Director: Jay Russell Stars: Emily Watson, David Morrissey, Alex Etel Studio: Columbia Pictures The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is a 2007 fantasy film directed by Jay Russell. The screenplay, written by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, is an adaption of Dick King-Smith's children's novel The Water Horse. It stars Alex Etel as a young boy who discovers a mysterious egg and cares for what hatches of it: a 'water horse' that becomes the fabled Loch Ness Monster. Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin and David Morrissey also star.
Walden Media, in collaboration with Beacon Pictures and Revolution Studios produced the film. Visual effects, which included the computer-generated imagery of the monster (named " Crusoe" by Etel's character) were completed by the New Zealand-based companies Weta Digital and Weta Workshop- visual effects companies who worked with Walden Media before on the productions of The Chronicles of Narnia films. The Water Horse was released in the United States on December 25, 2007 and will be released in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2008. Release The Water Horse was formerly scheduled for two different release dates in North America: 21 September 2007 and 7 December 2007. No reason has been given as to why either date was dropped, but the film was released across 2,772 screens in the United States, Canada and Mexico on Christmas day of 2007. The MPAA rated the film PG for some action/peril, mild language and brief smoking.
Because of its December release date in North America, The Water Horse is responsible for the release of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian being pushed back into the summer of 2008. In the United States, Caspian was originally scheduled for release on 14 December 2007 by Disney. However, after distributor Columbia Pictures set The Water Horse's release date for 7 December 2007, Disney elected to push Caspian's release date back so that both of Walden Media's productions would not be competing for box office
Critical reception
The film received favorable reviews from critics. As of December 26, 2007, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 71% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 56 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 72 out of 100, based on 16 reviews.
Pete Hammond of Maxim magazine gave the film 4 stars out of 5, saying "It's not only the perfect holiday movie, but perhaps the most wondrous film of its kind since E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial touched down." Hammond said the character Angus is "expertly played by Alex Etel", said the film was "skillfully directed by Jay Russell", and said the special effects were "stunning" and "rival the year's best".Another gave it a B and called it making you a believer in the Loch Ness legend.
Although most critics agree it's somewhat similar to Free Willy, it has nifty effects and good acting by Alex Etel.
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