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| Nim's Island (Widescreen Edition) | 
 enlarge | Directors: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin
Actors: Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler, Abigail Breslin, Michael Carman, Mark Brady
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $5.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  70 reviews
Sales Rank: 928
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 95
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: FOXD2252752D
UPC: 024543527527
EAN: 0024543527527
ASIN: B001APZMJI
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: August 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Most orders shipped within 24 hours. All items include original artwork and packaging. We ship FIRST CLASS International/Domestic for single disc orders. Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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Product Description
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 08/05/2008 Run time: 96 minutes Rating: Pg
Amazon.com
Adventure doesn't always begin with pirates on the high seas or explorers deep in the desert; sometimes it starts with an idyllic life on a private island in the middle of the South Asiatic Sea. For 11-year old Nim (Abigail Breslin) and her father and microbiologist Jack Russo (Gerard Butler), life is perfect thanks to their love of nature, Jack's mechanical ingenuity, and regular deliveries via supply ship. Loneliness is never an issue for Nim because of her special friendships with Selkie the sea lion, Galileo the pelican, and Freddie the iguana and her education is intensive, if rather unique. Adventure and imagination are ways of life for Nim whether she's heading out to sea to help her father collect plankton specimens, playing soccer on the beach with Selkie, or delving into the latest Alex Rover adventure novel, but everything changes when Jack departs on the boat for a two-night expedition to collect plankton specimens and gets caught in an unexpected storm. Alone on the island, Nim begins to worry about her father's safety as well as her own and, through a chance email, connects with Alex Rover (Jodie Foster) whom she begs to come help find her father. Problem is, author Alexandra Rover is an unbalanced big city shut-in who's afraid to leave her townhouse, not the fearless adventure hero portrayed in her books. Nim, Alexandra, and Jack embark upon the adventures of a lifetime in which each must overcome his or her own fears and perceived powerlessness and limitations in order to grow and help one another. The question is; can each prevail against his or her own insecurities and the fury of nature? Based on the novel Nim's Island by Wendy Orr, Nim's Island is first and foremost a captivating adventure full of suspense and peril which also offers a touching look at the love between a father and daughter. (Ages 7 and older) --Tami Horiuchi
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Stills from Nim's Island (Click for larger image)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 65 more reviews...
 Excellent time for kids of about 6-8 and up April 27, 2008
27 out of 27 found this review helpful
"Nim's Island" is a tale of courage. Our three main characters each face trials of the spirit.
Jack Rusoe (Butler), a marine biologist, is a single father who is raising his young daughter (Breslin) at the foot of a volcano on a deserted island they found while the two sailed the seas searching for a blue whale that'd swallowed Nim's Mom, Emily. They live alone and like it that way. Nim (Breslin) is "Island schooled" by her father and has lizards and sea turtles for playmates.
Alexandra 'Alex' Rover (Foster) a writer of adventure stories featuring a brave man bearing her name. Alexandra calls herself a borderline agoraphobic. She hasn't left her apartment in San Francisco for sixteen weeks.
She's also got a problem--she's three weeks' late getting a draft of her latest "Alex Rover" novel to her editor, Buffy, and can't get Alex (also played by Butler) out of a trap in a volcano in Chapter 8. Like many writers, her character is real to her and he's tired of being stuck in the same predicament and wants Alex to get on with the book and both their lives.
Jack leaves on a specimen collection run and Nim stays home alone for the first time to assist with the birth of sea turtles. She's told to tell anyone emailing Jack that he'll return on Thursday and never divulge the location of their island. Alexandra becomes Nim's inadvertent penpal when she writes Jack asking about volcanoes and thinks that Nim is Jack's assistant. Nim thinks Alex is her hero, Alex Rover, and will do anything to help him.
Despite Jack's admonishment. Nim answers the author's questions about the volcano and accidentally injures herself rappelling down from the top. From the heights, she sees a cruise ship called the Buccaneer landing and believes the men to be pirates. When the ship returns with a boatload of tourists to enjoy the island, Nim thinks she's being 'invaded' and asks her hero, Alex Rover, for help.
Prodded by her character, Alex packs her bags and her courage, and heads literally toward uncharted waters to help a little girl alone. Pretty brave, since she's got to confront fear of just about everything.
Out on the open sea, Jack's encountered a storm and his ship's damaged. He may not make it back to his daughter.
Meanwhile, the tourist ship has come back and Nim's launched an attack on the invaders with the help of her animal friends. Poor Alex is struggling to make it to the island, and Jack's cobbling a ship together to get back home to his daughter.
