The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is "family-friendly escapist fare that should enthrall, without insult, fantasy-minded viewers of any age," writes Laura Kern in the New York Times.

For Ella Taylor, writing in the Voice, this is "the best kiddie picture of the season and, along with Ratatouille, of the year.... Drawing on just about every tough and tender rite-of-passage fairy tale worth its salt, The Water Horse is a graceful meeting of talents between screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, the digital effects team that juggled cute and scary so deftly in The Chronicles of Narnia, and director Jay Russell, who already has the children's classics My Dog Skip and Tuck Everlasting under his belt."

Updated through 12/28.

The "fondly cherished folk myth [of the Loch Ness Monster] becomes a rite-of-passage adventure for the somber young protagonist, Angus MacMorrow, affectingly played by freckle-faced Alex Etel (Millions)," writes Steven Winn in the San Francisco Chronicle. Russell "has a keen sense for the emotional fluidity of his main character. He uses the film's fantastical elements and surging special effects (by the Lord of the Rings and King Kong team of Weta Digital and Weta Workshop) to conjure up a realm of rhapsodic bravery for Angus."

Update, 12/28: "For a modern take on Pete's Dragon by way of The Secret of Roan Inish, it's surprisingly dense and meaty," writes Tasha Robinson at the AV Club.

Posted by dwhudson at December 25, 2007 7:23 AM