Frog Dreaming (1986)

Overrated

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

After "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was a massive hit in 1982, most of its cast seemed to disappear from screens, save for Drew Barrymore who would go on to make some racy teen flicks and a string of personal problems before cleaning herself up. But E.T.'s main star, young Henry Thomas, would be offered the opportunity to play the leading role in a small Aussie film called Frog Dreaming. Thomas was the main draw card of the film, coming off the massive success of E.T and after arriving in remote Victorian towns such as Woods Point and various parts of Healesville and the Mornington-Peninsula, he must have been the superstar of the shoot, playing along side a string of amateur Aussie actors. The kid proved he could act in E.T., playing the passionate and juvenile Eliot, but his brilliant performance can also be attributed to the directing duties of one Mr. Steven Spielberg. He does reasonably well in Frog Dreaming, but the amateur feel and look of the film can distract from the fact that his character Cody, is well thought out and compelling, but the young actor wasn't in the hands of an actor's director. Now onto the story… The films opens looking out onto the deep, murky waters of an uncharted lake, where something sinister awaits. First, bubbles start to appear on the surface, slow and small to begin with, then stronger and louder. As the surface of water changes, a dark, grotesque shape materialises, rising above the surface to take whatever so happens to be floating on the surface. An absent minded man in a small fishing boat cannot escape the power of the beast coming from beneath him.Young Thomas plays Cody Walpole. Moving to Australia from the United States after his parents died, Cody lives in a small country town where he spends his time inventing things and breaking as many rules as he can to see those inventions realised. We meet him as he's about to embark on one of these elaborate stunts, where he's fitted out his BMX with an engine and wheels that can attach it to the nearby rail tracks. Whizzing along the tracks, with no regard for whether or not a train could come along and flatten him at any second, the whole town turns out to watch Cody. He completes his silly stunt without a scratch, but not without getting a telling off from the local chief of police. On one of his local nature hikes through Devil's Knob National Park with two girls in tow, Cody just so happens to stumble upon the previously mentioned lake. It is an eerie place in every sense of the word, but also strangely beautiful. Brown muddy water is towered over by tall yellow stone cliffs and rugged trees that could only be as old as the land itself. Always with a sense of adventure, Cody ventures to a cliff top and jumps into the water. Fun and excitement soon turn into fear, as there is clearly a presence lurking not just in the water, but all around the lake itself. A rusty old windmill starts to spin, with no breath of a wind to help it, and objects are seamlessly pulled towards the centre of the lake. Cody and the girls get away, but as any fourteen year would, Cody must get to the bottom of the truth of what he saw, even if that means venturing into the bottom of the lake itself. He asks around the local town, but no one seems to know this waterhole exists, as it doesn't show up on any maps. Turning to some of the local Indigenous peoples, Cody hears about the truth behind the mysterious lake. He is told there is something down there, and it's known to the Aboriginal locals as "Donkegin". Whatever, or whoever, enters its territory will not live to tell the tale. However, the fearless and enterprising Cody isn't phased by this and will discover the truth of the legend of Frog Dreaming, whatever it takes. But before he can, he will first have to Dance with the Devil himself. Like the mystery of the Loch Ness monster, playing with the question of "Is it there, or is it not there?" Frog Dreaming toys with this idea as well, and has a lot of fun with. The director builds up a great sense of atmosphere throughout the film, that is both tense, mysterious and foreboding. Cody is probably a little too curious and daring for his own good, and even goes as far as to rig himself an underwater breathing apparatus out of a fishbowl and oxygen in barrels he creates from pressuring water – seriously, this kid is smart and can make anything out of just about anything. Again, another appealing aspect of this film to me as a kid. Remember the times in your own backyard when you thought how cool it would be just to invent something? Or wondering if you could sneak into that old junkyard, pick out a few parts and build something cool? I might have attempted that as kind at some point, nothing to rival the technical skills of young Cody. Although small in scale and amateur in its production, Frog Dreaming is still effective in it's stronger parts and continues to hold up today almost thirty years later as a great family film. It pays respect to the legends and ideas it toys with, and although not everything is as it seems in the lake as Cody discovers, there is surely a spirit there of some kind; connected to the Dreamtime, which the Aboriginal people's speak of and protect, with only a select special few, including Cody, coming to know the real truth of Frog Dreaming.

I got an IMDb account specifically to review this movie; if that tells you anything. Before the internet existed, and then before torrents become viable, I had no luck finding it after watching it once as a rental; the other "The Quest" kept getting in my way. I spent a lot of time searching for a copy of this. It's difficult to explain the movie to people who aren't familiar with it, and the premise isn't so hot on paper. Objectively, it's not an AAA title, but it just might be my favorite film. There is a mythic quality to it; some primeval fascination - from the standpoint of an evolutionary biologist, I would say that there was good reason for our ancestors to pay a lot of attention to strange bubbles and ripples in the water, and perhaps for that reason, the mystery at the heart of this movie is eerie and compelling. Dreamlike is the best word for this movie - it doesn't make a great deal of sense, but it is invested with some cryptic and deeply felt meaning; like a strange recurring dream.Structurally it really is similar to both E.T., the Goonies and in a way Stand By Me; it has a little bit of star wars to it in terms of feel and aesthetic. The setting, the music, and the strange little premise take it away from those more familiar reference points and into a very strange place.

I have not seen this in 15 years but it has stayed with me enough to look it up here, (more than you can say for most films aimed at kids.) At the time I think we did watch it hoping it would be another 'Goonies.' What we found was different and slower but still fantastic at inspiring the imagination. Frankly if you found it confusing or overly wordy then you were either very young or pretty dumb. The pragmatic lead kid is sure there must be a rational explanation to an Aboriginal story about a spooky lake. He does indeed discover that the 'donkegine' is really just a donkey engine left at the bottom of the lake (maybe the writer was watching Star Trek the motion picture or something) but he learns about an alternate and interesting culture as well as I suppose grasping that there isn't an answer to everything out there. It's a charming 'coming of age' story that I'd like to see again.

This is one of the most boring movies I have ever seen! I was interested in it when I first rented it, but when I watched it, I almost fell asleep! It's very confusing and it didn't get me very interested. Maybe a couple of parts got me a little interested, but that's all. Mainly, I thought this movie was a total waste of time. Rent it if you want, but I'm warning you, you might regret it...