Storm Boy
Directed by Henri Safran
Written by Sonia Borg from a novel by Colin Thiele
1976/Australia
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube
Tom ‘Hide-Away Tom’ Kingsley: The radio will tell you you need this or that and a thousand other things. You’ll want more and more and you’ll end up chasing a lot of rubbish.
This is a beautifully shot family film about the love between a boy and his pelican.
Mike “Storm Boy” Kingsley (Greg Noble) lives with his reclusive fisherman father “Hide-Away Tom” near a wildlife refuge in South Australia. Mike has never been to school at about age 10 and has been very little exposed to the outside world. One day when he is taking a walk he observes hunters shooting and killing a number of white pelicans. Later that day he meets aborigine Fingerbone (David Gulpilil) and finds with him three newly hatched orphan chicks. These he takes home and raises. They all grow to maturity and fly away. The next year one, whom Mike names Mr. Percival, comes back. The two become closely bonded.
Mr. Percival turns out to be a bird of prodigious brain, especially for a pelican, and we get to witness his antics. One of the most memorable parts of the film is when Fingerbone and Mr. Percival dance together. Not only is Mr. Percival smart, he is also heroic. But is he smart enough to outwit the annual visit of evil pelican hunters?
This movie has fabulous nature cinematography and good acting. Unfortunately, I could only find it on YouTube and most of the dialogue was lost on me. I think it was more the audio quality than the accents. Recommended for bird lovers and as a wholesome film for the whole family.
Why in the world would anyone want to kill a pelican? They can’t taste good with their fishy diet and I would imagine they are all muscle. I love them so, especially the brown ones that soar over the California coast.
