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.
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