Center for Global Environmental Education Review of The Riddle in a Bottle

What a fun ride! Just as water finds the surest path across the land to the sea, Riddle in a Bottle’s lively journey leads the imagination through the kingdoms of Information and Concern to end in an ocean that teams with laughter and life—only to be swept up into the clouds and rained down from the heavens once again.

Producers Laura and Rob Sams of Sisbro Studios (they actually are brother and sis!) perform multiple roles in this wonderful film for young audiences about the mysteries of moving water and its importance to life on Earth. Through a beautifully filmed adventure that starts with the discovery of a poetic riddle in a bottle, the two Sams are behind the camera, in front of the camera, composing the music, writing the scripts, singing the songs, and managing some deft work in the editing room. They also give voice to myriad creatures, from a swamp-loving muskrat and his woodland friends to a slithering eel and a pair of dueling hermit crabs on an ocean reef.  Through it all, Rob and Laura look like they’re having as much fun as the viewer—and that’s a great thing to see between siblings. They share the limelight while giving ample opportunity for Rob’s elastic face to exude the kind of quirky whimsy that would make the gnarliest curmudgeon of any age crack a smile. Rob’s transformation into a pirate on a worldwide quest to find his dear, lost “family heirloom” peg leg, kept hobbling along on a steady beat kept by a pirate band in a leaky rowboat, is a wonderful highlight.

Whimsical, engaging, and surprising—never preachy or predictable—full of song and sibling shenanigans, Riddle in a Bottle is as original and fresh as it is important.

--John Shepard, Producer of Waters to the Sea, Center for Global Environmental Education, Hamline University