Rating: Needs Parent Supervision

The tone reminds me of Macbeth: dark, evil, mystical, and dreary. The main character, Cavall, is a large young dog who is devoted his new master, King Arthur. Merlin the Magician and the Lady of the Lake are enchanted allies, but there is dark evil at play and they are not always there to help.

(Spoiler alerts!) The hardest part of it all is that Cavall’s brother, Gless, falls in step with an evil man and also refuses to put down his pride. We watch a contrast in their trajectories.

Cavall and his two canine friends eventually travel into the land of dreams to fight a beast that has been haunting Arthur.it is a dark, mystical, and reckless adventure.

I chose mid-late elementary because there are rich themes that could be drawn out of this one.  The discussion questions below illustrate these opportunities to reflect and learn. If you don’t plan to discuss, or if you don’t think your kid is ready for something that feels much like Tolkien’s land of Mordor, then take a pass on this one.

  1. Gless chooses to serve himself & his own pride, while Cavall chooses a life of service to Arthur. Which dog do you think was truly living the best life? What choices do you face in your daily life to be likeGless or Cavall? How does this relate to when Jesus says, “those who love their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it?”
  2. The Lady of the Lake tells Cavall that we must understand who we are fighting and why they are fighting. Cavall uses this wisdom to make peace with the bear. Have you ever learned something about an enemy that helped you understand what they were truly after? Did that help you? What does Jesus say about peacemakers and division? (See both Luke 12:51-53, and Matthew 5:9.) What do these verses teach us about Jesus’s approach to making peace vs. rising up to fight?
  3. Merlin shows up in an unexpected time right when Cavall and his friends need it. Has God ever sent someone to help you right when you needed it?