One night while driving through a semi-colonized part of Africa, a boy named Xan and his father happen upon an orphaned cheetah kitten. Knowing he’ll never survive on his own, they take the kitten back home and raise it, along with other animals they’ve collected along the way.
Soon Xan and the cheetah, Duma, are closer than brothers and the thought of returning Duma to the wild is too much to consider. However, if left tame much longer, Duma will lose all his instincts and will never be able to defend himself.
Xan reluctantly agrees to help his father return Duma to the wild, but just before their scheduled trip, Xan’s father dies of the sickness he’s been fighting most of the movie. Xan’s mother has to lease out their farm and move them to the city, and she has made arrangements for Duma to live on a preserve. However, Xan has other ideas, and he leaves with Duma, determined to return the animal on his own.
As they are traveling, they meet up with native drifter Ripkuna, a man who was recently released from prison. He promises to help them get to the mountains where Duma will be safe, but Xan realizes that he is merely leading them on a wild goose chase. He and Duma strike out on their own, only to be later saved by a repentant Ripkuna, who becomes Xan’s very good friend.
This movie had some good elements. The cinematography was beautiful and we saw parts of Africa we may not have seen before. The expressions on Duma’s face were priceless. And the closing line, when Xan is reflecting on all he has learned, is touching.
However, I found much to dislike as well. Xan takes off without telling his mother how he feels. I’m willing to place dollars against donuts that if he had come to his mother and explained his feelings, she would have loaded him in the car and driven him out to the mountains herself. Instead, he didn’t trust her with his emotions and set off on a journey that nearly cost him his life. He also made some of the most stupid mistakes I’ve ever seen a kid make, and it’s only by a miracle that he lived to see his mother again at the end of the movie.
For an adventure, this movie moved pretty slowly. If you’ve got the patience to bear with it as it gets to the good parts, you may find it enjoyable. I’m not sorry I saw it, but I can’t say that I was swept off my feet.
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