Turtle: The Incredible Journey

My 3 and 5 year saw this movie and we all loved it. I am very excited that it is being released in 3D next month, We will definitely go see it in 3D. Great movie! I am very impressed that the movie is now associated with Sea World and will be jointly released with Hanover House. This movie really promotes environmental awareness and does a great job discussing how important it is to protect our oceans. With the big oil spill in the gulf of Mexico, a movie like this will remind all folks Who watch it just how important our oceans are to our planet and humankind. Turtles the incredible adventure is going to have a big impact Internationally now that BlackStone/Sea World Parks is partnered with target development/Hannover House.

This movie is about a Loggerhead Turtle, yet the narrator anthropomorphizes the motivations of the turtle and all other creatures over the course of the entire movie. As people, we have emotions like hate, jealousy, and revenge. Animals don't. In the movie, they describe a behavior of the turtle as "revenge" but actually the turtle is simply eating, and, as an animal, has no sense of revenge. Also, all predators are described as "bad." They play scary music when a predator is on screen, and use terminology that imply that being a predator is a bad thing, when actually Loggerheads can be rather predatory, yet they don't play the scary music then.

As the summary notes, the camera shots are very, very good. But they cannot help a horrible script. There are many much better movies about the ocean, and about sea turtles, and this one should be pretty low down on the list.

This film really deserves much more than the scarce attention (half-hearted distribution?) it's received; and the only other review currently here really doesn't do justice to its specific strengths.

Apart from top-tier cinematography - even avoiding some of the over-production of Perrin & Cluzaud's (admittedly stunning) Oceans http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765128/ - what's special about this film is how it's been written, so both the way the story unfolds visually, and the narrating commentary. It's unusual to find a film that shows such attention to its poetic framing, and in this case, especially because it's ostensibly still just a documentary, your involvement is that much greater.

So: this subtly crafted documentary absolutely possesses a special je-ne-sais-quoi, and was a memorable joy to watch together with our young kids. It's a real shame the distribution hasn't been up to scratch.