My friend, the water dragon
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | My friend, the water dragon |
| Original title | The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep |
| Country of production |
USA , UK , New Zealand |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 JMK 10 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jay Russell |
| script | Robert Nelson Jacobs |
| production |
Robert Bernstein , Charlie Lyons Barrie M. Osborne Douglas Rae |
| music | James Newton Howard |
| camera | Oliver Stapleton |
| cut | Mark Warner |
| occupation | |
| |
My friend the water dragon is a fantasy film that was shot in 2006. It is based on the children's book The little sea monster ( The Water Horse ) by Dick King-Smith , the author of Babe .
action
Framework story, part 1: An old man tells two young tourists the true story of a sea monster.
Sometime during World War II on the coast of Scotland, while looking for mussels on the banks of Loch Ness, little Angus found a strange object that resembled a large egg. Without knowing what exactly it is, Angus takes the object home and hides it in his father's shed, who is at war and is eagerly awaiting his return.
The next morning the boy makes a surprising discovery: a small creature has hatched from the egg-shaped thing. Angus immediately begins to lovingly nurture the hungry animal and baptizes his new, meek friend with the name Crusoe. The lively little guy quickly grows into a large water dragon, a mythical creature that is only known in Scotland from myths and legends - and is making it more and more difficult for Angus to hide him in the house from his mother and the other residents, because now the army has seized the manor house to hunt German submarines off the coast. Angus has to bring Crusoe back to the lake of necessity and thus exposes him - without realizing it - to great danger, because Crusoe gets in front of the soldiers' cannon barrels and threatens to become aggressive and hostile through this traumatic experience. In a dramatic action, Angus is able to lead his friend through the gunfire of the English troops who believe they are shooting at a German submarine. In the end, the water dragon tears the submarine protection net and escapes into the open sea, so that Angus never sees him again - just like his father, who in reality has long since fallen.
Framework story, part 2: In the last shot of the film, Angus, meanwhile that old man, has just finished telling his story when a little boy finds a strange object that looks like an egg on the beach.
criticism
"Large-scale fantasy bestseller adaptation, entertainingly staged based on models such as" ET "or" Free Willy ", but in the end neither dramaturgically nor technically convincing. Above all, the mix of naive adventure, melodrama and war film loses sight of its target group and enjoys the appeal of the superficial. "
“Another Nessie film for the whole family, so to speak: Although the tricks of Jay Russell's directorial work (" My Dog Skip ") are quite neat, the story is unfortunately all too predictable. Unfortunately, boredom soon sets in, especially since it becomes clear that after the slapstick-like beginning an action-packed adventure will follow in the second half. After all, we are in the war years. "
background
The Water Horse was filmed on locations in New Zealand and Scotland between May and September 2006 by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media . The effects, which are somewhat reminiscent of Eragon - The Legacy of the Dragon Riders , come from Weta Digital . The film opened in the USA on December 25, 2007, in Germany and Austria on January 31, 2008.
literature
- Dick King-Smith : The little sea monster (Original title: The Water Horse ). German by Anne Braun. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2000, 138 pages, ISBN 3-596-80299-7
Web links
- My friend, the water dragon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Age rating for my friend, the water dragon . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ My friend, the water dragon. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ My friend the water dragon on prisma.de , accessed on August 15, 2012