The Secret Kingdom

 Saturday evening movie time with Noshi, and recently we fell upon The Secret Kingdom.

A little fantasy movie that looks promising from the description, this australian made movie is one of those innocent young adventure flavour movies.

Taking place in Australia in the 1960's, Peter is a 12 year old with some strange habbits.  His family moves to a spooky little house in the countryside, after losing their main residence.  But the very first night in the house, the floor rips open, swallowing Peter and his younger sister Verity.

They arrive in a land inhabited by Pangolin, and they hail Peter as the prophetised king.  What follows is a journey to get home, in which Peter and Verity must solve riddles, while trying to escape from a mysterious evil being called The Shroud.  This takes them along various locations, and they meet a dragon who joins them on their quest.

But this dragon actually turns out to be the reason of evil, and as Peter comes to terms with what actually happened to Verity, who died years ago and the cause of his strange quirks as he faces this trauma, he manages to overcome The Shroud.  This was a mental defence he had installed himself, but hampered him in his daily life as a result.  Verity remains behind in the Underlands as the new queen of the Pangolin, as Peter returns to his home.

Okay, so the special effects are average, and the story at times drags a bit to much in dialogues.  But while you can't expect the next The Neverending Story or the likes from this little film, it wasn't all that bad as some reviews make it appear to be.  It is what it is, a non-high budget, fantasy themed journey of a young boy with a trauma.

Enjoyable for a lazy evening, nothing more, nothing less to be honest as such...