Review Summary

Many lonely children yearn for a pet to call their own. In “The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep,” based on a novel by Dick King-Smith, a boy, Angus (Alex Etel), finds not only that, but a best friend as well, after the mysterious egg he stumbles across hatches a creature unlike any he’s ever seen. Adorable and full of mischief, his new companion, Crusoe, who looks something like a cross between a dinosaur and a snail, immediately adds spice to his drab life. Set in 1942 in coastal Scotland, the film consistently evokes an authentic sense of time and place and features remarkable computer-generated graphics work from Weta Workshop, the company responsible for the groundbreaking visuals of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. — Laura Kern, The New York Times