by Kasey Endsley

Created on: November 29, 2008   Last Updated: November 30, 2008

Stories are all anyone ever has. As a child, or even as an adult, we love to hear and believe stories that we could not even possibly begin to think of as real. The fantastical, whimsical, sad, or happy memories and stories are essential to the world, and in turn, the world of movie making.

Secondhand Lions is the story of a young boy named Walter who goes to temporarily live with his two wealthy, eccentric, elderly uncles, whose past is seemingly as incredible as the wildest of fantasies. Hub and Garth were known to have disappeared in their youth, and resurface years later with a horde of money, with reputations as mafia men, war criminals, and master thieves. While Walter broods over his mother, he starts to learn what his uncles have to say about their fortune, and all about how they received it.

Between buying a lion and starting - and winning - bar fights, Hub and Garth start to tell Walter fantastic stories of love and adventure in a long ago forgotten and desolate place, where battles were fought with swords and princess's won by pure wit. Whether these places and accounts are real or fictional, Walter comes to accept them as what he hopes to be real; a world of valour and courage. In turn, the two old men come to see their world through the eyes of a young boy.

Walter meanwhile falls in love with the lion his uncles had meant to kill, and finds his own friend and happiness in the creature. When Walter's mother finally returns for him - with a new, greedy husband in tow, she begs Walter to show her where his uncles have kept his money. Walt refuses, which results in his new father-in-law becoming violent. In an effort to save Walt, his lion attacks Walt's father-in-law, and her heart gives out in the excitement. Angry, distraught, and disappointed in his mother, Walt buries his friend in the corn field it so loves and refuses to return with his mother.

Writer and Director Tim McCanlies, also writer of such productions as The Iron Giant and Smallville, does an exemplary job on this film, nominated for Best Live Action Family Film by the Phoenix Film Critics Society and Best Animation/Family award by the Golden Trailer Awards. Haley Joel Osment received numerous nominations for his role as Walter, as well. While Secondhand Lions is essentially a coming of age tale, its flights of fancy are for everyone, young and old. This movie is recommended to everyone, as it really is quite a beautiful tale of coming teaching everyone to believe not what you can see, but what you want to believe.

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