The story's written for children, but the tale's so engaging you really are lost from the moment Nim (Breslin) starts telling us about the loss of her Mom and their travels. All the actors are people you want to see accomplish their goals.
WARNING: This story may not work for very young children. A little girl of about 4 next to us whose Daddy was in Iraq was pretty distressed when she thought Nim's Daddy was lost and was frightened through several of the scenes. "Nim's Island" is a wonderful adventure, but it could be scary and the issues of abandonment, scary spiders, sharks, etc. might be too much for them.
Rebecca Kyle, April 2008
Home Alone - Island style May 25, 2008
17 out of 21 found this review helpful
Nim Rusoe: "Nobody invades my island and gets away with it."
Short Attention Span Summary (SASS):
1.No man is an island, but Jack Rusoe (Gerard Butler) finds an island for himself and his daughter Nim (Abigail Breslin)
2.They're not exactly "Lost" but they'd rather no-one knew where they are
3.Plankton hunting on the high seas can be rather dangerous
4.Nim plays "Home Alone" when intruders arrive at the island
5.Animal co-stars do most of the work
6.Alex Rover is an Indiana Jones-type fictional action hero
7.Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster) isn't
8.An exchange of e-mails brings Alex and Nim together, and getting there is more than half the fun
9.Lame and predictable ending
10.Cue U2 track
Foster and Butler tackle easy roles without having to stretch out of their comfort zones, Breslin's as sunshine-y as ever and the animals practically steal the show.
A relatively low budget comedy-fantasy adventure for the whole family, but might be just a little too cutsie-pie for adults to enter the theater without being accompanied by a minor.
Amanda Richards, May 24, 2008
Cute one for the kids July 23, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This lightweight bit of fluff actually has a bit more substance than I expected, but nearly enough mass to bog it down. On the surface, it's a kid-empowerment movie. Nim, the nine year old girl, is adventurous, interested in everything, and fiercely self-reliant. Alex (that's Alexandra, much to the surprise of people expecting a male Alex) is too timid to open the front door, and gets carsick before the car even starts moving. Nim is fearless and Alex is omniphobic. Still, once their friendship forms, Alex overcomes her fear of everything but her shadow to help Nim when disasters leave her alone, hurt, and frightened.
The two main characters balance beautifully. Nim is yound and bold, by nature, but still a little girl who gets scared when truly scary things happen. Alex embodies timidity, but has a core of mousy bravery that rises to the occasion. Nim lives in the world of Alex's adventure stories, which turn real around her as she reads them; Alex lives with the characters she writes, too, but has a much more argumentative relationship with them. A few other things come across nicely, too: the pervasive love of reading, nearly lost in today's media-mad world, and the image of scientist-geek as loving, strong, and physically competent. The girl-power message is there too, without being exclusive or overbearing. And despite a positive view of science, Nim brings a touch of magic, too.
I might not remember this one a week from now, but it's great entertainment for any kid in your life (with a very few slightly scary moments). If you have a rainy afternoon, have a blast.
-- wiredweird
The Isle of Uncharted Courage April 6, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Nim's Island" is the kind of film you'd expect to open with "Once upon a time" and end with "Happily ever after," but since it's about the magic of imagination and courage instead of actual magic (if there is any such thing), there's really no need. It does, however, begin and end with Abigail Breslin's voiceover narration, and she establishes a story so lofty that it's difficult to think of it as anything other than a fairy tale. While the plot of "Nim's Island" is completely unrealistic, and while the characters are anything but relatable, it tells such an innocent and good-hearted tale that you don't really think about those things. Its heart is in the right place pretty much all throughout, even when it lapses into sappy moments; that's saying a lot, since the entire film is based on a premise sappy enough for three family films.
The story: Nim Rusoe (Breslin) and her marine biologist father, Jack (Gerard Butler), live alone on a secluded island somewhere in the South Pacific. They came to live there after a whale (supposedly) swallowed Nim's mother after being spooked by a cruise ship called The Buccaneer; Jack and Nim found the island while searching the world's oceans for the whale and decided to stay. Since then, Jack has been obsessively looking for a new form of sea-dwelling amoeba, and Nim has been reading. Apparently, both would prefer that no one else inhabit the island, so whenever the supply ship stops by, they don't allow it to dock--they sail to it while it's still offshore. How such exchanges could ever be managed, I have no idea, but as I said before, this is not a realistic film. If you stop to question this, then you might as well stop to question how Jack could have a working computer with a reliable Internet service provider. Or why Nim and the island animals can communicate with one another. Or how they can keep the island a secret when we have satellite imagery that can locate anything anywhere on earth.
