When my wife dragged me to this movie I thought I'd be bored. The trailers show nothing except the little monster growing quickly and swimming around happily. What I did not expect is the wonderful, and entertaining background story set in Scotland during WWII.
Now the film has a modern frame as well as the WWII story. An old man tells two young visitors to Loch Ness what they assume is a tall tale. Frames usually don't add much to movies but in this frame is an exception.
In WWII a young boy, who doesn't know his father was lost at sea, finds a strange egg. While the egg grows into a likable, gigantic plesiosaur, a strange man, who might be a German spy, starts as caretaker of the boy's father's estate, and a gunnery unit takes over the estates grounds. The captain of the gunnery unit takes a shine to the boy's Mom, and tries to instill discipline to the boy by treating him like a drill sergeant would a recruit. Meanwhile, the new caretaker decides to keep the boy's new pet a secret. and wins the respect of the boy's mother.
Although there is no real violence in this movie there is a killer (hunter) cook and some shooting. In fact there is a scene with cannon fire that might scare young children. And of course the cook has a tough bull-dog who likes to chase things.
The characters here are well developed and the acting and cinematography is superb. This movie will not disappoint.