Frog Dreaming

This movie had so many titles, in Ireland it was titled The Go-Kids, elsewhere it's called Frog Dreaming or The Quest. Recently watched this movie on Blu-ray and it was as good as when I was 8 years old. The movie never got the recognition it deserved, probably cause it was an Aussie production. Set in the outback a kid follows a legend of a monster at the bottom of a lake. Really fun adventure and some real beautiful shots of the forest and animals. As a kid this movie had everything, bit of fun, romance, horror, adventure. I'm a forty year old man now but this movie takes me back to a better time, before super viruses and mass terrorism.

Cody Walpole (Henry Thomas) is a scientific, mechanically-minded, and ruggedly individualistic 14-year-old loner. He is also brave to the point of foolhardy, quite the daredevil-- except that he doesn't let anyone tell him what to do. Extremely inner-directed, what he dares and endures are come out of a quiet but fierce determination of his own prompting.

He stumbles upon a seemingly haunted, God-forsaken spot in the Australian wilderness, a long-abandoned mine or quarry flooded with filthy brown water. He knows of an old hermit who spends his vacations living alone in the area. After seeing none-too-recent evidence of this man's presence, he calls out and searches for him and eventually finds his skeleton. It looks as though the man was literally scared to death. This place is not on any map and, after some further investigation, he hears that the local aborigines shun the spot as the legendary lair of a monster living in the murky pool, a being so horrible that the mere sight of it kills. The place seems to exude bad luck and gives everyone the creeps who goes near it.

Cody believes that there must be a rational explanation for this phenomenon and becomes obsessed with the site and discovering the true nature of the creature in the water. This mission requires him to defy and disobey everyone in the local village, even his guardian, another individual so laconic and independent as to be a soul mate, who usually lets this resourceful boy do whatever he wants. Cody's steps in solving the mystery are breathtakingly lonely and dangerous.

As much as I admire individualism and independence, it is difficult for me to sympathize with courage carried to such an extreme for no compelling reason. Although others have recommended this film for children, I can't agree. It is the stuff of which nightmares are made-- I think it could even give me some. And Cody's reckless behavior, despite his admirable traits, makes him something of an anti-hero.

There is no denying, however, that the filmmakers have done a superb job with atmosphere and have captured some gorgeous wilderness scenery. I can understand this being among someone's favorite films. It is certainly different.

Let me start by saying it has been about 8 or 9 years since I last saw the Quest, but I still remember it fondly.

Henry Thomas, soon after his performance as "Elliot" in E.T., finds himself living with relatives in Australia after his parents pass on. He soon begins to investigate a local legend called the "Dahnk-a-gin" (or something like that...), a fierce loch-ness-monster style beast living in an old quarry that has been flooded.

As a child, I was always very inquisitive and imaginative, and loved to explore old buildings and creepy places, so this movie appealed to me greatly. The area surrounding the flooded quarry is littered with scrap metal, beat up shacks, and a cool broken down 50's car that just call to the exploring spirit.

During some scenes, Henry rides the railroad using a modified bicycle that could lock onto the railroad tracks... start pedaling, and off you go! I always wanted one of those...

Anyway, check out the Quest, and see if it doesn't sweep you up in it's imaginative spell!

The story concerns an American boy named Cody who now lives in Australia with his guardian Gaza. He sets out with two of his friends to explore a lake that is said to inhabit a mysterious creature known as 'Donkegen'.

The opening scene is really well done. The film score is fantastic and the acting gives this film a very realistic feel.

Even though it's a kids film, it never plays down to a lower intelligence and understands that a kids film doesn't have to use slang in order to reach it's target audience.

I honestly believe in the age of too many video games and TV, this is a great film for young or old. Better to show to young ones in the hopes they understand you can have so much fun by just exploring and creating/building things. Perhaps when they are older they will look back at this film and realize one of it's overall messages.

Let's hope for a proper DVD release soon.

Yes, this movie was peculiar. Yes, the plot was sort of strange and a bit difficult to follow the first time around ... that is why we watched it many times !

The boy is a great inventor, and goes exploring strange things in this lake... and I thought the movie was just very mysterious and exciting as a kid.

I just thought I would put out this little review, as the other voter quite disliked it, heh. I thought it was superb !