Story
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas is a Spanish animated feature that has been dubbed over with English voices. It is the sequel to the 2012 movie Tad the Lost Explorer. Tad (voice of Trevor White) has returned to his job as a bricklayer in New York City. He’s also studying archaeology and is head over heels in love with ‘star’ archaeologist Sara Lavrov (voice of Alex Kelly). Tad is looking for an opportunity to see Sara again and ask her to be his girlfriend. Luckily, Sara has recently uncovered an ancient scroll that’s linked to the story of King Midas, and she’s in town to present her findings.
At the grand unveiling of the scroll, it’s stolen by the villainous Jack Rackham (voice of Ramon Tikaram). Jack wants to harness the power of King Midas and become invincible. Rackham kidnaps Sara, knowing that only she can help him solve the mystery of the scroll. Tad is devastated and knows that he must save Sara.
Together with Sara’s assistant Tiffany (Gemma Whelan), his dog Jeff, and a comical ‘mummy’ (voice of Joseph Balderrama) who has been exiled from an Egyptian tomb, Tad sets off to Spain to save Sara and find the scroll.
Themes
Archaeology; myths and legends; power and wealth; cultural stereotypes; love and romance
Violence
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas has a lot of animated violence. For example:
- There are martial arts-style action sequences that involve kicking and punching.
- Jack Rackham injects one of his employees with ‘truth serum’ and then ejects him from a plane to fall to his death. Sara is also injected with truth serum. She loses consciousness and looks heavily drugged.
- Several scenes show guns being fired or held to people’s heads in hostage situations.
- Several scenes have slapstick violence. For example, characters are hit with a paella pan.
Sexual references
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas has some sexual references. For example:
- Sara, the central female character, is referred to as ‘hot’, ‘a ten’ or ‘out of your league’. She is highly sexualised. She has large breasts and wears tight-fitting and sexy clothing, even while doing adventurous archaeological activities.
- The ‘Mummy’ dresses up as a woman for comic effect and behaves in an exaggerated way. He pretends to be Sara so that Tad can practise his romantic skills.
- A Spanish taxi driver is overcome with love and desire at first sight when he sees the Mummy dressed as a woman. He showers her with endearments.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas shows some use of substances. For example, Sara is injected with a ‘truth serum’. It looks like she has been given too much because she becomes unconscious and then seems drugged.
Nudity and sexual activity
Nothing of concern
Product placement
Nothing of concern
Coarse language
There are some insults in this movie.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas is a formulaic romance-centred adventure story that’s a bit like an Indiana Jones adventure. It’s fast paced but is also quite predictable with a several cultural stereotypes.
Because of this movie’s violence and scary scenes, we don’t recommend it for children aged under eight years. We also recommend parental guidance for children aged 8-10 years.
The main message from Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas echoes the message from the tale of King Midas: love and human connection are more powerful than all the gold or wealth in the world.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:
- the power of love and friendship
- the sacrifices that people make for true love.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life questions like the following:
- What are cultural or gender stereotypes?
- Why are women characters often presented as sexy?