DVD Review: ‘Labou’

Kid friendly family flicks that aren’t excessively dumbed down and bearable for adults to watch seem to be few and far between these days. It’s a welcome occasion that one comes along, especially one limited to a DVD release, that succeeds fairly well on all the core elements of what I feel makes a good children’s movie.

These criteria include: being entertaining to children but at the same time intelligent enough to offer more than just simple entertainment, being handled in a way that honors a child’s intelligence and natural ability to process new information rather than being watered down without challenging them to think a little, and finally the ability to keep the parent and/or supervising adult at least partially entertained, or at the very least, keep them from losing their minds in the process of spending 90 minutes trapped by the movie.

‘Labou’ is a newly released children’s DVD from MGM that takes youthful viewers on an adventure through multiple classic genres of adventure. The story follows three friends who discover Labou, a mythical swamp-dwelling creature, as they attempt to save their beloved New Orleans bayou from being developed by oil tycoons, utilizing the help of a feared pirate’s ghost and the last living descendant of the pirate’s bloodline. The pirate’s vast treasure is thought to be buried in the bayou, which is what holds the pirate to his earthly confines.

This is mostly an adventure story but does contain several plot elements that introduce a child’s mind to questions of ethical philosophy, which is an excellent thing in my opinion. Notice I do not use the term “moral” philosophy as that suggests spiritual or religious implications. ‘Labou’ plants subtle seeds on the topics of environment versus corporate development, right and wrong in terms of social standards and choices revolving around what it means to be a friend and the nature of giving without an expectation to receive. If a movie made for children does not offer these talking points, it is a wasted opportunity, but not as wasted as a movie that does offer these talking points and the parent fails to utilize them.

In addition to the adventure and fantastical elements of the movie, ‘Labou’ is also a mystery as the three friends attempt to locate the pirate’s treasure. With the help of their swamp-dwelling friend Labou and an old treasure map, the three friends put their minds to work and piece together the treasure’s location. The story engages children to think ahead and deduct the outcome as they watch.

Visually, the movie is more appealing than the average children’s video that is usually shot in a very straight-forward “on video” fashion, implementing moody and creative lighting as well as set designs that invoke curiosity and fairy tale atmosphere. The special effects aren’t stellar, but are certainly acceptable. The character of Labou is a playfully appropriate design utilizing both CGI and animatronics, given life by a personality that reminiscent of both ‘Mac & Me’ and Gizmo from ‘Gremlins’. The special effects used for the pirate’s ghost are extremely similar to that of Slimer from ‘Ghostbusters’.

‘Labou’ is written and directed by Greg Aronowitz, a make-up and special effects artist who previously worked on ‘Power Rangers’. The film features real-life New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in the role of Mayor Adams and ends with a distinctly Scooby-Doo style flair. As for whether ‘Labou’ passes my test for kid’s movies… the movie passes with above average scores on the first two criteria and scores about a C+ on the adult sanity scale.

[Overall: 3.75 out of 5 stars for kids, 3 out of 5 stars for adults]