Sun, sea, sand and mermaids. What's not to love about that? It's exactly what you get with the movie Scales Mermaids Are Real, available now on Amazon Prime. I should point out that as an adult writing this review, I did actually watch it with my nine-year-old who loved it!
Scales Mermaids Are Real follows the story of 11 year old Siren Philips, played by Emma Perry. She's a perfectly normal little girl living with her mum in a beachside house. It's a lovely town and life is very ordinary. She then befriends the new boy in school, Adam, who has brittle bone disease. Apparently, there's a possible cure that his father is searching for and they believe they can find it in the town.
That's when we discover that Siren, who will soon turn 12, is actually half mermaid. Her birth mother was a full mermaid and entrusted her care to her friend. Plus, she also made her promise to keep the secret for as long as possible. The change has already started to begin in Siren. But there's a twist! Not only is her best friend also half mermaid, but so are quite a few of the town's women.
The drama comes in the form of the hunters. Their mission is to track down the half breed mermaids and capture them. And, as you can probably guess, Adam's father is one of them. Believing that Siren's blood will cure his son, the race is on to evade capture and transition peacefully into the sea.
The premise of the story is really good for kids. It's about friendship, loyalty and doing the right thing. There is a small bit of tension that builds as the mermaids are being hunted down but it's nothing that kids can't handle. The cast is really good and includes Morgan Fairchild and Elisabeth Röhm.
Overall, it has its fair share of pre-teen angst, a healthy dose of fantasy and isn't the worst movie you could watch with the kids. Along the lines of Just Add Magic, which is also great for the family.
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Rose Mascitelli
I was offended when in the beginning one student keeps asking main character if she’s “psycho”. She says are you a crazy person? …I believe this helps to marginalize real people who do experience psychosis through no fault of their own. It’s not ok to make fun of lung cancer patients but it’s ok to make fun of the one in one hundred who have schizophrenia? Not a good thing to reinforce in youngsters- shows ignorance of writers of this movie. Also the girl says I thought I could control water and thought I was losing my mind. What about real people who are losing their grip on reality? Let’s be kind to the suffering- not ostracize them more.