When a vitally expensive drill-bit sinks to the bottom of a lake in British Columbia, the oil company dispatches New York-based troubleshooter Sam Cambell (Greenwood) to recover it.

With his theme park holiday on hold, Sam’s son Mac (Daniel Magder) sulks all the way to Canada. (Actually, the film was shot in the unspoilt Queenstown region of New Zealand and looks none the worse for it.)

On arrival, Mac’s curiosity is aroused by the twinkly locals. Legend has it that the lake is home to the mysterious beast Mee-Shee. The hunt for the legend is on.

He finds a guide in native Indian poppet Pawnee (Jacinta Wawatai - unrecognisably cute next to the wild islander she played in King Kong), whose dad is part of Sam’s salvage team.

They too are having something of an adventure, what with the conveniently widowed Sam running into pretty environment officer Laura (Luanne Gordon, also a bit player in Kong) and a pair of thieving baddies sent to wreck their recovery operation.

It’s all amiable, nature-loving, quit-the-evil-corporate-job-and-become-a-Mountie stuff with lots of bonding twixt father and son and son and monster.

Ah yes, so what of the star of the show?  Coming across as a Loch Ness Yoda, this timid beast is friendli-ness on a massive scale.  Although, when all it takes to expose him is a salmon sandwich and a little girl’s scream, one wonders how he’s gone uncaptured all these years.

Perhaps he’s worried about leaving children in the company of park rangers who allow them to jump into narrow but very deep potholes? Or grown men who don’t radio for help when their submersibles are about to be torpedoed?

All cynicism aside, Mee-Shee makes for a breezily respectable junior manatee... sorry, matinee.

Elliott Noble