Mandie and the Secret Tunnel

It is 1899 North Carolina. Mandie Shaw (Lexi Johnson) is living with her daddy and his new family. She is left on her own when her daddy accidentally dies and her hateful stepmother sends her away to another family. She insists that her Cherokee friend to take her away and the Indian is assumed to have kidnapped her. The Indians leave her with her Uncle John, but apparently he's been lost. She is taken in by Jason Bond (Dean Jones), but Uncle John's will has gone missing. Suddenly, John Shaw's supposed relations start showing up to claim a portion of the inheritance. Mandie and her friend Polly Cornwallis find the secret tunnel.

Apparently, this is a book series. The movie is rather disjointed like one thing after another. Maybe they jumbled different books together or maybe they are simply not good filmmakers. I do find these characters interesting and the story does intrigue me enough to keep going all the way to the end. It is still not good.

This is a movie based on the popular Christian book series Mandie. This film is about Mandy trying to discover whether or not she has an inheritance and along the way what her family heritage really is. Yes she finds out she is part Native American. But, it's not too difficult for me to see her as the quarter Native American she is even with the blonde hair since her father was half white and half Native American and her mother was full 100% German. I am half Dutch myself and the rest is a mix. I look full blown Dutch though. Overall, the acting is moderately good. Dean Jones, of course, is amazing and his performance is top notch. Every scene with Dean steps up a bit from the rest. The scriptwriting and/or editing did leave some key details out which made it somewhat difficult to follow at times but the stories predictability helps with that lol. I do wish that the casting of the Native American actors had been better. Overall, it is a fun story with beautiful scenery and some intrigue that young tween girls will especially love.

This was a very nice story and good family entertainment. But try as hard as I may I could not wrap my mind around the concept of a blond blue eyed part Cherokee. In fact according to the script young Lexi Johnson is one quarter Cherokee and her looks, beautiful as she is don't compute.

Now that she's a teen and her father has recently passed away, the Cherokees who still live in Tennessee have sent her to live with her uncle who's got himself some really nice digs in a mansion. But he's away and his lawyer Dean Jones is running the place. Then the uncle is reported missing after a ship goes down at sea.

After that relations start pouring out of the woodwork but even Jones doesn't know where the will is. That starts a hunt with Johnson and some friends she's made looking for the will. The relatives want the whole pile and are looking to cut each other out as well as our young heroine.

The action takes place in the year of 1899 and the sets and cinematography certainly do reflect the era nicely. The ending is an interesting one and the very end does provide some explanation for our heroine's blond looks.

Still can't quite buy it though.

This movie has a rather beautiful and peaceful feel to it, a lot more than most movies. But it's also rather strange and a bit awkward at times, particularly when it shows scenes from a story Mandie had been told. Some of the characters are also a bit strange, and could've used some more explanations.

The movie is very notable in that it was the final role of Dean Jones. He was a wonderful Godly man who will always be missed. I would dare say that his character's kind nature, combined with the movie's peaceful feel made it a relatively fitting final role for him.