User Reviews

Tales of the Unexpected: The Boy Who Talked with Animals is set in the Caribbean where young animal lover David (Paul Spurrier) is on holiday with his mum & dad (Vivien Helibron & David Buck), while passing a beach he witnesses some local fishermen ashore with a giant turtle caught in their nets which they intend to sell so it can be killed for food & it's precious shell. David begs them let the turtle go, his father buys the turtle & lets it go free back in the ocean. All is well & the turtle's life has been saved, however the next morning David's parents wake up to discover their son missing & strange tales being told by the local fishermen...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 3 from season 4 & originally aired here in the UK during April 1981, the sixth of ten Tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by Alan Gibson I'm not really sure what I just watched or whom it was meant to appeal to. Unusually for the later seasons of this show the story was based on one by Roald Dahl & was dramatised by Robin Chapman & felt more like a feel good Disney film than a sinister & shocking Tales of the Unexpected episode. I mean the whole save the turtle good deed for the day type thing & then the young boy having some sort of magical powers to be able to relate to animals really felt a bit too sickly for my tastes I'm afraid. I suppose if your looking for a story such as this to warm the cockle's of your heart then you may enjoy it but at only 25 odd minutes in length it can't develop it's character's or it's storyline beyond the simplistic moral of don't kill animals. To be honest this isn't why I watch Tales of the Unexpected although I'll give it credit for trying something different.

This one is set in the Caribbean & I can't quite decide whether this was shot there or on an English beach doubling up as the Caribbean, I could be convinced either way because even though it looks right with palms trees & stuff it's just so overcast, cloudy, there's no sunshine & there's a constant wind blowing in every scene which sounds more like English whether than Caribbean. The turtle they use is obviously a special effect puppet & I have to say it's quite an impressive one considering. Trivia: during the end credits Ron Grainer's instantly recognisable theme music is replaced with a Caribbean style steel drums arrangement of the same tune which is a nice touch I suppose. It was a nice surprise to see the always watchable Stuart Whitman in this & he's probably the best thing about this episode.

The Boy Who Talked with Animals is an odd Tales of the Unexpected, I'm not really sure who it's meant to appeal to & there's nothing particularly unexpected about it & it doesn't even try to have any twists in it. I'm not sure about this one, I'm really not...

On a Caribbean Island (which looks colder then a November day in Merthyr) a group of holiday makers are exited to see a Giant Turtle wash up on the beach, a totally unsympathetic bunch of people, only young David shows any concern for the animal. A young, considerate boy that has the gift of talking to animals, he is clearly distressed when the locals talk of turtle soup and speaks his mind calling them all a bunch of cruel individuals. David succeeds and the fabulous creature returns to the sea, but soon after David disappears.

The illusion of attempting to turn Cornwall into the Caribbean isn't a bad effort, but the grey skies and chilly looking extras can't mask the overcast climate.

In terms of IMDb scores this is rated in the bottom six of all episodes, there is no way on Earth it deserves to be there, it's a decent episode which tries to do something a little different, it shows human nature, bad and good.

If you only watch Tales of the Unexpected for the murders, mystery, suspense and general nastiness then this probably won't be up your Street, but if you like a bit of fantasy, a bit of escapism, then there is something quite magical in its own way. 7/10

It's easy to take a dim view of this episode which I see a number of reviewers have, who have written less than enthusiastically about it. I can understand the mythological aspect of the story and it's ending as one viewer has, but one might also question the idea that the boater Sam (Stuart Whitman) left a kid in the middle of the ocean to eventually drown. How was he going to live out there? I would have hoped for a more practical resolution to the story that didn't leave young David (Paul Spurrier) stranded in the middle of nowhere. This Tales of the Unexpected went for the whimsical, so in that regard it works somewhat, but at the expense of credibility, which depending on your disposition, could be either good or bad.

I read the previous reviews and someone had mentioned that they thought this was the worst episode of TOTU. I completely disagree. Of all the episodes, this one made the biggest impact on me as a kid. Sure, there wasn't a zinger at the end but I don't that was the point the writers were going for. The imagery at the end with the kid riding the turtle was very surreal and powerful. It was a simple story and it had a mythological feel to it. I got it. I might be alone here but I give it two very strong thumbs up.

I also remember they tweaked the theme song and gave it a Caribbean feel. That was a good touch and made the episode that much more memorable.

Last night I had a dream, bordering on a nightmare, about this episode. In fact, from time to time I have the same dream which proves that this episode of TOTU is very memorable, to me anyway. In particular the scene at the end where the boy is far out at sea on top of the turtle. For some reason this has disturbed me from the time I first saw it as a child. I think it's the vulnerability of it all. Everyone has their weak spots in their psyche and I think that's what helped make TOTU so successful. It almost becomes personal. It affected everyone at one point or another within their 112 episodes. Although this episode troubled me, and still does to a point, I think it's one of TOTU's best!