THE SECRET KINGDOM is another Romanian-shot kid's fantasy film from Full Moon Pictures. This one feels particularly tired and merely serves to carry on producer Charles Band's obsession with miniaturisation in his movies. The mundane plot has a couple of kids finding out that a whole miniaturised world exists in their own kitchen, with model soldiers coming to life in a mini-civil war taking place beneath their feet. The budget's too low for any kind of special effects, so this merely has silly plotting and overacting on the part of the adult performers.
2 Reviews
Fun and Inspiring to the Imagination, but a Little Scary.
staaviinsz14 September 2023
Hi! Welcome to
Mr. FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT'S
SECOND REVIEW!
About me:
I'm a little different than most movie watchers. I try not to overanalyze or critique most movies. If you want the hot take, slap-them-in-the-face-with-a-rake, try elsewhere. I don't know the meaning of the word sarcasm! (Oops... lol) I also avoid movies with too much "extreme" content on any pole, but if there is any, I'll try to let you know! I strive to be an encouragement in your entertainment journey, with appropriate and moral content, and thoughts on the real life significance of the entertainment.
The Secret Kingdom (1998):
This is a pretty fun movie for anyone with a great imagination. I personally enjoyed it quite a lot. This movie left me with a lot of unanswered questions, which I think was intentional to promote the sense of wonder. Though they didn't come out and say all the answers, I do think you can reasonably speculate on most of the answers, and they did give a clearly stated and positive ending to the story. Like who was the man in the beginning of the film giving chase to our lead boy Mark? Was he an out-of-time version of Mark? Or a citizen of Relkin that was displaced somehow? They did give a clue to this answer at the end that I may have missed initially.
Something to keep in mind with this one is that it could be a little scary for younger kids. I myself am 25, and I found that some of the people of Relkin which inexplicably had flesh covering their eyes very frightening and internally unsettling. My guess is that these individuals had been altered for "perfection's sake" and that entailed covering their eyes to make them blind followers and whistle-blowers for some reason. Regardless, I know if I was younger that might have REALLY bothered me. I know it's actually not a hard special effect to do, but it was a convincing and scary one!
There's also some background screams when they go around the area where surgeries are supposedly done to "perfect" people, that actually turn them into semimindless performers of tasks.
All that said, I think this serves to say they did a pretty good job, because it was truly compelling and frightening at moments!
Messages For Real Life?
Some positive takeaways from this would be creativeness and fun in fantasy. How cool would it be to find a kingdom under your kitchen sink? I could have a whole day of play with that as a kid!
This is about the most meaningful moment of the film to me. Throughout the movie, the siblings can be quite rude to each other, but they do love each other in the end, and this is evident. It might be important to advise younger kids that calling other "cockroach" isn't nice or appropriate, but there is a sweet scene when the littlest boy is scared and goes to his sister in bed, and she is more sweet and honest in that moment than in most of the film... that moment really hit home for me. Sometimes it's that quiet moment in bed at the end of the day, especially as kids if you're in the same room, that the real emotional honesty and sweetness comes out.
At the end of the movie they seem to be treating each other better, perhaps because they recognize the blessing of being home and having one another and being home in no significant danger.
All in all, the kids aren't typically nice to each other in much of the movie, but this is kind of funny, as long as you know that it is inappropriate to treat your family members like that, and they are certainly not always mean. They are nice to each other at the end.
But Really, Tell Me More.
I think I would have really liked if the army men at the end of the film actually went into the kingdom of Relkin and became real warriors, although they seemed to somewhat parallel this idea without actually doing it.
I don't remember any cursing in this movie except they keep calling the little brother "cockroach", which I found annoying because I hate that word and those things with a flaming terror!
I liked how clear the ending was, even though there were some questions I had about the man at the beginning (and end) and the Relkin people with flesh-covered eyes.
I also found it funny how the woman friend of Dr. Chartwell's seemed to have a constantly differing level of blouse coverage, although the camera rarely gives you the chance to notice, and it never sinks to any objectionable level, and her role is very minor. I'm sure there might be some funny production insight over that, although her outfit seems to be the kind that might just like to move around a little, so I'm not sure if that qualifies as inconsistency or realism.
I think they did a really good job with what they had, it was a very convincing fantasy story. In all honesty it is amazing what they achieved with the likely budget they may have had. Sometimes you wish you could give a project like this just $10,000 more towards the end, because you KNOW they can actually put it to good use for hiring extras for a big battle or having visual effects added, things that make it even more spectacular, rather than just hiring another person for something and paying another salary like a lot of big movies seem to do by accident after a while.
