“FAMILY AFRICAN ADVENTURE MYSTERY”
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
THABO AND THE RHINO CASE is a fun family movie with adorable, funny, exciting moments. There are some sad moments too. For example, Thabo lost his mother to AIDS, and his best friend lost his parents to AIDS. The best friend takes care of his younger brother and sister. The little sister has the funniest line. THABO AND THE RHINO CASE has a pro-family worldview promoting truth and justice. It displays a love for the people and animals living in the African savannah.
CONTENT:
Very strong pro-family worldview promotes truth and justice, plus boy says rhinos have been on Earth for 50 million years, 20 times more than humans, which places human beings at 2.5 million years;
One “d” word occurs during a scene from a movie that’s heard in the story, there’s an “h” word, and there’s an OMG profanity;
There’s some light violence such as the murdered body of a mother rhino is found with its horn cut off, two bad guys point guns at children, two bad guys lock children in a room at an abandoned farmhouse, little girl kicks one bad guy in the shin, ;
No sex;
Brief upper male nudity in two pool scenes at African lodge;
No alcohol use;
Man smokes in background but no drugs; and,
Children think a Chinese man is the bad guy, and they’re chastised twice for having a “racist” attitude, and boy reads an online description of superstitious Asian beliefs about the health benefits of rhino horns, including as a “sexual enhancer.”
MORE DETAIL:
THABO AND THE RHINO CASE is a mystery adventure about a young boy on a nature preserve in Africa who wants to be a private detective and gets together with his friends to find the poacher who killed a mother rhino and cut off her horn to sell overseas. THABO AND THE RHINO CASE is a fun family movie with adorable, funny and exciting moments and will help children develop a love for the people and animals living in the African savannah, but two of the three older children have parents who died, and the bad guy threatens the children.
The movie opens with Thabo preparing the tour van for his Uncle Vusi, who manages the nature preserve. Thabo’s called away from washing the van when Agatha, the middle-aged German widow who donated the land for the preserve, asks for help. Thabo rushes to her house, but it turns out to be a false alarm. Agatha wants Thabo to come with her to meet her granddaughter, Emma, who’s flying in from Germany on the small transport plane that brings tourists to the preserve. Before they leave to meet Emma, Agatha gives Thabo a genuine lock pick. “Every private detective needs one,” she says.
Emma rides with Thabo and his uncle on the tour with the other tourists. Sadly, after they see some giraffes, impalas, elephants, zebras, and lions, they come across a dead mother rhino with her horn cut off and her baby crying nearby. The uncle calls off the tour to inform the local police inspector.
Thabo, Emma and Thabo’s friend, Sifiso, ride with Thabo’s uncle and the Inspector to inspect the crime scene. They find some boot tracks at the scene. Sifiso says the boots look like ranger boots. One of the bootprints has a long crack running through it. The Inspector takes some photos of the tracks. Thabo does the same with his smart phone.
Back at the lodge, Uncle Vusi and his men bring back the baby rhino, who’s been sedated. They place it in a pen made of tree limbs.
The Inspector asks Uncle Vusi to see his rangers’ work schedules. No one was working that morning before the tour. However, when the Inspector asks Vusi to show him the bottoms of his boots, they find out that Vusi’s right boot has a crack in it, just like the bootprint near the dead rhino.
The Inspector arrests Vusi, but he denies killing the rhino and cutting off its horn. Thabo, of course, believes his uncle.
So, Thabo and the other children search for the real culprit of the rhino killing. They try to inspect the boots of the other rangers. They then discover another bootprint on Thabo’s phone. The bootprint shows the design of a rising sun. Thabo suspects the Chinese tourist on the tour because he was asking his uncle about rhinos.
Can Thabo and his friends solve the Rhino Horn Murder Case and find proof to show that Thabo’s uncle is innocent?
THABO AND THE RHINO CASE is based on a book by popular German children’s author Kirsten Boie. THABO is a fun family movie with adorable, funny and exciting moments. There are some sad moments too, however. Besides the murder of the mother rhino, the movie mentions that the parents of Thabo’s friend died of AIDS, as did Thabo’s mother. Agatha explains to her granddaughter that, although there are cures for the disease, not everyone can get access to such cures. Thabo’s friend takes care of his younger brother and sister, nicknamed Pilot and Lemonade, respectively. The little girl playing Lemonade has the funniest line in the movie, which comes at the end.
THABO AND THE RHINO CASE has a pro-family worldview. In addition, Thabo and his friends are looking to find the real poacher and to clear the name of Thabo’s uncle. So, the movie values truth and justice. The movie also includes cute scenes where Emma tries to get the baby rhino to drink some milk to keep up its strength. Everyone loves puppies, kittens and other baby animals, and a baby rhino is no exception to that rule.