Kid-Sight: Earth To Echo Movie Review

Parent note: This is a kid friendly review written in simpler language to help explain the movie to children. The purpose is to give a general idea of the movie to help children predict what is happening in the ‘big picture’ of the story. This review also provides some hints about the sensory and storyline content of the movie, as well as some helpful hints for older viewers.
Earth To Echo – 2014

Storyline:
Tuck, Munch, and Alex are three young teen boys who are best friends. They find out that their neighborhood is being destroyed so that the city can build a new highway and the boys are angry and sad. They don’t want to leave each other. While they are spending their last days together, some weird electronic activity begins to happen on their phones. They think it’s a message of some sort. Maybe even a map.

For their last night together, they decide to pack some food and get on their bikes to follow the phone messages. They discover a small alien. He crashed landed and needs to find all the pieces of his ship before he can return home.

The boys work together, along with a girl named Emma, to find all the pieces before they are caught. Once all the pieces are collected, they must help “Echo” the alien get back home.

ALSO SEE: Sensory Sensitive Summer Movies for more details.

Sensory Tips:
This is not an animated movie. It is filmed from the perspective of the boys, so the video camera shakes the screen a lot to make it feel like the kids are the ones filming it. This ‘shaking’ might cause some children to be distracted in the movie. There are some fast-action scenes, particularly when the kids are trying to escape being caught and when they first meet Echo.

Storyline Complexity:

The story has a moderately complex storyline. This is mostly due to the fact that it’s a story for older children. Some of the conversations are more mature so that it might be more difficult for younger children to understand. There are some references to kissing a girl, as well.

The main storyline is about these children trying to find all the pieces of Echo’s ship. That continues to be the main theme of the movie. The secondary storyline is the bond of friendship and children dealing with the difficulties of separation.
The movie begins with a lot of talking and not much action. It sets the scene very well for showing their friendships and how sad they are to be separated.
There is a lot of older content as far as language complexity and emotional complexity.

Separation. Girlfriend/boyfriend relationships. Deceiving parents.
Hints for Older kids:

1. What were the boys feeling about moving away from their neighborhood? How do you feel about change?
2. How did the boys learn to communicate with Echo? Did they use words or a special code system?
3. How do you think the boys felt at the end of the movie when Echo had to return to his home?

Kid-Sight: Earth To Echo Movie Review
Pepper Basham, MS, CCC-SLP