Dave settles down for some wholesome family entertainment featuring an unlikely animal subject.

As The Ottawa Citizen reported in June 1995:

“The wave pool at the NRC’s Coastal Engineering Laboratory has been used for lots of things – testing the structures of marinas and breakwaters, determining with the Ocean Ranger drilling platform tipped over in 1982 – but Wednesday was the first time it was used by a Shakespearean actor to save a mechanical moose from drowning in a pretend storm.”

A $3million family romp set in the wilds of Nova Scotia (and as mentioned, lensed in about two metres of water in a tank in Ottawa), SALT WATER MOOSE is a wholesome, warm-hearted adventure. When his parents divorce, young Bobby Scofield (Johnny Morina) is faced with a devastating move away from his baseball-loving buddies in Toronto to his grandma’s place in the boonies. Picked on by the local kids from the minute he gets there, Bobby soon finds a kindred spirit in the guise of Jo (Katherine Isabelle), a well-meaning girl with a moose obsession.

Recently, a particularly vicious winter had frozen a path to a nearby island, and one gallant elk had made the journey across. Stuck there since everything thawed, Jo has convinced Bobby that the poor antlered creature needs company. So, with the help of their single parents Eva (Lolita Davidovich) and Lester (Timothy Dalton), they put a plan into action to capture and transport a female moose to the enclave and bring some companionship into the life of this misanthropic mammal.

While the expansive rocky shoreline of Atlantic-facing Canada is enough to convince most people that Salt Water Moose is worth an aesthetically pleasing look, Bruce McKenna’s script resonates due to the originality that nestles among the syrupy clichés. Bobby, for example, isn’t a cookie-cutter only child. In fact, he’s a bit of a rebel who sticks his earring in whenever his mother isn’t looking. Similarly with Jo: she’s an ideal foil, her burgeoning affinity for the new kid in town free from the predictable gender formalities that usually snooze their way into such family-friendly features.

Naturally, the water tank sequence is the highlight. Shot with vigour and cut with pace, it’s a genuinely stirring set piece that adds some unbearable tension to a movie that may have been shrugged off as too safe by many. Helmer Stuart Margolin bagged a DGA award for his work on Salt Water Moose, which for someone who’s probably best known for playing Angel on The Rockford Files is an immense achievement. Weirdly, Margolin had fielded regular directorial assignments for over two decades prior to the film, and yet directing remains an aspect of his career that he barely receives any credit for.

Opening in select Canadian cinemas in April 1996, Salt Water Moose hit cable TV two months later, premiering on Showtime at 8PM on 2nd June. Despite the film’s subsequent appearance in the New York Times’s Guide to the Best Children’s Videos, it skipped a home media bow in the U.K., and has only ever made the leap from VHS to DVD in Australia and parts of Europe – disappointing considering the uncommon nature of its animal attraction.

“It’s a unique animal to have,” remarked co-producer Ray Sager. “That’s what drew me to it. I’ve seen dogs and monkeys done to death. But no one has done a moose.”

Well, they have now.

Canada ● 1996 ● Family ● 97mins

Johnny Morina, Katherine Isabelle, Timothy Dalton, Lolita Davidovich ● Dir. Stuart Margolin ● Wri. Bruce McKenna