Things like myths and legends usually have some basis in fact. Often times it is just for the moral of the story but somehow there will always be, even if it is only a little piece, a part that really existed. If the legendary Scottish Loch Ness monster exists, "The Water Horse" imagines how it may have come to be.
The movie is based on the book by Dick King-Smith and is predominantly set during World War II. An elderly gentleman tells a young couple about a photo of the Loch Ness monster hanging in a local bar. While the photo is a fake, the monster is no monster at all and so the story begins: A young Scottish boy named Angus MacMorrow (Alex Etel) takes home a rather large and dirty rock he finds on the beach. He soon realizes that it is a magical egg, and finds himself raising a cute little sea creature which he names Crusoe.
Angus's family lives in a massive and rather empty Scottish manor. On the day of his discovery of the magical egg, an entire English battalion shows up on their doorstep and starts to spread themselves out. The battalion stands guard over the local lake from invading submarines.
On that same day, a new handyman by the name of Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin) starts his job at the manor. After their first small dispute, Mr. Mowbray takes on the role of a father figure in the place of the late Mr. MacMorrow whose ship had been sunk at sea a year previous.
As Crusoe grows to be abnormally large over a short period of time, it begins to be a problem to keep him a secret. When Angus and his older sister Kristie finally get themselves into a bind with Crusoe, they decide to let Lewis in on it. Lewis recognizes Crusoe as the creature of legend. As legend goes there exists a magical water horse that is both male and female. There is only ever one in the world at any given time and when it comes to the end of its days, it lays a single egg and then passes away of old age before the new egg is hatched. The egg is always adopted by a young boy.
Well, war takes its toll on the household and Crusoe, who has by now been moved to the lake due to the fact that he is as big as a skyscraper. Local people begin to notice the giant creature and gossip begins to float around. The soldiers start to see enemies in every corner and Crusoe becomes violent from all the attacks. It is up to Angus to find a solution to save the mythical creature and ensure that the legend goes on.
I think this movie shows us that sometimes we assume the worst when we come across things we are not used to. Miscommunication can be deadly, as always, and of course, war achieves nothing but death. And yet there are always stories and legends to keep us going and give us hope that magical creatures really do exist.
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