Phoenix Wilder and the Great Elephant Adventure

I felt dumber for watching this "children's movie". The director and editor should be removed from the movie business for letting the word "boy" or "good boy" be uttered no less than 500 times in this film. Huley's performance was also very lackluster..

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.)

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.

Good intentions by all concerned to bring attention to the horrors of elephant poaching in Africa. However,if I'm going to be honest here, the movie itself was just way too filled with head shakingly ridiculous plot elements and dialogue. Not to be mean, but the young lead Sam Ashe Arnold needs to take a few more acting classes. Overall, can't recommend.

The Brilliance of this movie is: That 5 year OLDS will Love it and ADULTS will find it Hysterically Ridiculous!