Spain 2022
Opening August 25, 2022
Directed by: Enrique Gato
Writing credits: Manuel Burque, Josep Gatell, Neil Landau
Principal actors: Animation: Oscar Barberán, Alexandra Jiménez, Michelle Jenner
Archaeologist Tad Stones keeps making mistakes. Recently he destroyed a rare sarcophagus, which provoked negative effects on his team. His best friend, a mummy, now has some characteristics of an alligator, and his dog Jeff is part bird. Only Sarah, also an archaeologist with whom he is secretly in love, still believes in him. He needs to discover something very special to earn praise and professional recognition. He sets off to find the emerald tablet. His evil competition, Victoria, is already ahead of him, having found the key to the location. The search takes him from Mexico to Chicago, then Paris, and finally Egypt. He is followed by members of the Central Intelligence Agency, Sam Pickle and Ramire, who are investigating him. And then there is Ramona, who complains that she hasn’t received full recognition as the Pharaoh, that she is meant to be.
This is a wonderful film for the whole family, age six and older. Mummy is always loyal to Tad, after all “Tad found him after 1000 years” and he enjoys shopping with Tad’s money. Dog Jeff is quite helpful, rescuing the tablet thanks to his new ability to fly. And then there is Belzoni, a parrot. We have fascinating, animated characters in action across an equally amazing background. It seems to have an originality, different from your usual Mickey-Mouse-Donald-Duck expectations. The characters work through ”4000 years of antiquity” but keep contact with the modern world saying, “Life is such a drag without your cell phone.” Young viewers are introduced to vocabulary such as antiquity, archaeologist, sarcophagus, pharaoh, etc. I enjoyed the film in the original English version (unexpected considering that it’s a Spanish film) and will be interested to see whether the German version reaches the high standard set. ()