Labou DVD Review

“Sometimes all it takes to find what you’re looking for is a little bit of believin’!” the Jazzman, Ellis Marsalis, tells us at the beginning of Labou, released on DVD May 19th by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and directed by Greg Aronowitz. Three children, Todd (Bryan James Kitto), Gavin (Darnell J. Hamilton) and Emily (Marissa Cuevas) leave their school bus and set off on an adventure to find treasure in a pirate ship! Their first stop is the library, where they’re met by evil con men who want to build an oil refinery on the bayou, father Ronald (Earl J. Scioneaux) and his son Reggie (Chris Violette), but Emily deftly steals the library map and the children determine that they should go to Solomon’s Plantation. Little do they know that Clayton (Kelson Henderson), an “alive” pirate and descendant of the infamous LeRouge (Barnie Duncan) who has haunted the bayou as a ghost for 200 years, are there waiting for them!

Better yet, the Labou are waiting for them! First one, who trills a beautiful whistling song believed to be (they find out later) the origin of jazz, and resembles an alien (most notably E.T. from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, but a lovely light green and orange, with varied spots!), and then other Labou who inhabit the swamp and give the bayou its own particular magic. “They are the Secret of the South and the Songbird of the Swamp. The Labou loves company, and when they’re happy they sing, and when they sing everyone is happy!” Clayton informs them. As the children get lost and have to spend the night outdoors (Gavin later tells his mother, “I’m sorry Mom, I wanted to come home but we had to stop this huge environmental disaster!”), will they be able to reconcile their personality differences, find the treasure and keep the Labou safe from Ronald and Reginald? Will the children’s belief in what is right be enough to see them through trying times and help them to vanquish overly-greedy entrepreneurs?

Labou casts a Caucasian boy, an African-American boy, and an Asian girl, all about age 12, in the three leading roles and has them tring to work together for a common cause. The film talks about not taking animals from their wild habitats (in this case, the magical Labou) and the misuse of the scenic and natural wonders of the land through digging up and refining oil. TG Solomon, a major investor in the film, wanted to make a family picture, and this certainly is one! Labou was being made on location when Hurricane Katrina was coming to New Orleans in late August of 2005, and the cast itself was evacuated only two days beforehand. The movie was not able to continue to be shot until five months later, and thus it is “Dedicated To The People Of Louisiana And Their Courage To Rebuild.”

The Special Features portion of Labou (especially The Making Of Labou, Parts 1 & 2) is more than unusually interesting. What began as a low-budget film ended up looking like a far more sophisticated one, and the ingenuity of Greg Aronowitz and his partner Sheri Bryant and all of their helpers in creating a swamp where there was none, the illusion of a ship hurtling itself across the sky against the background of the moon, and the vastly intriguing animatronics used to create the Labou are absolutely fascinating! The entire family can enjoy the cuteness of the Labou together, along with the sinister feel of alligators and 12-foot poisonous snakes! They can laugh at the many one-liner jokes in this action-packed film and yet watch it in good conscience, knowing that there are still people who care about the Earth!

DVD Review by Christina Zawadiwsky of Movie Room Reviews

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