What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this adaptation of the popular book by Babe author Dick King-Smith has a very different plotline than the original story, escalating the violence within the WWII-era setting. The monster becomes truly dangerous when fully grown (in an old-school King Kong way), lashing out at people with snapping jaws -- which leads the British soldiers to open fire on it. But it's still a kid-friendly film overall.

Families can talk about the Loch Ness Monster. Do you think it could be real? Why or why not? How might a story like this have gotten started? Can you think of other movies in which a child forms a secret attachment with an unusual pet or unearthly friend? How is this movie similar to and different from them? Families who've read the book the movie is based on can compare the two -- which do you like better, and why?

Common Sense Media Review
Grade-schoolers are the best audience for THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP, a well-mounted, big-budget children's fantasy; for older viewers who are already familiar with the many clichés it trots out, it may be one trip to the loch too many.

Just as the soldiers in the film do during roll call, it's possible to sound off -- one! two! -- the movie's many overly familiar elements. Lonely child hero whose father is dead? Here! Amazing, misunderstood monster friend who must be kept a secret? Here! Clueless single mom with nasty suitor? Here! Ending stolen from Free Willy ? Here! It's not that The Water Horse is a bad movie -- it's just entirely predictable. Which is too bad, because it's high-spirited and based (fairly loosely) on a sweet story by popular author Dick King-Smith, whose writings also inspired the excellent Babe .

The movie opens in modern Scotland, not far from touristy Loch Ness. Two American backpackers meet an old man in a pub (his "surprise" secret identity can be figured out long before his tale ends) and are promised the "true story" of the lake's famous monster. From there, the film flashes back to WWII and introduces viewers to Angus ( Alex Etel), the lonely, nature-loving son of a Scottish laird gone MIA in combat.

Angus finds an egg by the water, and it hatches into a small, mischievous, dragon-like creature. Meanwhile, the family's mansion is commandeered by British soldiers to establish a defense against possible German submarines in the loch. So Angus hides his baby beastie with help from his older sister Kirstie (Priyanka Xi) and Scottish handyman Lewis ( Ben Chaplin). It's Lewis who identifies the creature as a "water horse" of Highland folklore -- a fabulous, fast-growing, androgynous lake- and sea-monster of which only one exists at a time. They name the water horse "Crusoe" (after the book Robinson Crusoe.

Crusoe proceeds to grow huge over just a few weeks, and the heroes must strive to keep him/her/it concealed. But glimpses of the monster create a stir in the area, and some of the bellicose British soldiers -- armed to the teeth with no enemy in sight -- become a potentially deadly threat to the gigantic but basically friendly Crusoe.

When Angus -- who's got a crippling fear of water -- goes for a stirring ride on through the loch's aquatic wonderland on his monster pal's back, the movie really takes off, but you're still left thirsty for something a wee bit more original. Even Crusoe, as beautifully computer-generated as he is, sorta looks like the creature from last year's boy-and-his-dragon epic Eragon .

The Water Horse is hardly the only Loch Ness Monster movie (though it sure looks like the most expensive). Kids might also get a kick out of Scooby-Doo's run-in with the creature and 1996's family-friendly Loch Ness (with monsters courtesy of the Jim Henson effects team). Older viewers in search of fresher seafood might be better off with the PG-13-rated Incident at Loch Ness, a semi-satiric riff on The Blair Witch Project in which actual filmmakers and monster-hunters play themselves in a Ness expedition that goes badly awry.