A high point of Disney's live action filmmaking, and they were rewarded with a magnificent success. The studio took the classic novel and reworked it along the lines of "let's put everything in the film that would be really cool to do if you were on an island".
So there's a mini-zoo of animals conveniently on the boat, a race on zebras, elephants and ostriches, a pair of hyperactive dogs, a tiger to capture, plenty of food, a treehouse with mod cons, waterfalls with slippery dips, vines to swing on, a beautiful shipwrecked girl to rescue, some pirates to fight off with lots of booby traps. There is location footage and excellent animal work.
It's enchanting... for the most part. The main draw back could have been easily fixed - the characters of the Robinsons are a little annoying - mother just wants to make curtains and doesn't like the island, Fritz (James MacArthur) shows dictatorial tendencies, little Francis (Kevin Corcoran) is a bit of a whiner who puts his family in danger several times and rather nastily turns from his studious middle brother Ernst, the girl (Janet Munro) when pretends to be a boy is a whimp who falls over running away from the pirates and pulls a gun on boys to avoid having to show her skin. It's a shame these rough qualities couldn't have been "sandpapered" over a little.
I found the most likeable the Tommy Kirk character - a smart guy who genuinely likes Munro but is dumped in favour of his hunky brother. (NB just realised when they leave her and MacArthur on the island together... they're not married. A bit saucy for disney.) Corcoran is more irritating here than normal - but what an audience surrogate for little boys
NB See the cover of the 2002 video release features everyone of the family except for Kirk. Bit narky!
So there's a mini-zoo of animals conveniently on the boat, a race on zebras, elephants and ostriches, a pair of hyperactive dogs, a tiger to capture, plenty of food, a treehouse with mod cons, waterfalls with slippery dips, vines to swing on, a beautiful shipwrecked girl to rescue, some pirates to fight off with lots of booby traps. There is location footage and excellent animal work.
It's enchanting... for the most part. The main draw back could have been easily fixed - the characters of the Robinsons are a little annoying - mother just wants to make curtains and doesn't like the island, Fritz (James MacArthur) shows dictatorial tendencies, little Francis (Kevin Corcoran) is a bit of a whiner who puts his family in danger several times and rather nastily turns from his studious middle brother Ernst, the girl (Janet Munro) when pretends to be a boy is a whimp who falls over running away from the pirates and pulls a gun on boys to avoid having to show her skin. It's a shame these rough qualities couldn't have been "sandpapered" over a little.
I found the most likeable the Tommy Kirk character - a smart guy who genuinely likes Munro but is dumped in favour of his hunky brother. (NB just realised when they leave her and MacArthur on the island together... they're not married. A bit saucy for disney.) Corcoran is more irritating here than normal - but what an audience surrogate for little boys
NB See the cover of the 2002 video release features everyone of the family except for Kirk. Bit narky!
No comments:
Post a Comment