One of Nim's favorite reads is a book series featuring Alex Rover, a rugged Indiana Jones-type who travels the world and goes on daring adventures. There's a moment when Nim imagines one of the scenes from the latest book, and lo and behold, Rover looks just like her father (meaning he's also played by Gerard Butler). What Nim doesn't know is that Alex Rover is also the name of the author that created the character. What she also doesn't know is that the author is a woman; Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster) lives in San Francisco, and despite being a very successful writer, she's agoraphobic, germaphobic, and obsessive-compulsive. Much like Nim, she can imagine Rover (the character) as a real person. But she takes it a step further--she has full conversations with Rover, relying on him for courage and support. It's easy to see why she writes these novels: she's too afraid to have a real life adventure.
For the past three months, Alexandra has been struggling to finish her newest book; she doesn't have all the information she needs about volcanoes. She e-mails Jack for information, knowing that he lives on an island with a volcano. Since Jack is away at sea, Nim responds, pretty much at the same time a monsoon hits the island. Believing that she's corresponding with the adventurous, male version of Alex Rover, Nim begs Alexandra for help, not only for the sake of her father--who is now lost at sea--but also because the crew of the Buccaneer cruise ship has discovered the island and plans to turn it into a tourist attraction. This means, of course, that Alexandra has to face her fears of the outside world, and we all know how difficult it can be to face a fear.
If this sounds to you like nothing more than an implausible kid's story, then you're not getting into the spirit of it. Consider the moment when Breslin fires an army of lizards onto a beach-load of tourists, or when Foster packs a suitcase full of soup cans and hand sanitizers, or when Butler receives a tool belt from a pelican; these moments are supposed to be fun, meaning they're not meant to be taken too seriously. On the same token, "Nim's Island" sends messages that are both positive and meaningful, and this is good because most of the better family films have done the exact same thing.
One of the most surprising things about this film is Jodie Foster, whose quirky fish-out-of-water role called for a strong comedic personality. Her career has been defined almost entirely by dramatic roles. Even as a child star, films like "Taxi Driver" and "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" never let a sense of humor emerge. It was refreshing to see her play a light-hearted character in an equally light-hearted movie. If only she and Breslin had been given more screen time together--their characters officially meet at the very end, which isn't really satisfying as far as plot is concerned. Then again, the film's message is overcoming obstacles on your own, so it's quite possible that they were supposed to be separated all throughout. Whatever the case, "Nim's Island" is a charming little fable, despite the fact that it's completely preposterous. But as I said earlier, a fairy tale doesn't always begin with "Once upon a time" and end with "Happily ever after." Sometimes, fairy tales are defined by nothing more than the good intentions of carefree filmmakers.
 Nims Island Notes - The Pelican is the Hero April 16, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
*SPOILERS*
A wonderful film for the whole family. And just think only one explosion - a natural volcano.
Abigail Breslin(Nim) is such a sweet, natural actress that she very easily carries the title role. Nim is resourceful, brave and smart. She lives on a remote island with her father Jack Rusoe (Gerry Butler), a ocean scientist. He goes out to sea to look for protozoa on an overnight trip. Nim begs to stay behind so she can help the sea turtle hatchlings. All is well until a storm.
She handles the storm that nearly tears her home apart, putting everything back together. She gets rid of a tour boat that happens by, by rigging up a lizard catapult. She even answers a message from the author Alex Rover and climbs a cliff to check out the volcano. But when her father is still missing after the 4th day because of the storm, she succombs to being a little girl wanting her father.
The big storm ruined his sail and motor. With no tools, he has still managed to rig a pump to get the water out of the boat.
When Nim contacts Alex again saying she needs help, the writer, who is really a woman (Jodie Foster) terrified of going out of her home, argues with her alter ego, Alex Rover(also Butler) the hero of the books she writes. Her fight with herself/Alex, getting out of the house to "be the hero of her own story and go help that little girl" is funny and well done.
The Animal friends who live with, and help Nim, are Selki the seal, a lizard named Fred, and Galileo, the Pelican. It is Galileo who is the hero of the story. He dives for fish for Jack to eat, and piles them in the boat. He flies back to the island and snatches Jacks tool belt away from where Nim is using it, and takes it to Jack so he can rig a sail and get back home.
As Nim and Alexandra are discussing the future, way out at sea she sees a speck and then as it grows larger, realizes it is Galileo and as he flies toward the island Nim sees the boat bringing her father. As the 3 meet on the beach, Galileo flies overhead - a friend, and the hero of this story.
Highly recommended for families and all who have an inner child. 8/10
Jane
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