A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures

I sat down in 2022 to watch the 2010 animated movie "Sammy's Adventures" with my 11 year old son. Sure, I hadn't even heard about this animated movie prior to sitting down to watch it. But I have to say that the movie's cover was actually not all that bad.

And the storyline told in "Sammy's Adventures", as written by Ben Stassen and Domonic Paris, was actually rather good. Both my son and I were enjoying the movie from start to end. So it was a wholesome animated movie with something for the entire family.

Visually then I found "Sammy's Adventures" to be rather impressive. The entire movie was full of vibrant colors and nicely drawn images, with great textures and lots of character and spirit to everything. The characters were also nicely drawn and quite likeable.

Now what really impressed me about "Sammy's Adventures" was the voice cast. Wow. Just wow. It had the likes of Tim Curry, Ed Begley Jr., Stacy Keach, Pat Carroll, Anthony Anderson, Kathy Griffin, Melanie Griffith and Melanie Griffith on the list. So there are some great name and recognizable voices here.

"Sammy's Adventures" proved to be as impressive as it was enjoyable, and I was genuinely entertained by the movie. As such, my rating of the 2010 animated movie "Sammy's Adventures" lands on a six out of ten stars.

If "Sammy's Adventures" seems rather predictable and dull, it is probably because Belgian director Ben Stassen seems so carried away by its anti-pollution and environmental messages that he misses out on the plot and the action. However, the visuals in this underwater opus are top-notch (especially in 3D) and way better than Stassen's last effort "Fly Me To The Moon".

I also like the way Stassen tells the story from a turtle's eye view - which will go a long way in educating children on undersea life and protecting those creatures and our ecology. The movie is about a green sea turtle who is hatched in 1959 and spends the next 50 years travelling the world while it is being changed by relentless whale and shark fishing, pollution and global warming. Hours after being hatched, Sammy (voice of Yuri Lowenthal) finds and loses the love of his life, a pretty hatchling called Shelly (Isabelle Fuhrman of Orphan fame).

On the epic journey across the oceans that all turtles must accomplish before returning to the beach where they were born, Sammy dodges every danger in the hope of meeting Shelly again. On the way, he also has encounters with humans, both good and bad, as well as toothy sharks and piranhas.

It is easy to root for Sammy and his pals not only because they are cute but also because they are sporting and gutsy. With its story spanning over 50 years, Stassen marks the milestone periods with human events (like the hippies of the Sixties and the Greenpeace protests) and with classic songs on the soundtrack. Of course, the Beatles are represented with their hit, 'Across The Universe' (what else?).

On the downside, character development seems to be at a minimum for some - and the 3D thrills (read action and stunts) are nowhere as impressive as those of "Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole". Indeed, from the numerous death-defying scraps that Sammy escapes from, we wonder how he can have such an 'enchanted' life indeed if not for far-fetched plotting. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining sea-world documentary for the kids. - LIM CHANG MOH (limchangmoh.blogspot.com)

It has beautiful scenery, vivid animation and voice-over. In general it keeps you engaged and is quite enjoyable. It is appropriate for kids and doesn't have any violence or bad influence. I prefer to watch simple, beautiful movies like this with my kids; rather than many other movies that are filled with desire, violence, and pornography. However, I think the theme is not clear. It is a mixture of love story, environmental concerns, and searching for your own dreams; but those themes don't come together to compliment each other. To me, the theme of the movie is the most important thing, that is the message you want to deliver. So I only gave it 6 out of 10.

My 5 year old wanted to watch this movie. She spent much of the movie crying. Most kids movies have some type of obstacle for the main character to overcome and then they come out on top. Sammy encounters more obstacles than most. The majority of this movie is just one sad, scary thing happening after another (difficult for some children to deal with). I thought the graphics were great even though I didn't watch the 3D version. I think the movie was okay, but it dragged quite a bit. It's not one of those movies that my child will want to watch again and again and again. If you're looking for a completely light and happy children's movie to watch you may want to look elsewhere.

This is a cute movie with a nice message. Some people seem to think there's too much "humans being evil" in the movie, but that's because pretty much everything humans do to the oceans is evil. There is no exaggeration here...in fact, I was impressed they found a way to put the good side to human activity as well.

Aside from the obvious artistic license concerning talking, sentient animals, the movie gets a lot of things right including the species of turtles nesting on the same beach, what they eat, natural predators, floating on rafts of seaweed, a sedentary octopus, the dangers of plastic and so on.

I gave this movie such a high rating because it's my daughter's favourite - we have it on DVD and she love's it. Now, my daughter is two years old, and it's certainly not good enough for me to watch over and over again, but I think it's great for her.