Kayla

Family, friendships, sled dogs, trials, and bonding. A great family film.

Accidentally I saw two films that could be similar one after another. They were both "family" (kids) movies about children and animals. They could have look alike, but they didn't. At all.

First was Andre, a story about a family with a seal (I wrote a review so I won't repeat it here), the second was Kayla. Andre isn't a boring movie but it is a cliché-puzzle with Disney-like rhythm of funny and melodramatic moments. Kayla is much coherent movie with incomparably better characters (even supporting), plot that doesn't look too original (but, after all, there have been made so many movies about kids&animals, so it's really hard to be completely original), but with many refreshing situations, and firmly developing through the movie. Though we can predict the ending, certain situations appear as something new and keep our attention till the end. (In fact, last few minutes - the race - is the worst part, obviously it had to be made that way not to disappoint children audience, but still not a quarter as irritating as girl-rescue in Andre.) Maybe photography isn't as attractive as could be considering the location - how can anybody beat Disney at this segment (but compare also for instance Ronja Rövardotter, Malá morská víla /Little Mermaid - Czech/ or Krol sokolu)...

I like Arctic, I like dogs, but I like seals too, so it's not the reason why I give Kayla so many marks more than Andre. Simply, Kayla is a whole-family movie about kids and animals, and one of best of that kind. And if you like Kayla too, and if you are lucky to find it, give a chance to an old Croatian movie "Vuk samotnjak" - a boy, a wild dog, snow, mountains... Different from most Croatian movies which deal with local events in a local manner, hardly understood to foreigners, this one can be understandable worldwide (apart general knowledge about WWII there's nothing you're expected to know before it starts).

The movie is OK, kind of slow at first, but picks up. It is about a boy who has lost his father in an unknown sledding / exploration accident and wishes he could find him.

His mother remarries and they move up north and the boy thinks he found his fathers dog.

Neighbors are upset because wild dogs are mating with wolves and killing livestock.

Some exciting things happen for the boy and the ending is very good.

I am giving it 5 stars instead of 10 because it used "G**D***" twice and several other curse words. SO it is not Family Friendly.

I would give it a higher rating if the movie was dubbed to remove the unnecessary filthy language.