Phoenix Wilder and the Great Elephant Adventure

This is not a blockbuster. It's not a massive epic with explosions and CGI. It's a wonderful story, independently made, about a boy's experience in Africa and the elephant he encounters. The cinematography is excellent and the lead, Sam Ashe Arnold, puts in a moving performance. The story itself could be tighter, as well as the editing, but in spite of that, the story is engaging. The children in the audience seemed to enjoy the film very much.

Note: At our screening, there was an interview for the first 10 minutes with a gentleman who runs an elephant reserve in South Africa. Anyone who left might have missed the actual film entirely, so read the first review accordingly.

This is a great movie to introduce the plight of elephants in the wild and the dangers of poaching.

Oh boy! The boy was so nice to his elephant boy! The elephant was such a smart boy! A good boy too! The big boy made big boy moves against the bad boys who were mean to all the boy elephants! If you enjoy the word boy over 100 times then this is definitely the movie for you. (They said the word "boy" exactly 136 times.)

Overall a solid movie. Certainly no content that would be offensive to a young audience, I appreciate that. The elephants are the real stars and I enjoyed watching them very much. I can recommend this to parents and animals lovers of all ages.

The acting is sub par but I liked how it was trying to raise awareness about elephant poaching and for not buying ivory products. I couldn't finish the movie.

Newly orphaned Phoenix Wilder (Sam Ashe Arnold) travels to South Africa to live with his Aunt Sarah (Elizabeth Hurley). She runs a safari outfit with her husband Uncle Jack from his family compound. Elephants on the reserve are being hunted by illegal poachers. Phoenix gets lost while on an outing and befriends an elephant.

Phoenix surprising the poachers is a silly conceit. He has a slow-moving giant elephant with him. The poachers have to be dumb and blind to not see him coming. All of it is staged like a Disney kiddie show. It's always a little weird when a kid has to Home Alone the bad guys when the bad guys are geared for war. As for Uncle Jack, it's an unwelcome revelation. It muddies the simple morality without giving back something compelling. It's nice to see the animals but this is a bad kiddie movie.