A celebration of the Maori culture of New Zealand laced with a strong dose of feminism, Niki Caro's adaptation of Witi Ihimaera's novel focuses on Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes), a young girl who would be next in line to succeed her gruff but loving grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene) as tribal chief (after her father moves away), except for the fact that she's female. In many ways, Whale Rider is quite engaging, offering a glimpse of a society rarely represented on celluloid, beautifully shot with impressive location footage, and featuring an enormously likeable performance from Castle-Hughes as the young heroine. But Caro's treatment lacks the sense of mystery and exoticism such a story requires; too often it's merely pedestrian (a scene of Pai riding a whale, as the tribe's legendary founder is reputed to have done, has the necessary touch of magic, but a sequence depicting tribal members in traditional garb taking to their boats and shouting war cries lacks the dreamlike quality it ought to possess), and the supporting cast is no more than adequate. So, while Pai is a protagonist of great charm and energy, the rest of the picture isn't quite worthy of her. Still, young adult films that aren't simply MTV montages are rare, so this should be considered a strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by writer/director Niki Caro, a 27-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, eight deleted scenes with optional commentary, the 11-minute featurette “Te Waka: Building the Canoe,” five selected score soundtrack segments with a text note by composer Lisa Gerrard, an art and photo gallery, TV spots, and a trailer. Bottom line: a nice extras package for a flawed but often winning coming-of-age film.] (F. Swietek)[Blu-ray/DVD Review—Aug. 22, 2017—Shout! Factory, 101 min., PG-13, DVD: $14.98, Blu-ray: $22.98—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 2002's Whale Rider features a fine transfer and DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by director Niki Caro, a behind-the-scenes featurette (27 min.), a segment on “Te Waka: Building the Canoe” (11 min.), deleted scenes (9 min.), a screen test of star Keisha Castle-Hughes (6 min.), and a poster art and photo gallery. Bottom line: this cult favorite coming-of-age film looks good on Blu-ray.]
This title is included in our article on media literacy in the classroom