Solving the mystery proves to be quite an adventure and results in some improved relationships. There is also some minor violence and some people do jail time.
Gator Moore is quite a character, but he doesn't quite reach his full potential. In some scenes he is everything we saw when he was introduced, and in others he's just an ordinary 10-year-old solving a mystery.
Also not utilized fully is the comic strip art. First we see Gator's work, and later actual characters in the movie are transformed into their comic book counterparts. Gator is adding to his work on this real-life mystery all the time, but we don't really see that much of it. It's great when we do.
Still, this is an entertaining, sometimes scary and often funny story, with some of the standard situations you run into with this formula. Finding the clues requires intelligence and things are just complicated enough.
Most of the actors are good enough. Robert Grossman, though, really stands out. He's just plain intimidating and should have his own horror movie or TV show, if not a series. Imagine Christopher Lloyd with the voice of Roscoe Lee Browne.
Garrett Schenck may be too old by now, but if someone with a liberal agenda was looking for an actor to play Donald Trump, he certainly has the right look, if The Donald let his hair turn gray and actually looked his age. His style of speaking isn't exactly eloquent, but that's why I say Trump as depicted by liberals. For what may or may not be a villain, Schenck gets it right but isn't too intimidating. There's always a question there about what he is.
When I saw this movie it had a V-chip rating of TV-14. That's overdoing it. All I can conclude is that someone must have figured if a 10-year-old is the main character, they don't want to encourage 10-year-olds to watch. I say there's nothing harmful here. Minor violence. That's it. One word was bleeped.
This is a fun mystery that should probably be a series.
