A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures is a Belgium-made CGI animated adventure aimed squarely at very young children. It’s been dubbed (rather clumsily at times) into English using the voices of John Hurt, Dominic Cooper and Gemma Arterton. Though it does, just about, work as a film in its own right, it is almost impossible not to keep the words ‘Finding Nemo’ from invading your under-worked mind as you watch it. That Disney/Pixar adventure was a film for everyone. This is a film for toddlers. And that’s about it.
The story is wafer-thin: a turtle swims around a lot and meets other animals. At one point our young turtle hero falls in love/becomes obsessed (delete as applicable) with another female turtle. So he follows her/stalks her creepily (delete as applicable) so he can become her mate. This, of course, provides the audience with a unifying and heart-warming message about the power of love/the sexualisation of childhood (delete as applicable).
The cute animation serves as a moderately successful distraction from the severe state of narrative bankruptcy. The underwater world is gorgeous to look at, and although it lacks the attention to detail of the aforementioned Pixar animation, it is still beautiful and wondrous. If you want to show off your big high definition television, the blu-ray of this will serve you well. If you want to get caught up in a film that is moving, emotionally involving and timeless story set in the ocean, AND looks great in HD, buy Finding Nemo.
A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures (2010), directed by Ben Stassen, is released on Blu-ray and DVD by StudioCanal, Certificate U.
