Movie Review: The Secret Kingdom

© Saban Films

The Secret Kingdom is a by-the-numbers kids fantasy flick with some hidden depth.
by Jeremy Fogelman

Cast: Sam Everingham, Alyla Browne, Alice Parkinson, Chris Gabardi, Darius Williams, Beth Champion, Adventure, Family
Rating: ★★

There’s a sort of generic 20th century faerie tale template for siblings-as-fantasy-heroes, which is a loosely defined “other world” of sorts that has an imaginary quality to it connected to childhood -- this is often referred to as a “paracosm”. Technically speaking, early authors such as the Brontë sisters wrote about such realms, but C.S. Lewis popularized the notion of kids going to another world with the Narnia books.

It’s the sort of concept that’s been around for a long time, and children’s tales have continued to use the idea ever since -- including books, TV, and movies. Naturally such tend to wildly vary in quality, as children’s works often do, and it’s hard to stand out from the crowd, especially if you’re trying to “say” something with your story. It’s a lot of pressure to simply tell a coherent story, let alone an innovative or deep one -- the sort the thing that’s difficult to really pull off.

The Secret Kingdom comes from writer/director Matt Drummond, who has a primarily VFX background but is relatively new to feature films. The opening narration tells us that the world is separated into Lands Above and Below, with a king who could utilize imagination to perform great deeds until the attack of a dark creature called the “Shroud”. It’s a pretty boilerplate setup for a fairly straightforward story, one that doesn’t really reveal anything more than the surface level until the very end.

We start the film watching a family (in Australia) move into a new house in the country, with two children -- bright-eyed and energetic younger sister Verity (Alyla Browne) and morose, troubled older brother Peter (Sam Everingham). Peter also appears to be seeing things, whether or not they are real or not is meant to be unclear at first, and there’s a lingering miasma of fear he is suffering from (he utilizes an anti-anxiety method when he sees cracks to count down to safety).

Verity is always trying to pull him out of his depression, but Peter remains resistant. Their adventure begins when a mysterious shopkeeper of East Asian descent (Gabrielle Chan) somehow influences Peter to purchase a set of interlocking blocks, clearly a part of something else. Peter gets a gift from his mother of his late grandfather’s compass, which we know will later be important.

© Saban Films

The two siblings soon literally fall into a mysterious underworld, where a bunch of armadillo-like animals called pangolins rescue them and reveal that Peter is the prophesied King (because of course he is) and must solve a series of puzzles to unlock a magical clock that will turn back time itself to restore the realm. All very straightforward so far, and the two siblings are even paired with a nervous sidekick pangolin named Pling (Darius Williams).

Perhaps it’s due to the director’s VFX background, but the CGI in the movie is actually pretty good overall, and most of the creature designs integrate pretty well with the two human actors in the middle of a green screen world. It’s not perfect, but for a low budget movie like this, it’s pretty impressive. There are some other characters with exaggerated voices, all voiced by the director -- it’s clear that he isn’t the most talented voice performer, especially compared to the other voice actors.

The two child actors do a pretty decent job, all things considered, and the character of Peter in particular is asked to really get a little complicated with some things over the course of the movie. The directorial style is decent enough, and the story is a ludicrously simple “get this to get this” sort of thing. But there’s actually a real theme in there, one that is only revealed near the end of the movie, and recontextualizes the entire story in a far more interesting way.

I don’t think the story entirely holds up as something that compelling, but I do appreciate the ideas behind the attempt, which had the potential to be something more meaningful and memorable even if it couldn’t really pull it off. The advice given in the movie about overcoming fear is a tad simplistic and not fully considered, but it’s a nice notion nonetheless. It’s a bit of a simple sort of movie in the end, but it’s not hateable nor problematic -- it’s real problem is that it can’t really handle the themes it contains. It’s an interesting problem to have, and one that I tend to respect more than just a lazy cash grab.

The Secret Kingdom has a run time of 1 hour 38 minutes and is rated PG for action/peril and thematic elements. The film is now available from digital retailers. Click the icons below for more information.