A young girl bonds with a white lion in this “adventure with a message” that was shot over the course of three years.

London-born 11-year-old Mia Owen is moving with her family back to her parents’ homeland of South Africa along with her older brother Mick. Unhappy about the move, her father John plans to turn the family farm that he had inherited into a bed and breakfast that also serves as an animal preserve. Mia and Mick’s life change when they learn a white lion has been born on the farm. While Mick is excited, Mia at first is reluctant until she forms a bond with the lion, which they named Charlie. John fears that when Charlie gets bigger, he may be too much for Mia and Mick and decides to keep it caged.

However, over the course of three years, Charlie does get bigger but forms a bond with Mia while Mick begins to slowly suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. When Mia disobeys John by going to Charlie’s gate, he decides to have him transferred. One day, Mia sees a lioness from the farm being transported and witnesses something she never expected. Now 14, she makes a decision set to change Charlie and her family’s lives forever as she decides to bring Charlie to a reserve where the Shangaan tribe consider the white lion their protector. Will she and Charlie succeed in the journey or will something else come in store for them?

A co-production of France, Germany, and South Africa, director Gilles de Maistre was inspired alongside his wife Prune to make a film after a visit to South Africa, where they saw lion breeding farms. Working alongside South African “lion whisperer” Kevin Richardson, the idea was to shoot for three years to give the two young leads of the film a chance to bond and train with the animals under Richardson’s supervision. The film would involve the bond between the titular Mia and a white lion and give a message about lions being bred for either going back to their natural habitat or being hunted for sport, a very serious problem that has been going on in South Africa.

Daniah de Villiers beat out hundreds of child actors to win the role of Mia as her experience with living on preserves led her to earn the role. What is amazing with the film is the bond between she and Thor, the white lion who plays Charlie. Alongside Ryan MacLennen, who plays Mick, de Villiers underwent a three-year program to train and bond with Thor and the chemistry between the two child actors and Thor, along with some of the animals (like a meerkat and some hyenas) really are the heart of the film as well as the child actors themselves, who clearly look so natural as sister and brother over the course of three years.

The film’s other major plus comes in the form of Langley Kirkwood, who is currently on the show Warrior and will soon be see at the end of the month (as of this review) on Netflix’s One Piece series. As patriarch John, we see a dual personality in the father, who can be nice one minute and then mean the next. Throughout the three years, we see John get a little more aggressive as his reasoning is not so much protecting his family, but finds himself in a situation where he is forced to be involved in something that nearly destroys his moral compass.

Melanie Laurent’s Alice is the overprotective mother, especially when it comes to Mick when he seeks a therapist. But kudos has to go out to Lillian Dube as the at times funny servant Jodie while Brandon Auret once again gets to play an antagonist in Dirk, the hunter who wishes to make a nice trophy in Charlie.

In the end, Mia and the White Lion is heartwarming, heartwrenching, and emotional thanks in part to the natural chemistry between Daniah de Villiers and Thor as well as Ryan MacLennen as Mia’s brother. A movie with a message about a major issue in South Africa involving lions is conveyed and has to be noticed, but first, enjoy the bond between the titular Mia and the White Lion.

WFG RATING: A+

Shout! Studios presents an M6 Films/Film Afkira/Pandora Film production. Director: Gilles de Maistre. Producers: Valentine Perrin, Jacques Perrin, Nicholas Elghozi, Gilles de Maistre, Stephane Simon, and Catherine Caborde. Writers: Prune de Maistre and William Davies. Cinematography: Brendan Barnes. Editing: Julian Rey.

Cast: Daniah de Villiers, Ryan MacLennen, Langley Kirkwood, Melanie Laurent, Lillian Dube, Brandon Auret.