I rated 7/10 because I had some questions, wished for a thing or two that didn't happen and some of it was a little bit nightmare worthy for me. All in all it was a great family film. I am pretty excited about one of my ideas about the mystery man from the beginning of the film, though.
God bless!
About me:
I'm a little different than most movie watchers. I try not to overanalyze or critique most movies. If you want the hot take, slap-them-in-the-face-with-a-rake, try elsewhere. I don't know the meaning of the word sarcasm! (Oops... lol) I also avoid movies with too much "extreme" content on any pole, but if there is any, I'll try to let you know! I strive to be an encouragement in your entertainment journey, with appropriate and moral content, and thoughts on the real life significance of the entertainment.
The Secret Kingdom (1998):
This is a pretty fun movie for anyone with a great imagination. I personally enjoyed it quite a lot. This movie left me with a lot of unanswered questions, which I think was intentional to promote the sense of wonder. Though they didn't come out and say all the answers, I do think you can reasonably speculate on most of the answers, and they did give a clearly stated and positive ending to the story. Like who was the man in the beginning of the film giving chase to our lead boy Mark? Was he an out-of-time version of Mark? Or a citizen of Relkin that was displaced somehow? They did give a clue to this answer at the end that I may have missed initially.
Something to keep in mind with this one is that it could be a little scary for younger kids. I myself am 25, and I found that some of the people of Relkin which inexplicably had flesh covering their eyes very frightening and internally unsettling. My guess is that these individuals had been altered for "perfection's sake" and that entailed covering their eyes to make them blind followers and whistle-blowers for some reason. Regardless, I know if I was younger that might have REALLY bothered me. I know it's actually not a hard special effect to do, but it was a convincing and scary one!
There's also some background screams when they go around the area where surgeries are supposedly done to "perfect" people, that actually turn them into semimindless performers of tasks.
All that said, I think this serves to say they did a pretty good job, because it was truly compelling and frightening at moments!
Messages For Real Life?
Some positive takeaways from this would be creativeness and fun in fantasy. How cool would it be to find a kingdom under your kitchen sink? I could have a whole day of play with that as a kid!
This is about the most meaningful moment of the film to me. Throughout the movie, the siblings can be quite rude to each other, but they do love each other in the end, and this is evident. It might be important to advise younger kids that calling other "cockroach" isn't nice or appropriate, but there is a sweet scene when the littlest boy is scared and goes to his sister in bed, and she is more sweet and honest in that moment than in most of the film... that moment really hit home for me. Sometimes it's that quiet moment in bed at the end of the day, especially as kids if you're in the same room, that the real emotional honesty and sweetness comes out.
At the end of the movie they seem to be treating each other better, perhaps because they recognize the blessing of being home and having one another and being home in no significant danger.
All in all, the kids aren't typically nice to each other in much of the movie, but this is kind of funny, as long as you know that it is inappropriate to treat your family members like that, and they are certainly not always mean. They are nice to each other at the end.
But Really, Tell Me More.
I think I would have really liked if the army men at the end of the film actually went into the kingdom of Relkin and became real warriors, although they seemed to somewhat parallel this idea without actually doing it.
I don't remember any cursing in this movie except they keep calling the little brother "cockroach", which I found annoying because I hate that word and those things with a flaming terror!
I liked how clear the ending was, even though there were some questions I had about the man at the beginning (and end) and the Relkin people with flesh-covered eyes.
I also found it funny how the woman friend of Dr. Chartwell's seemed to have a constantly differing level of blouse coverage, although the camera rarely gives you the chance to notice, and it never sinks to any objectionable level, and her role is very minor. I'm sure there might be some funny production insight over that, although her outfit seems to be the kind that might just like to move around a little, so I'm not sure if that qualifies as inconsistency or realism.
I think they did a really good job with what they had, it was a very convincing fantasy story. In all honesty it is amazing what they achieved with the likely budget they may have had. Sometimes you wish you could give a project like this just $10,000 more towards the end, because you KNOW they can actually put it to good use for hiring extras for a big battle or having visual effects added, things that make it even more spectacular, rather than just hiring another person for something and paying another salary like a lot of big movies seem to do by accident after a while.
I rated 7/10 because I had some questions, wished for a thing or two that didn't happen and some of it was a little bit nightmare worthy for me. All in all it was a great family film. I am pretty excited about one of my ideas about the mystery man from the beginning of the film, though.
God bless!
- Stephen.
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