The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep

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The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
Promotional poster
Directed by	Jay Russell
Produced by	Jay Russell Douglas Rae Robert Bernstein
Written by	Dick King-Smith (novel) Robert Nelson Jacobs
Starring	Alex Etel Emily Watson David Morrissey Craig Hall Ben Chaplin
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Oliver Stapleton
Editing by	Mark Warner
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures Revolution Studios Walden Media Beacon Pictures
Release date(s)	United States December 25, 2007 Australia January 10, 2008 United Kingdom February 8, 2008
Country	United States  United Kingdom
Language	English
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

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 adaptation 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 out of it: a 'water horse' (loosely based on the Celtic water horse) which later becomes the fabled Loch Ness Monster. Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin and David Morrissey also star.

The film was produced by Revolution Studios and Walden Media, in collaboration with Beacon Pictures, and was distributed by Columbia Pictures. Visual effects, which included the computer-generated imagery of the water horse (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.^[1][2] The Water Horse was released in the United States on December 25, 2007 and in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2008.^[3]

Contents 1 Cast 2 Plot 3 Production 4 Distribution 4.1 Promotion 4.2 Release 5 Critical reception 6 Poetic license 7 Box office performance 8 Facts 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Alex Etel	Angus MacMorrow
Emily Watson	Anne MacMorrow
Ben Chaplin	Lewis Mowbray
David Morrissey	Captain Thomas Hamilton
Priyanka Xi	Kirstie MacMorrow
Craig Hall	Charlie MacMorrow
Brian Cox	Old Angus

[edit] Plot

In 1940s Scotland, young boy Angus MacMorrow lives in a large manor house with his mother Anne (who is head house keeper), sister, a maid and a old game keeper. Later they are joined by Lewis Mowbray, who comes to work as a handyman in the manor. As Angus has been told, his father — a sailor in the Royal Navy — is missing since his ship has been sunk in the war, so it is very likely that he is dead. However, Angus hopes he is still alive.

One day, whilst looking for abandoned shells by their respective organisms, he discovers a big mysterious egg. Later, he comes to take care for what hatches from it: a unknown creature, or a 'water horse' (whom he calls Crusoe after Robinson Crusoe), that becomes the fabled Loch Ness Monster. As an old Angus tells his tale to a tourist couple in flash-forwards, Lewis explains to young Angus that there is always only one such creature: creatures of this species asexually reproduce through parthenogenesis, and always die after laying an egg.

The next day troops of the 12th Medium Regiment Royal Artillery arrive at the house commanded by Captain Thomas Hamilton, who is a friend of Lord Mackilern, the owner of the house who is serving with the RAF. An artillery battery is set up near the lake as defence against possible attacking or hiding German U-boats and the troops set up camp in the grounds of the house. The water horse is almost always attacked by Churchill, a bulldog who belongs to one of the soldiers, whenever Crusoe ventured around Angus' household. Churchill is eventually eaten by Crusoe later in the movie. Angus keeps the creature a secret, but eventually tells his sister and (reluctantly) Lewis about it. Meanwhile, Crusoe grows pretty fast and is brought to the lake by Lewis, despite Angus' protests.

A few days later, Angus flees from the Allies camp and returns to the lake were he left his friend. Crusoe, who, despite released in the wild, still views Angus as its parent, lets him ride on its back. After sometime, it then starts diving underwater playfully, coming to the surface from time to time for breathing. Angus, being scared of the water, loudly protests that it should stop diving, but later he enjoys them himself, perhaps even overcomes his phobia for the sea. This peaceful setting doesn't last long; Crusoe suffers from shell shock after almost getting shot by "Victoria" (a cannon; originally meant to stop submarines) aimed at the lake for practice. Two people who previously saw Crusoe, attempt to make a photo of it in order to become rich. When they realised that they wouldn't be able to photograph the real thing due to the bombardment test, they decided to create a fake, which would result in the real-life faked picture of The Loch Ness Monster, also known as "The Surgeon's Photo".

This photo, however fake, piques the interest of a few soldiers. Amongst them was a cold and keen hunter, who wished to kill the creature himself. This surprise attack however proves futile for the soldiers, as Crusoe easily capsizes their boat. When it was about to mortally wound a soldier, Crusoe returns to its senses after seeing Angus almost drown in the Loch and saves his life. After much coaxing from Angus, Crusoe decides to leave the loch for shelter and safety. At first, Crusoe couldn't leave the lake due to the continuous bombardments from Victoria and it being blocked by an anti-submarine net intended to catch possible German U-boats entering the lake, but later succeeds by attempting to jump over the net but instead crushes it with its weight. Angus finally accepts that his father may never return home and sees from afar (along with Lewis and his family) Crusoe's departure.

After the story was told (eventually the story-teller reveals himself to be Angus MacMorrow), a mother calls out to her son, who is walking down the beach and spots a rock. The rock looks similar to the egg that the water horse, or 'Nessie' as known in modern times, had hatched from. The last thing that is heard in the film is a crack from the egg, hinting to the viewers that Crusoe passed away.

[edit] Production

Filming took place in 2006 in New Zealand, Scotland and at Miramar Studios in Wellington. Special effects on the film were handled by New Zealand special effects specialists Weta Digital and Weta Workshop who mainly did Crusoe. The computer effects were considerably difficult to achieve because so many scenes involved the creature (Crusoe) interacting with water, which, in terms of the history of computer graphics, has always been a particularly difficult substance to deal with.^[4] In terms of the design of the creature, Weta Digital tried to not humanize him but instead based some of his expressions on real animals such as a dog. When creating his movements and body shape at various stages of growth, the animators referenced animals ranging from baby birds to whales. ^[5] Throughout the film, Crusoe is entirely computer-generated.

