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DVD The Legend of Secret Pass
 Run time: 92 min Rating: 5.0 Genres: Animation | Family | Fantasy Director: Steve Trenbirth Writers: Karl Geurs, James Costello Stars: Zoe Axelrod, Shelley Berman, Michael Chiklis |
| Storyline The ‘Legend of Secret Pass’ takes place in the mountains of the South West and involves Thunderbirds of Indian mythology and an animal refuge of mystical proportions. An unlikely troop of animals and humans are caught up in a clash of ageless magic. In this moment of crisis, the barest chance to avoid cataclysm falls into the hands of an Indian boy, Manu. Written by Erik Stoops |
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| Plot Keywords: legend | |
| Details: Country: USA |
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| Box Office Budget: $25,400,000 (estimated) |
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4 comments
First, this film is not available ANYWHERE. If someone knows where a complete version of this is available for sale or streaming, let me know.
My daughter saw this via a YouTube upload. The first 10 minutes were missing, but she still liked the concept of a place for orphan and lost animals to go and spirit guardians that are shape shifters.
This is not REAL native American mythology, but rather a child's interpretation of it.
I only wish I could find a compete version for my daughter who insists on see this even chopped up. I would note that she (at seven) is not unsophisticated in made up mythology films. She is a huge fan of all of Myazaki's films and went as "Princess Mononoke" for Halloween.
This film on American legend has mistakes and the makers have no idea what they are doing, they say they are Thunderbird's and turn into Eagles, but this is a mistake in its self a Thunderbird did exist when God created earth 6000 years ago and might even exist in remote places today & some tribes have even spotted them alive, The Genuine real Thunderbird is not an eagle it is actually a dragon or dinosaur, ( They were called dragons or beasts originally, until the name change over a century ago, Pterodactyl got it's name Thunderbird by when it flapped its wings it make a loud crash like thunder as its wingspan was so big hence the name Thunderbird 🙂
Kind of strange how nothing works in this movie. From scene one they take a bad turn. One would think they'd at least try getting somewhat of a connection between the viewers and the characters, but that did not happen.
From the very start you get this feeling that this movie is meant for children, age 6 – 10. Cause the ADHD flooding every scene is a bit too much to take for 90 min, unless ofc you enjoy that over a balanced story / action movie. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy speed and action sequences in a movie. But this is too much, compressed into such small time frames.
Seems like they are in such a hurry to tell us the story and personality behind every character that they overlook the fact that it has to be put in to a context. It has to be done in such a way that would connect us to them and the scenes, rather than turning us against it. Scene jumping at an alarming pace is also an element that does not give us the proper understanding of the characters and their part in the story..
Somehow only a few characters have fitting voice actors. This kind of takes away the focus from the story, and gets annoying as the movie unfolds.
As for the animation, it does not leave you with a WOW feeling once seen, but works fine in its own way. Some nice details from time to time, and some grand scenes. But unfortunately they miss shadows here and there, and seem to focus on details a bit randomly.
I would recommend this movie if you don't care much for story, but rather want a fast paced ADHD marathon. But this kind of falls into the laps of younger viewers. As for older people, this does feel forced and exaggerated.
2/10
Thankfully, I am more native than anything. The storyline fits with the lifestyles of the Natives to their country. I have looked in many titles to locate this movie. My grandchildren loved it and that was important to me. It didn't scare my youngest grand baby which in todays film-making seem to get a great joy out of doing. It was age appropriate for my next generation.
The fact that it was an animation kept me from looking to see what else could be done. The shadowing and gradients were fine for the viewing. It was in fact an animation. It irritates me that cartoons are so depicted that they are almost real. take some of the creativity back a step. 2D graphics are still OK. Not everyone has to be on the level of natural drawing. stick figures are still fun.creativity should be fun and this was that.
If this movie was available now, I would purchase it. Not because it has been fine tuned and written so well that you cant tell if it is real or "ameriteque". Children are more interested in cartoons being able to do something than to watch real life do it.
This movie is a must see if you have small influential children that are trained within this realm. I also wouldn't mind a soundtrack to this. My mother and god-mother both loved the soundtrack.