The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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The Secret Kingdom
Adventure · Family · Fantasy · 2023
Verity and Peter’s trip to the old family mansion takes a turn when the floor of their room suddenly gives way and they fall into an underground chamber where they are met by a civilization of creatures. The leader tells them that Peter's arrival was foretold as he’s the one who can use Great Clock of the Citadel to restart time and destroy the Shroud, a malevolent creature who feeds on fear itself...
Movie details
The Secret Kingdom
2023 Adventure · Family · Fantasy 1h 38m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.3 / 10
Community rating
Verity and Peter’s trip to the old family mansion takes a turn when the floor of their room suddenly gives way and they fall into an underground chamber where they are met by a civilization of creatures. The leader tells them that Peter's arrival was foretold as he’s the one who can use Great Clock of the Citadel to restart time and destroy the Shroud, a malevolent creature who feeds on fear itself...
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Secret Kingdom?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Chupa
Adventure · 2023
While visiting family in Mexico, a lonely boy befriends a mythical creature hiding on his grandfather's ranch and embarks on the adventure of a lifetime.
Discovering Dinotopia
Adventure · 2002
The citizens of Waterfall City flee for the tenuous safety of Earthfarm, abandoning their city to the dangerous Outsiders - who discover the key to Dinotopias future and threaten its survival.
City of Ember
Adventure · 2008
For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Now, two teenagers, in a race against time, must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence, before the the lights go out forever.
Pete's Dragon
Adventure · 2016
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace, who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales... until she meets Pete, a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete's descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham's stories. With the help of Natalie, an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
The Legend of Ochi
Family · 2025
In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a shy farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an elusive animal species known as ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby ochi has been left behind, she escapes on a quest to bring him home.
Inkheart
Adventure · 2008
The adventures of a father and his young daughter, in their search for a long lost book that will help reunite a missing, close relative.
The Black Cauldron
Animation · 1985
Taran is an assistant pigkeeper with boyish dreams of becoming a great warrior. However, he has to put the daydreaming aside when his charge, an oracular pig named Hen Wen, is kidnapped by an evil lord known as the Horned King. The villain hopes Hen will show him the way to The Black Cauldron, which has the power to create a giant army of unstoppable soldiers.
Anastasia: Once Upon a Time
Family · 2020
Anastasia Romanov escapes through a portal when her family is threatened by Vladimir Lenin, and she finds herself in the year 1988, befriended by a young American girl.
The Princess and the Goblin
Adventure · 1991
The story is about the Princess Irene and a young warrior boy named Curty. Irene must use her magic power to fight off goblins and save the kingdom.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Adventure · 2010
This time around Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Matt Drummond
Written by
Matt Drummond
Sam Everingham
Peter
Alyla Browne
Verity
Alice Parkinson
Viviane Drawmer
Beth Champion
Ego
Christopher Gabardi
David Drawmer
Darius Williams
Pling
Gabrielle Chan
The Shroud
Court is in session
Put The Secret Kingdom on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.