The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007)

Réalisateur:

Jay Russell

Writers (WGA):

Robert Nelson Jacobs (screenplay)
Dick King-Smith (book)

Release Date:

25 décembre 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Aventure | Family | Fantasy

Accroche:

Every big secret starts small.

Plot:

A lonely boy discovers a mysterious egg that hatches a sea creature of Scottish legend. |

Plot Keywords:

Wilhelm Scream | Beach | Handyman | Country Estate | Told In Flashback

Awards:

5 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

The right balance . . .

US Showtimes:

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Ensemble

Bruce Allpress	...	Jock McGowan
Geraldine Brophy	...	Gracie
Eddie Campbell	...	Hughie (as Edward Campbell)
Ben Chaplin	...	Lewis Mowbray
Peter Corrigan	...	Jimmy's Buddy #1
Brian Cox	...	Old Angus
Carl Dixon	...	Gunner Corbin
Alex Etel	...	Angus MacMorrow
Nathan Christopher Haase	...	Male Tourist
Craig Hall	...	Charlie MacMorrow
Ian Harcourt	...	Jimmy McGarry
Rex Hurst	...	Jimmy's Buddy #2
Bill Johnson	...	Clyde (as William Johnson)
Megan Katherine	...	Female Tourist
Elliot Lawless	...	Beach Kid

Autre(s) titre(s) :

The Water Horse (International: English title) (informal short title)
The WaterHorse: Legend of the Deep (International: English title) (alternative spelling)
Dragon des mers - La dernière légende, Le (Belgium: French title) (Canada: French title) (France) (poster title) [fr]

MPAA:

Rated PG for some action/peril, mild language and brief smoking.

Durée:

112 min

Pays:

USA | UK

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Son:

DTS-ES | SDDS | Dolby Digital EX

Classification:

South Korea:All | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Germany:6 | Argentina:Atp | UK:PG | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | USA:PG | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Brazil:Livre | Malaysia:U

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Camperdown Studios, Camperdown Road, Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand

Company:

Beacon Pictures

Anecdotes:

WILHELM SCREAM: When the Water Horse knocks over the patrol boat, one of the secondary soldiers cries out as he flies into the water.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The film depicts the famous picture of the Loch Ness monster as being taken in 1942 by a couple of fishermen. In reality, the picture is known as the "Surgeon's Photo" and was photographed in 1934 and published in the Daily Mail newspaper. It was revealed to be a hoax in 1994 and is supposedly the picture of a toy submarine with a sculpted head fixture.

Connexions De Film:

Featured in Starz Special: The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Magic

The right balance . . .

CGI—of course: You can't depict the Loch Ness monster with just the putative photo of the famous myth. But after you accept the clever graphics, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is just plain ol' good story telling, fit for pre-adolescent kids and their young-at-heart parents.

Narrator Brian Cox (his character is not identified) tells of WWII era in Scotland at the famous loch, where young Angus MacMorrow finds an egg at the shore and nurtures the lovable monster until he has to go to the loch to survive. The Scottish regiment occupying the home and the new handyman, Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin), complicate life and endanger the elusive monster. Although the usual clueless mom (Emily Watson) and dangerous thugs are here to further the horror genre staples, the challenges Angus faces are instructive about the collision of reality and fantasy for an adolescent.

WWII looms large, a fitting embodiment of the challenges the unknown and potentially dangerous can be to the stability of the world. The fantasy world, centered on the monster, who becomes his best friend, collides with the reality of people who want to destroy the monster and the boy's imaginative life.

Mix in all this with the father who has been away to war, never to return, and you have a child's romance with the right balance of love and hate, certainty and uncertainty, illusion and reality. It's all much less sophisticated than Shrek, and more like Whale Rider, also filmed in New Zealand. In the latter, a girl rides a whale as an embodiment of the country's hope; in Water Horse, the boy rides the monster to expunge his own fear of water and elude the malignant forces of the adult world. Pretty heady stuff, that.