Because I haven't seen the original Red Dog movie like many reviewers here, I'm assessing this movie as a stand-alone proposition. It's a heartwarming story of childhood in the Australian outback told by way of Michael (Mick) Carter's (Jason Isaacs) reminiscing with his 12 year son Leo (Zen McGrath). When Mick was 12 himself (Levi Miller) in 1969, he was sent to his grandpa's (Bryan Brown) vast remote cattle station near Dampier in Western Australia and by vast I mean it's 3 flights to get there and it needs a helicopter to get around and muster cattle. It turns out that Mick has been sent to his grandfather because his mother has been committed to a mental institution but this information is kept from the young boy.
Not long after settling in, he finds a little puppy caked in mud and he calls him Blue because he looked blue in the mud but once he washes him off, he was red but the name stuck. Mick is mischievous and inquisitive and roams the vast station on a small motorbike that his grandpa gave him and he discovers a cave where he finds a sacred Aboriginal rock. He gets on well with an aboriginal musterer only a few years older than him.
A funny highlight of the movie is when his grandpa flies in a tutor called Betty (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) to help Mick do his correspondence lessons, something Mick is dreading and it turns out to be a girl who's only six years older than him who just finished high school and he develops a huge early adolescent crush to the point where he wants to fight the helicopter pilot who also fancies her!
After a year it turns out that the mother has been transferred to an institution in Melbourne and Mick is going to go to a grammar boarding school there and so, such is the bond between boy and dog, it ends up being a very tearful and difficult separation and in fact Blue follows the helicopter and soon after runs away from the station and roams the great northwest setting up the plot for the original Red Dog movie. This reminisce is triggered by the older Michael Carter taking his two boys to see the Red Dog movie where he cries and he tells his son how what was in the movie came to happen.
Bryan Brown puts in a typically brilliant performance. He's not only one of Australia's most experienced actors but he seems to personify the rugged Aussie bloke and he portrays the tough, grizzled outback farmer to a T and so it's an interesting dynamic watching him develop a closeness to his near teenage grandson. This was the second of five major leading roles that the then 12 year old Levi Miller landed in 18 months (Pan preceded this film and then the next year, Better Watch Out, American Exit and Jasper Jones). Levi demonstrates in this rather pedestrian story line the ability to brilliantly portray with great accurate nuance what often happens for early adolescent boys. He's become not just one of Australia's top actors but he's right up there in the top echelon of teen actors globally with likely strong adult roles ahead.
Not long after settling in, he finds a little puppy caked in mud and he calls him Blue because he looked blue in the mud but once he washes him off, he was red but the name stuck. Mick is mischievous and inquisitive and roams the vast station on a small motorbike that his grandpa gave him and he discovers a cave where he finds a sacred Aboriginal rock. He gets on well with an aboriginal musterer only a few years older than him.
A funny highlight of the movie is when his grandpa flies in a tutor called Betty (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) to help Mick do his correspondence lessons, something Mick is dreading and it turns out to be a girl who's only six years older than him who just finished high school and he develops a huge early adolescent crush to the point where he wants to fight the helicopter pilot who also fancies her!
After a year it turns out that the mother has been transferred to an institution in Melbourne and Mick is going to go to a grammar boarding school there and so, such is the bond between boy and dog, it ends up being a very tearful and difficult separation and in fact Blue follows the helicopter and soon after runs away from the station and roams the great northwest setting up the plot for the original Red Dog movie. This reminisce is triggered by the older Michael Carter taking his two boys to see the Red Dog movie where he cries and he tells his son how what was in the movie came to happen.
Bryan Brown puts in a typically brilliant performance. He's not only one of Australia's most experienced actors but he seems to personify the rugged Aussie bloke and he portrays the tough, grizzled outback farmer to a T and so it's an interesting dynamic watching him develop a closeness to his near teenage grandson. This was the second of five major leading roles that the then 12 year old Levi Miller landed in 18 months (Pan preceded this film and then the next year, Better Watch Out, American Exit and Jasper Jones). Levi demonstrates in this rather pedestrian story line the ability to brilliantly portray with great accurate nuance what often happens for early adolescent boys. He's become not just one of Australia's top actors but he's right up there in the top echelon of teen actors globally with likely strong adult roles ahead.