It seems every streaming service has their own “Originals” nowadays – An Apple Original; An Amazon Original; A Netflix Original; A Channel 5 Original Drama; A Paramount+ Original; ITVX Exclusive and so on. Amazon Prime Video, having bought MGM in 2021 appears to have gained the streaming rights to Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose for its UK release.
Instead of branding the UK release as “An Amazon Original” like other similar or purchased films – Apple TV+ buying the rights to CODA – Amazon instead appears to have opted to hide this behind their MGM studios. Therefore a film from Amazon MGM Studios is only visually linked to their mutual owner by a small line on the MGM title card “An Amazon Company.”
From almost the very start the film looks, smells and feels like a typical awful Amazon Original – slow, badly acted and lacking a thorough and relevant story. Simon Pegg goes through more attempts at accents than the UK has had Prime Ministers in recent years. It leaves you baffled and wondering if he’s supposed to be playing an American, A Briton, Londoner or whatever else the wind appears to take his fancy depending on the scene.
The film itself relies on a Manx folklore of Jef – the talking mongoose. There are many local – if not quirky or weird – traditions on the island including that of Fairy Bridge or the ghostly black dog of Peel Castle. For anyone who has visited and spoken to locals they will know these hold more than a little truth and history to them. For many, these are what make the islands theirs and unique.
How any of these could be extrapolated enough to turn it into a feature length film would require a lot of brains and creativity. The balancing act is keeping the film interesting but true to its story.
And I would like to say that is where the film fails, however a film set on a small island of 85,000 people in the Irish Sea would be best respected and celebrated by actually being filmed on location. This would allow viewers to see the incredible natural beauty of the island in all its glory. That it is instead filmed in Yorkshire is down right bizarre and ridiculous but shows how finances and film incentives trump accuracy and cultural respect.
I’m glad the film appears to have largely kept itself true to the folklore but I’ll save you the pain of hearing Pegg’s awful accents and advise you to read up online instead.