The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep

The Water Horse is a charming family tale, which like The Godfather before it with the word 'mafia' and George A Romero with the word 'zombie', never actually refers to the central aquatic beast of this film as 'The Loch Ness monster', but who are they kidding!

The story is set as a flashback on the banks of the Ness and, though the animal is portrayed as the mythical Kelpie of Celtic folklore (whilst never overtly mentioned in the film, the title is The Water Horse, the creature’s modern name), there's no denying in which camp the filmmakers are setting out their stall.

The story centres on Angus, a young man whose father is away fighting in the Second World War and is missing, presumed drowned. Angus has an inherent fear of water as a result and finds a large egg on the shore of the Loch and takes it home whence it hatches into The Water Horse. The rest of the film treads a familiar path and feels a cross between The Iron Giant, Free Willy and E.T. as Angus attempts to hide his charge (which happens to grow at an exponential rate) ultimately resorting to the Loch as a temporary home, yet as an English military platoon descend to ward off U-Boats, Crusoe (as in Robinson) The Water Horse is perceived as a threat.

Dick King-Smith provides the source material and, though many liberties have been taken with the novel, the core story is strongly acted and Crusoe is a cute foil to a competent Alex Etel as Angus, although as the tale requires more of him he begins to slightly grate. The effects are provided by Weta and indeed New Zealand stands in for Scotland in many of the exteriors. While the film never reaches the heights of the aforementioned weepies, the final scenes are sufficiently heart-string tugging.

Extras: Creating the Water Horse, Creating Crusoe, Myths and Legend, Setting the Scene, The Story, The Characters, Deleted Scenes.

Released on 30th June 2008 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Written by Simon Cole.