Synopsis
Harvie stumbles across a secret in his father's puppet museum.
Review
Where to begin with this?
Let's go with a look at the story. Harvie is obsessed with videos games and all he wants to do is get to the last level of his latest purchase. Harvie's father is trying to save his puppet museum from being closed by the corrupt mayor. Through a series of events Harvie, his friend and his dog fall into the basement of the museum and discover an artefact that brings the puppets to life.
It doesn't sound like a bad film, fun little kids movie in the making... if only.
The graphics are computer game inspired, but very cheap looking. There's absolutely nothing exceptional about them, the only complimentary thing I can say is that they aren't the worst I've ever seen.
The movie's namesake, Harvie, is the worst character I've ever encountered. He's rude, obnoxious and detached from reality, to name just a few. The artefact that he finds reminds him of his games controller, and what unfolds around that fact is quite possibly the worst bit of the whole film. If any of the other characters had slapped him for being so ridiculous I honestly would have stood up and applauded. There was no redeeming quality about him whatsoever. Despite the fact that you want the story to be resolved you don't want him to be the one to do it, he is an undeserving hero.
None of the characters are particularly likeable, they all have their own cliched qualities and don't work well together. More than once they set you up to expect one thing from them and then throw you a bit of a curveball later on.
I'm not entirely sure that the story makes sense even though it should be a simple one to tell. There's certainly a lot that could have been cut or should have had a different tone which would have made the film better.
Stars for this film are entirely for the story idea. I could see it successfully being a Scooby Doo story... in fact, the more I think about it, the more I want that to happen.
What you should do
I know it's tempting to try these films when they pop up at movies for juniors screenings but absolutely do not bother with this one, the characters aren't ones you'd want your kids to take ideas from.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Some of the ballerina puppets, they look amazing, I've put them on the list of things to make for my nerd room.
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