Combine local monster myths with an oversized egg hatching off a “loch” in Scotland and you are set up for terror. But if, as in “Water Horse”, the monster turns out to be quite loveable and innocent – just terribly misunderstood – well, maybe that is different.
   In the movie a variety of individuals react to the strange recent goings-on in and around the loch.  Young Angus MacMarrow tries to keep the fast-growing beast a secret so nervous townspeople won’t try to get rid of or capture it.
   Pace and predictability are weaker points in a rather upbeat, satisfying tale. The action of the computer-assisted monster convinced us, and so some of the peril might be too much for those under, say, nine years old. Mouthy kissing at one point and occasional minor swearing further explain the PG rating. Holds up fine when you compare it to other child-protects-animal-from-the-mindless-community movies (e.g. Free Willy, etc.) and very well to the children’s versions of the preserve-the-dinosaur motif.

Spencer and Mark (Spencer Moulton and his dad, Mark Moulton) stamp it worthy of

2 1/2 out of 4 stars…being as we are, overly picky!

Suggested things to discuss right after watching:

   Why did certain people want to get rid of the waterhorse; and what did they think was true about the water horse that really was not? [In each instance, what is a different way things might have happened so that the people involved would have recognized they were overreacting?]  Have you yourself ever judged a person or a situation more harshly than the facts ended up supporting? (And, did anyone get offended? And, can you think of what you might have done to be more reasonable about it?)

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