Composer

Technical Credits

Robert Nelson Jacobs

Dick King-Smith

Simon Beaufoy

Terry George

Jay Russell	Director,Executive Producer
Robert Nelson Jacobs	Screenwriter
Barrie M. Osborne	Producer
Charlie Lyons	Producer
Douglas Rae	Producer
Robert Bernstein	Producer
Erik Winquist	Special Effects
Augie Davis	Stunts
Joe Letteri	Special Effects
R. Christopher White	Special Effects
Stephen Rosenbaum	Special Effects
Steve Ingram	Special Effects
Susie Figgis	Casting
Dick King-Smith	Screenwriter
Gino Acevedo	Special Effects
Brent Burge	Sound Effects
Jason Canovas	Sound Effects
Hayden Collow	Sound Effects
Simon Beaufoy	Screenwriter
Charles Newirth	Executive Producer
Terry George	Screenwriter
Liz Mullane	Casting
Tony Johnson	Sound/Sound Designer
Dave Whitehead	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Make no mistake about it: the world was ready for another Loch Ness monster movie. Of all the stories from our collective mythology that were dusted off in the early 21st century, this was not one of the ones that seemed like too much of a stretch. Whether it should have been a kids movie is what's debatable. For the best return on the mystery surrounding Scotland's version of Bigfoot, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep should have gotten the M. Night Shyamalan treatment -- at least, the version of Shyamalan that's more eerie and unsettling than overblown and overwrought. But since this film is an adaptation of Dick King-Smith's children's novel, the creature is followed from its infancy, where it's like a rambunctious CGI seal -- splashing around in bathtubs, getting chased around the house by bulldogs, and emitting precious bleeps and gurgles. That too could have worked -- after all, the kids love the bleeps and gurgles. Unfortunately, escaping discovery is not the creature's biggest problem. The Water Horse finds its antagonist in a British military unit, improbably stationed on this loch as a cowardly means of avoiding real conflict during World War II. Naturally, the unit's first instinct is to test its most ferocious artillery on the loch itself, leaving poor Nessie to dodge incoming warheads. Fresh off the success of The Chronicles of Narnia, Walden Media was never going to make a Loch Ness monster movie that didn't involve an adorable young British lad (Millions' Alex Etel). But more effort could have been devoted to the narrative inhabited by that monster, regardless of what the source material dictated. Kids aren't likely to mind, but it's the ability to transfix the adults that ultimately determines whether a children's movie is transcendent, or merely adequate.