Tadeo el explorador perdido 2: El secreto del rey Midas

Reading the reviews in this in national newspapers, you'd think it was one of the worst films you could possibly see, but I saw it with my 6 year old today and all I can say is those reviews have either not actually watched the film or are biased against European cartoons for some reason. We liked enough to look up the other "Tad The Lost Explorer" on our streaming service when we got back from the cinema.

It's a breath of fresh air from the usual Disney and Dreamworks output and is entertaining for all the family (I laughed at a few parts, which is something I really appreciate in a cartoon) basically being "Indiana Jones for a younger audience", which is perfect if you want to introduce your children to that kind of genre before they're old enough to watch those live action movies.

Sara Lavrof has made a big discovery about King Midas. Tad Jones hasn't seen her in awhile and has yet to reveal his true feelings. She invites him to Vegas for her big reveal. Evil Jack Rackham's gang kidnaps her to force her to find King Midas' secret. Tad needs to rescue her. He's joined by the Mummy and Sara's assistant Tiffany Maze.

This is a Spanish animated kids movie. The animation is fine for TV. It's a wacky adventure. I didn't see the first movie and it's perfectly fine. It's not the best but it's passable. The characters are somewhat fun. I like Tad but the Mummy can be a bit too much. The love triangle is lightweight but that fits the tone. The adventure is a series of set pieces and pieces of a collar. It's a lot of McGuffin which is also fine. This is a lot fine.

I Went to see this with my 8 year old daughter and both really enjoyed it. Very easy to follow.

Loved the bird and dog friendship but did find the romance sub-plot between the two main characters a little weak.

My entire family loved the first one and we bought this as soon as we saw there was a sequel. Though not as good as the original, we laughed quite a bit and really enjoyed this sequel.

Considering the fact that this movie cost only ~9 million euros, Lightbox Animation Studios did a terrific job. Characters are developed with tremendous passion and the charm of Momia could rival even Pixar productions. The story is full of warmth and emotion, while the romance sub-plot has the right balance of superficiality and drama. There is not much depth, but it's expected for an U rated movie.

However, while the main characters are animated with love, the environment feels too empty and unpopulated. Even though the car chase scenes take place in the middle of the day, there are barely any visual dynamics in the background, e.g. people. At times, the movement of distant objects/characters looked quite wonky and unrealistic, breaking the immersion of the scenes.

Overall, Tad 2 is a decent movie for the younger audience.