Return to Nim's Island is Real Family Fun, Friday, Mar. 15 |

Toby Wallace and Bindi Irwin, courtesy Hallmark Channel

RETURN TO NIM?S ISLAND

Friendly Rating: All ages. Really.

Safety Rating: Some slapstick comedy and some punches

Quality Rating: Actually pretty good.

Movie special airs on Hallmark Channel tonight (Mar. 15) at 8 p.m.

In the vast sea of well-intentioned dreck that is most family programming, when something turns out to be pretty good, it?s pretty exciting. I?m not going to say?Return to Nim?s Island?is perfect. But it is pretty darned good.

Apparently a sequel to a film I don?t recall hearing anything about, called Nim?s Island, you don?t have to have seen the first one to get this one. Based on the novel Nim at Sea, by Wendy Orr, Nim (Bindi Irwin) lives with her scientist father Jack (Matthew Lillard) on a remote, largely untouched island, where he collects samples and studies them. When some evil developers want to build a pirate resort on the island, Jack must take a trip to the mainland to convince the powers that be to stop the development. Nim and her dad?s assistant Felix (Nathan Derrick) stay behind and it?s just as well that they do. Young Edmund (Toby Wallace) has decided to runaway from home to visit the island he visited as a young child and accidentally brings some poachers along for the ride.

Yes, the film is a little bit of a polemic on saving the environment, which isn?t necessarily a bad thing, and the politics are tempered with some good old-fashioned action-adventure fun chasing poachers and searching out endangered species on the island. There is some slapstick humor, mostly Felix (who is afraid of being in the wild) falling down and one knock ?em out fight scene at the end, which is two quick punches and that?s it. There are a couple veiled comments about the potential for disaster when young teens get together, but nothing serious enough to constitute sex talk and the closest Nim gets to Edmund is a hug.

But the best part is Bindi Irwin ? as in naturalist Steve Irwin?s kid. Who knew she could act? She?s not ready to tackle Shakespeare, but she is not a bad little actor.

It?s not a perfect film ? there is the odd clunker of a line and you know it will all come right in the end. But considering that it won?t insult the intelligence of most adults and is still entertaining without being too scary for little ones, that?s a pretty good movie.

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Source: http://yourfamilyviewer.com/2013/03/return-to-nims-island-is-real-family-fun-friday-mar-15/

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