Ritorno all'Isola di Nim

I knew this sequel was made for a TV/DVD release only and not for a theatrical release so, they used affordable unknown actors. But, Bindi Irwin is not an unknown, of course.

Steve Erwin was not quite the film actor that his daughter has turned out to be. She was a good child actress in in the Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove movie. But, in Return to Nim's Island, Bindi is a very capable adolescent actress with real theatrical film talent.

Her Mom was very natural in front of a TV camera and Steve's acting style was mainly ramping up his enthusiasm and volume when doing Animal Planet. Maybe Bindi has the best of both parents in her acting ability.

I knew this was not a real sequel, not bringing back any of the original Nim's Island actors but, this was a fresh sassy Australian produced alternative sequel to Nim's Island. Well done!

I'm learning how to embrace the chaos of life...love it! I was happy that Felix, the lovable nerd actually experiences victory. Bindi Irwin is well cast since in reality, she actually has real relationships with animals. The animals/nature all beautiful--educational and interesting to meet the endangered species, researcher's perspective, the birds, reptiles, sea lion,under water swim scenes, caves, all nicely photographed. Cool the way the animals intuitively help. A couple of funny, yet gratifying revenge scenes. The danger scenes are cool and the innocent coming of age romance is believable. Edmund's fighting parents make us root for him and the poachers fighting/sibling rivalry thing works. Love dancing with Selkie. The young girl scientist/ girl power thing is on point and current.

Yes, I was a little disappointed that the actors were different. I think all sequels should involve at least some of the same actors as the originals. I especially missed Jodie Foster in it. But there was, at least, reference to the charaiucter, saying she was in Bora Bora.

Contrary to other remarks here, I think Bindi did a fine job. In fact, I thought she was better than the Nim actress in the original movie.

This had a fun storyline and beautiful scenery. I like movies like this that take me on a virtual vacation.

I thought the first movie was interesting and fun to watch. But this one was not quite as good. First of all it is basically a stripped down version of the first one in that the first one integrates into the story a "fictional" character, Alex Rover, from Alexandria's novels. But nothing like that is done here. Also they wrote out Alexandria. In the first movie she added an extra dynamic to the movie because we got to see how her agoraphobia played out in contrast to Nim's adventurism. I don't recall for sure but I believe Alexandria hit it off with Jack but in the new movie it is like, where did she go?

Though the two movies have some continuity, it is obvious that there is some that is missing. For instance there are completely new actors portraying the characters. In the first movie both Nim and Jack spoke with an American accent. But in the 2nd movie, Jack speaks with one but Nim has sort of a British accent. That makes the story unbelievable when you have seen the first one. Especially considering that Jack is Nim's father. What happened between the two movies? Did Nim go live in the UK for a while?

If you have seen the first one, you will probably end up putting it in either part way through or after you see this one. But if you haven't seen the first one, then I think you would like this one. It's not a bad movie at all. Just disappointing that they didn't make it as interesting or really build on the previous one.

The thing that bothers me the most is the casted none of the original characters. Am I supposed to sit back and enjoy that each character does not match up with the previous movie? Jack should not be played by Matthew Lillard, and Bindi should not play Nim. Those characters should be played by the original actor and actress Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin. And what happened to Jodi Foster's character? They just completely wrote out one of my favorite characters in the movie. I loved the original movie don't get me wrong, I watched the trailer for this movie and though to myself that it will be horrid and a waste of my time, the only reason I'm ranting about this is because of the fact my favorite characters were taken away.