The Secret Kingdom – Movie Review

Saban Films’ The Secret Kingdom from writer/director, Matt Drummond is proof that the company which created the frenzy of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the 1990’s still has what it takes to deliver exciting children’s entertainment, but with more class and artistry than martial arts action wrapped in primary colors.

The Secret Kingdom pulls a very Wizard of OZ style trick on the audience in it’s opening scenes by delivering a rather drab world inhabited by the skittish Peter (Sam Everingham) and his precocious sister, Verity (Alyla Brown) before kicking into an absolutely dazzling fantasy adventure. Having never heard of Matt Drummond or his filmography, I was unsure as to the quality of film I should be expecting when I pushed play on The Secret Kingdom. It could have easily been dumbed down for preschoolers or a covert high brow concept wrapped in a children’s fantasy skin. I’m happy to report that the balance of tone and content is perfectly measured and very entertaining.

A sense of mystery is instilled in the film from the start when the Peter and Verity’s family move into their new home in the country. We are given multiple examples of Peter’s unexplained phobia of cracks in various surfaces. Whether they be in the sidewalk or the walls of their older home, the young boy is terrified and experiences strange flashes of memory when he sees them. By film’s end this is explained, but it certainly leads to speculation by the audience throughout the movie’s run time.

Eventually the brother and sister find themselves in a local curio shop run by a mysterious woman played by Gabrielle Chan. After an awkward interaction, she provides to them a mystic puzzle piece, which will have a part to play in the adventure to come. It is in this scene that we get our first glimpse of something mystic and dangerous in the air.

Danger is the name of the game when in the floor of Peter’s bedroom swallows up the boy’s bed, dropping the siblings down into a cavernous underground world where the adventure truly begins. The siblings meet a race of anthropormorphic Armadillo like creatures who dwell in this underground world full of stalagmites and stalactites. The leader reveals that their prophecies predicted the arrival by the brother and sister and that Peter is to be their king. It’s also revealed that this underground world is being terrorized by ominous and ethereal villain, The Shroud.

With this set-up, The Secret Kingdom shows its influences, but without ever feeling like a direct homage or lazy imitation. Is it a Harry Potter style rise of a hero story? Yes. Is it about a boy gaining the courage to stand up for himself through journeys in a fantasy land like The Neverending Story? You bet. Do they break into song when each new character is introduced like The Wizard of OZ? No. But the director, Drummond, strikes a fine balance in throughout the film between fairy tale realism and real world pathos, which makes the care put into the filmmaking sparkle on screen.

Though several books and films have been released over the years bearing the title The Secret Kingdom, near as I can tell, this movie is not based on any existing source material, yet the lore and characters feel carefully thought out in a wonderful way. Without overwhelming the viewer with exposition and backstory, the basic rules of the world are laid out efficiently at the beginning and more are discovered along the way. Given a young Armadillo named Pling (Darius Williams) as their guide, the siblings set forth on their quest to encounter a shape-shifting dragon, a two-headed turtle, a kooky bush-baby and face The Shroud to fulfill their destiny.

I want to offer special praise to the computer effects team on this film, as this world is lovingly rendered, with very lush and creative visuals. In one particularly inventive sequence, the armadillo soldiers roll up into balls and act as wheels for a cart which carries Peter and Verity through some tunnels, a moment which brought a smile to my face. By the same token, the animation on the mouths and texture of these wholly CGI creatures doesn’t falter for a moment or take the viewer out of the story. For a film not from a major studio, this feels like an accomplishment.

The two main characters of Peter and Verity are also wonderfully cast. Young Sam Everingham plays his evolution from jumpy, scaredy-cat to noble adventurer with a great sense control and sincerity. Meanwhile, Alyla Brown as Verity sparkles with personality, providing the majority of the levity contained in the film through her facial reactions and spunky attitude. Without these solid performances, the film could easily have become annoying, despite the beautiful imaginary landscapes on screen.

Also worthy of note is the sharpness of the dialogue in The Secret Kingdom. Whether it’s the siblings banter or exposition from any number of magical creatures, every line of the script propels the story forward without feeling like an information dump or statement of the obvious. The audience for The Secret Kingdom may be children, but adults won’t feel they have to turn their brains off during this family movie night, especially with a particularly heartbreaking reveal at one point in the adventure.

On that note, there are some genuinely startling moments in the movie. In fact, my wife was quite startled by a jump scare that occurred just before the children descended into the titular secret kingdom, as a character peers through a hole in the floor boards. It’s to the films credit that it doesn’t polish off the edges to makes itself accessible to the youngest viewer in the room. While never reaching equivalent scares of all the freaky video games kids love to watch gameplay of on YouTube these days, the sense of dread presented in the film provides viewers young and old with a reason to get invested in the journey.

Hopefully The Secret Kingdom doesn’t remain a hidden gem for long. Drummond has created cinematic universe full of interesting characters, that is worthy of further exploration. This film feels as though it could be the beginning of a new fantasy franchise. At the very least it is bound to catch the imagination of young dreamers throughout the world who get a chance to watch it.

The Secret Kingdom will be in theaters, On Demand and VOD on June 9th from Saban Films.