Mee-Shee: The Water Giant

Mee-Shee: The Water Giant is an Anglo-German family film shot in New Zealand and released in 2005. It stars Bruce Greenwood, Rena Owen, Tom Jackson and Daniel Magder.

The film is based upon the mythical Canadian water monster known as the Ogopogo. This folklore began with Aboriginal peoples in Canada, and while the film was in production, complaints from one Aboriginal chief about cultural appropriation caused the film and its titular monster to be renamed "Mee-Shee". These complaints and the renaming drew media attention and generated controversy.

The film itself received some good reviews. Some critics praised the performances, although evaluations of the special effects were mixed. In Canada, Mee-Shee was only released on DVD and never played in theatres.

Plot
A United States oil company loses a drill intended to be used to drill in the Artic in a Canadian lake while flying over. One of the company's employee's, Sean, is contacted to go to Canada to find it. The catch is the he had to cancel his promised plans to take his son to Walt Disney World. Disappointed, his son, Mac, agrees to go with his father to Canada. Once in Canada, they meet a local indian named Custer who helps Sean and another one of the company's employees on their mission.

Using an underwater submarine, they visit the lake, and after taking pictures of the bottom of the lake they discover giant divets in the bottom that are incredibly deep. The legend on Mee-Shee is that the rivets lead to the ocean. Sean and Mac stay with a local lady who Sean refers to as "Mary Poppins" because of the way she dresses but her real name is Mrs. Cooney, but she is very sweet to Mac.

Mac, Sean and others see vague images of Mee-Shee that spark their curiosity. Upon meeting the indian's daughter, Mac and her travel to a cave where a local "crazy" indian woman feeds Mee-Shee. This is where they first meet the wonderful, huge and beautiful creature! Mac runs back to the house to tell his dad but Mrs. Cooney tells Mac that he shouldn't tell anyone or else Mee-Shee could be killed by tourists and such.

Around the same time this is going on a group of two men, disguising themselves as working for Greenpeace, but who really work for a rival oil company, destroy Sean's equipment, and search for the drill themselves. Their first time under the water, they see Mee-Shee and shoot him with a harpoon. When Mac finds him again in the cave he removes the harpoon, and tells the local environmental ranger, Laura about it. Then there is a significant scene where the men from the rival company try to get the drill, attack the submarine and run away. There is a fight scene between Sean, Laura and the rival oil company men.

After this Mac tells his Dad about Mee-Shee and they secretly search for him. They all meet the creature while venturing out on a boat... but shortly after, the rival men come back to blow up the boat they are on. Everyone becomes unconscious and the men destroy the boat equipment again, and also kidnap Mac as well as capture Meee-Shee on a line. Sean goes to rescue his son and Mee-Shee, and another Mee-Shee comes out of the water to break the line, rescue Mac and destroy the rival men's boat with them in it. A helicopter comes down to try and capture Mee-Shee, but Mee-Shee drags it under the water, killing the men.

Mee-Shee then brings the drill up to the boat, and the new Mee-Shee (female and larger) comes out of the water to meet them, although she seems very angry. Mee-Shee calms her, almost saying to her that they are friends of his. Realizing that the drill will likely cause danger to another environment, Sean kicks it into the water, knowing that he'll likely lose his job. At the end of the movie Sean and Mac decide to move there, and suddenly four or more Mee-Shee's pop out of the water and follow their boat as the movie ends.

Background
According to Canadian folklore, the Ogopogo is a creature that lives in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia. It has been compared to the Loch Ness Monster, another supposed water creature in Scotland, or with a plesiosaur. Aboriginal peoples have claimed that belief in the Ogopogo is a part of their culture, although they called it Niataka or N'ha-aitk, and the name "Ogopogo" was invented by a board of trade in 1926. The folklore has also been commercialized, inspired merchandise and drew tourism for the Okanagan. With this commercialization, one reporter found it natural that the Ogopogo would also inspire a film, saying that "Eventually movie makers were bound to sit up and take notice, and movie makers did."

Canadian scriptwriter Barry Authors wrote the screenplay for Mee-Shee after reading about the Ogopogo in a magazine. It was written in 1996, and originally entitled Loch, a British word for "lake". Authors resided in Britain at the time, but eventually opted for a more Canadian feel and renamed his work Ogopogo. Authors also wanted to portray his film as a "showcase for Canadian talent and storytelling" and "a cross between Free Willy and E.T.."

Filming
The film version was directed by John Henderson, who had previously directed Loch Ness (1996) about the similar Scottish folklore. They first made plans to film the story on Okanagan Lake, the supposed domain of the Ogopogo, but had troubles with the scenery and relocated to Lake Winnipeg. Whoopi Goldberg was to play a Native Canadian, which would require make-up since Goldberg is African-American. However, due to concerns that Lake Manitoba might experience a winter, the project was moved to New Zealand. Goldberg was unwilling to travel there and left the project. Authors' son Jeff Authors, who had worked on the White Fang television show, had suggested New Zealand, saying "New Zealand can double for Canada. Not only is it beautiful, but it looks just like Canada in all the remote spots you want, and you'll probably find a more remote lake there."