[edit] Distribution

[edit] Promotion

A promotional poster for the film, featuring silhouettes of Etel's character and Crusoe on the loch, was seen as early as June 2006 during the New York Licensing Show alongside promotional art for the Disney Fairies and Kung Fu Panda.^[6] Another poster that features Etel's character with Crusoe on the loch during the daytime was released in October 2007. ^[7]

Two teaser trailers were released in quick succession in June 2007. The first was a teaser created specifically for the Rock Ness Music Festival on June 9 and 10,^[8] but was leaked onto the internet and later pulled.^[9] A different trailer ^[10] was released to Yahoo.com on 22 June 2007 and became the official teaser.^[11]

Internet promotion includes several different official different websites in the English (with individual websites for the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia), Spanish,^[12] French^[13] and Russian^[14] languages. They were launched by Sony in early November 2007 and feature photos, video clips, a video blog, games and information on the film's plot and production.^[15] Another website was created by the film's production companies, asecretthisbig.com, and is dedicated to the examination of the Loch Ness Monster's existence in reality.^[16] Additionally, the film has a YouTube account which features the video blogs from the official website, as well as additional video content.^[17]

Two sweepstakes were created for The Water Horse. The first, "See It To Believe It," awards the winner with a family trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific. The second, "Unloch the Legend" awards the winner with a family trip to Scotland.^[18]

A 15 metre "water screen" was used to project a moving image, with sound, of the Water Horse in Tokyo Bay.^[19]

[edit] Release

The Water Horse was formerly scheduled for two different release dates in North America: 21 September 2007 and 7 December 2007.^[20][21] No reason has been given as to why either date was dropped, but the film was released across 2,772 screens^[22] in the United States, Canada and Mexico on Christmas day of 2007.^[23] The MPAA rated the film PG for some action/peril, mild language and brief smoking.^[24]

Multiple release dates spanning January and April 2008 have been set for worldwide audiences including France (8 February), the United Kingdom (13 February), Russia (6 March) and India (4 April).^[23]

The Water Horse was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 8, 2008.

[edit] Critical reception

The film received favorable reviews from critics. As of December 26, 2007, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 73 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 56 reviews.^[25] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 73 out of 100, based on 16 reviews.^[26]

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."^[27]

[edit] Poetic license

The film does take some liberties with Scottish geography (due to the film having been shot largely in New Zealand):

• The opening shot is of Eilean Donan Castle which is on the west coast of Scotland, some 35 miles west of Loch Ness.
• A panning shot past Urquhart Castle (which is on the banks of Loch Ness) reveals some large islands in the loch, but Loch Ness contains no such islands.
• The plot demonstrates that Loch Ness opens directly into the sea via a wide channel between high cliffs; this would make Loch Ness a saltwater loch. In fact, Loch Ness is a freshwater loch with its surface some 80ft above sea level, and is connected to the sea (about 5 miles to the north) by the shallow River Ness, which flows through the City of Inverness. For this reason, anti-submarine nets would not have been needed on Loch Ness, as no submarines would have been able to navigate the river, even if there had been important military targets in the loch (which there weren't); the actual operation of the anti-submarine nets shown in the film owes little to reality.
• During the underwater sections the Loch has fairly clear waters. In reality the Loch has extremely murky waters, with visibility mostly being less than 5m.

The film also has some chronological inconsistencies:

• The production of the "Surgeon's Photograph" of the monster is shown as part of the plot, though this photo was originally published in 1934. In the film, the "Surgeon" is unable to catch a photo of the actual monster, and instead rigs up a fake monster for purposes of the photograph.
• The Jeep driven by Capt. Hamilton would not have been available in the form shown in mid-1942.
• Angus has a toy ship which is clearly seen and is the SS United States - but this ship was not built until 1952.
• The truck that Capt. Hamilton drove had the Russian standard - but the story is supposedly taking place in Britain.

[edit] Box office performance

The film grossed about $9 million during its opening weekend. As of June 1 2008, the film has grossed $102 million worldwide due to gaining about $40.4 million in the United States and about $62 million in foreign countries, according to the website Box Office Mojo.[1]

[edit] Facts

• The faked picture taken in the film is a real photograph, purportedly of The Loch Ness Monster. Known as "the Surgeon's Photo", it was taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson in 1934 and was released into the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934. Recently, the photograph was revealed to depict a toy submarine.
• The video game is being developed by Atomic Planet and Published by Blast! Games for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and Windows platforms.
• The original MPAA Rating had one change, and that was Smoking. The film was toned to Brief Smoking.
• This was the final film to be produced by Revolution Studios, as the company had shut down two months before the film's release after ending a 5 year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment.

[edit] See also

• Magic in the Water (1995)
• Loch Ness (1996)
• Mee-Shee: The Water Giant (2005)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep at the Internet Movie Database
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep at Metacritic
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep at Box Office Mojo
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep at Allmovie
• Trailer on YouTube
• Film blog at sonypictures.com
• Podcast at sonypictures.com
• Narnia Studio Plans New Fantasy Film
• Review of James Newton Howard's Water Horse score
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep DVD Review at www.sci-fi-online.com
• EyeForFilm.co.uk - interview with director Jay Russell about The Water Horse