‘WIZARDS OF LOST KINGDOM’ IS ONE FOR THE VERY YOUNG

Sword-and-sorcery movies don’t come any more elementary than “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom” (citywide).

If you’re over 10 be prepared to struggle to stay awake. However, unlike most pictures of this usually brutal genre, “Wizards” actually is appropriate--even though rated PG--for the grammar-school age group most likely to enjoy it.

Vidal Peterson is likable as a boy wizard who must free his kingdom from an evil sorcerer (strong-jawed Thom Christopher) and enlists the aid of a seedy, amiable warrior (Bo Svenson, appealingly laid-back).

Other contributions are competent, and they include those of writer Tom Edwards and director Hector Olivera, whose “Funny Dirty Little War,” an anti-war allegory set during the last days of the Peron regime, took the special jury prize at Berlin last year.

Cinematographer Leonard Solis and production designer Mary Bertram deserve to be singled out for their resourcefulness in making the film look as good as it does. Bertram has a way of making the most of a bolt of cloth and a can of silver spray paint, and Solis’ careful lighting helps camouflage the rest.