Review: Treasure Island Kids: The Monster of Treasure Island – Treasure Island 2 – The Monster of Treasure Island (2004)

Directed by: Gavin Scott | 83 minutes | adventure, family | Actors: Beth Allen, David Aston, Grant Bridger, John Callen, Barry Duffield, Jack Hurst, Michael Hurst, Sasha Tilley, Nicko Vella, Devon Wood

This second part is, if possible, even more chaotic and the acting is even worse than in its predecessor ‘Treasure Island Kids: The Battle for Treasure Island’ (2004). This time the teenagers are making a film. The girls take care of their own production and the boys try to offer something much better in return. At first, both groups bother each other and play all sorts of silly and dirty jokes back and forth, but when they realize that a real sea monster of gigantic proportions is making the waters around the island and finally the island itself unsafe, they join forces.

They receive help from a Professor Kosinski (Grant Bridger) who sees in this monster’s appearance an excellent opportunity to get an extinct, antediluvian creature into his laboratory for thorough scientific research. The beast must be killed first, a not insurmountable problem. But in a movie like this, the monster isn’t bad, of course, just looking for her baby. The children therefore do their utmost to prevent the monster from being killed and ending up on the professor’s cutting table. And hopefully they will also be able to get her baby back to her.

The best thing about the movie is that the monster is unashamedly made of plastic, no attempt is made at anything that smells the slightest bit of special effects and that is quite funny. But to make a youth film that is a poor substitute for the not-so-good ‘Loch Ness’ (1996) is really not necessary. Then as a viewer it is better to throw some plastic dinosaurs into a large bath and then sit down and be very afraid of it. And that is probably much more entertaining too.