"Mio in the Land of Faraway" is a book from Astrid Lindgren, the same writer of the Pippi Longstockings books. She was inspired to write the story after reportedly seeing a lonely and sad looking boy sitting alone on a bench. The story is her imagining adventures for the sad boy as well as a happy ending.
The film itself is unusual in that it's a Norwegian/Soviet/Swedish co-production. What makes it even stranger is that many of the leads are either British or American! And, the movie was filmed mostly in the Ukraine but also in Scotland and Sweden.
The story of Nicholas is indeed sad. He's an orphan who is adopted by a cold, uncaring woman. Why she adopted him in the first place is confusing...especially since she spends much of her time telling the boy how worthless he is. However, the boy has adventures ahead of him...and a huge floating head comes for him on that bench and takes him to a faraway land. There, the boy meets the King...who turns out to be his real father and tells Nicholas that his real name is Mio.
A short time later, Mio and his friend Jum-Jum (Christian Bale) leave the comfort of the King and his castle in search of adventure...along with the beautiful horse his father gave him. This takes him to a land where the evil Kato (Christopher Lee) rules and keeps children in cages. Along the way, he meets others who help him in his adventure. Can the boy manage to beat Kato or will he, too, end up in a cage along with Jum-Jum?
How much you enjoy this film is doubtlessly related to your age. It's designed for kids...and I do think most older kids (7-12) would enjoy it quite a bit. Younger ones won't so much be upset to watch it (though it can be a bit scary and I would not have young kids watch it alone) but I cannot imagine their attention spans holding up for such a film. As far as adults who watch it with their kids go, it's not terrible and they should be able to enjoy the story...just not as much as their kids!
Overall, the film has very good production values, very good special effects for 1987 (don't expect perfection here...as computer generated effects just didn't exist much at that time). The story is decent and the acting pretty good. I did not love this story...but I'm also a guy in my 50s and think you should consider this. But I didn't dislike it and the story was engaging, if a bit dark.
The film itself is unusual in that it's a Norwegian/Soviet/Swedish co-production. What makes it even stranger is that many of the leads are either British or American! And, the movie was filmed mostly in the Ukraine but also in Scotland and Sweden.
The story of Nicholas is indeed sad. He's an orphan who is adopted by a cold, uncaring woman. Why she adopted him in the first place is confusing...especially since she spends much of her time telling the boy how worthless he is. However, the boy has adventures ahead of him...and a huge floating head comes for him on that bench and takes him to a faraway land. There, the boy meets the King...who turns out to be his real father and tells Nicholas that his real name is Mio.
A short time later, Mio and his friend Jum-Jum (Christian Bale) leave the comfort of the King and his castle in search of adventure...along with the beautiful horse his father gave him. This takes him to a land where the evil Kato (Christopher Lee) rules and keeps children in cages. Along the way, he meets others who help him in his adventure. Can the boy manage to beat Kato or will he, too, end up in a cage along with Jum-Jum?
How much you enjoy this film is doubtlessly related to your age. It's designed for kids...and I do think most older kids (7-12) would enjoy it quite a bit. Younger ones won't so much be upset to watch it (though it can be a bit scary and I would not have young kids watch it alone) but I cannot imagine their attention spans holding up for such a film. As far as adults who watch it with their kids go, it's not terrible and they should be able to enjoy the story...just not as much as their kids!
Overall, the film has very good production values, very good special effects for 1987 (don't expect perfection here...as computer generated effects just didn't exist much at that time). The story is decent and the acting pretty good. I did not love this story...but I'm also a guy in my 50s and think you should consider this. But I didn't dislike it and the story was engaging, if a bit dark.