The creature itself was both CGI and a puppet made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop and modelled after the late US actor Walter Matthau. The film cost $40 million. The filming in New Zealand took place on Lake Wakatipu at Queenstown in 2002. Authors remarked it was nice to work in New Zealand because "The crews were very, very keen to do anything that was required... New Zealand had just done Lord of the Rings, and they had a taste of major motion pictures". Other filming was done in England with a water tank, and the CGI work was carried out in England in 2003 and 2004.

Naming controversy
According to Barry Authors, most Canadian Aboriginal leaders supported using the name "Ogopogo" in the film. However, one Aboriginal complained that the legend was too holy, so Authors renamed the creature "Mee-Shee." The Aboriginal who did not want the name "Ogopogo" used was Stewart Phillip, a Penticton chief. Phillip asked that the names "Ogopogo" and "Okanagan" not be used because "It's an international concern among indigenous people about the exploitation of spiritual entities and being and whatnot for commercial purposes. This is not an isolated incident." The Māori people, natives in New Zealand who owned the land on which the filming was taking place, supported Phillip. Phillip's requests attracted some media attention and generated debate. One newspaper writer accused Phillip of "xenophobia" threatening "free speech." This writer suggested that Aboriginal cultures can be "respected", but others can still appropriate the cultures because "Nobody owns a culture." The famous Canadian writer W.P. Kinsella weighed in on the issue, criticizing the name change by saying, "Filmmakers can tell any story they want any time they want, and they don't need permission from these troublemakers... Make the movie. Fuck them all." A Canadian scientist, Ed Bousfield, even objected to Aboriginal claims to the Ogopogo because he felt the Ogopogo was real. (At the same time, Bousfield attacked non-believers, accusing his "ivory tower colleagues" of "the worst kind of scientific elitism.")

Conversely, The Vancouver Sun suggested that "Obviously, we're best off when native people tell native stories. Witness Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, the debut film of Inuit film". Meanwhile, the Ogopogo "joins Santa Claus and Christ as cultural icons that have been so celebrated and abused it's hard to view them as any particular group's property". Thus, this newspaper suggested that Barry Authors should be pleased that with this incident, he "raised awareness of the Ogopogo's cultural importance to native people" while the film itself would be "a trifling confection of no particular consequence." Writer Randy Boswell connected this debate with similar controversies over appropriation that had been going on for over ten years, and also noted Aboriginals had been previously upset with a contest to catch or photograph the Ogopogo in 2001.

Cast

 * Bruce Greenwood as Sean Cambell
 * Daniel Magder as Mac Cambell
 * Joel Tobeck as Snead
 * Rena Owen as Crazy Norma
 * Phyllida Law as Mrs. Coogan
 * Luanne Gordon as Laura
 * Tom Jackson as Custer
 * Joe Pingue as Neilds
 * Jacinta Wawatai as Pawnee Custer
 * Shane Rimmer as Anderson
 * Charles Mesure as Watkins
 * Robert Bruce as Alaskoil President

Jim Henson's Creature Shop

 * John B. Anderson: shading supervisor
 * Adam Buckner: visual effects producer
 * Chris Fitzgerald: creature painter
 * Paul Flanagan: water effects animator
 * James Furlong: match mover
 * Peter Guyan: senior systems administrator
 * Myf Hopkins: head of production
 * Allan Torp Jensen: digital artist
 * Nakia McGlynn: digital artist
 * Alberto Montañés: digital compositor
 * Michael S. Pryor: head of digital production

Release
Mee-Shee premiered in London on June 28, 2005. In the Czech Republic it was released on July 14 and in May 2006 it reached the Philippines and Russia. In New York City in 2006, the film was played at the Tribeca Film Festival.

While the film was released in some theatres around the world, in Canada it was only released on DVD in July 2006. Authors wanted the film to run in theatres, but remarked that "We got caught up in an unfortunate series of events that's very upsetting". He also said the German producers were responsible for the film not playing in theatres. Later, in October 2006, the film ran in the Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival in Toronto, with one journalist calling it "a family-oriented feature about a giant whale."

Reception
In 2002, Maclean's discussed the film and described the Ogopogo creature/legend as a success since it was "ready for a $32-million movie close-up." The blurb also read, "Move over, Nessie", referring to the Loch Ness Monster. Ultimately, Maclean's critic Brian D. Johnson called Mee-Shee a "good yarn" and complimented the acting and setting. However, he claimed that some of the special effects looked "pretty cartoonish". Johnson and a few other Canadian critics also pointed out the irony in the fact that British Columbia has been used in films to portray other places, but this time another place was portraying British Columbia.