No one much remembers or likes this sequel to Old Yeller even though it features two of the same cast - Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran - and was based on a script and novel by Fred Gipson, who wrote the original. Which makes sense because it isn't as good.
Old Yeller's strength was in its simplicity - slice of life Americana about a boy and his dog and the boy has to learn to be a man by shooting the dog. It put the boy and dog front and center - the whole story was about their relationship, the boy meeting the dog, not liking him at first, the dog earning his respect, then coming to love him, then having to shoot him. Great stuff.
There's no unifying theme here. Kirk is more grown up, running the farm while his parents are away. There's a dog in it, Savage Sam, who is a bit of a scamp, but belongs more to Corcoran. They rush off to find the dog with Marta Kristen... and get kidnapped by Apaches. The film is about Kirk escaping from the Apaches, hooking up with Brian Keith and some other cowboys and going to rescue the others. Savage Sam is a bit player, and the bulk of the film is a stock Western, like The Searchers lite. There's none of that film's complexity or depth - the Indians are hollering savages, it's a clear battle of good versus evil. I guess one of the white cowboys is a bit racist - that's about as liberal as this gets.
There's no central theme - nothing to hang on to. They should have done something - I don't know, made more of the romance between Kirk and Kristen, acknowledged that Kirk is a young adult. Used Kirk's father again say (if Fess Parker wasn't available, have Keith play this role instead of some random relative). Maybe Kirk hates farming, or wants his own place, and his father won't let him - then Kirk gets kidnapped so there's all this family under current.
Or used the Old Yeller connection more - maybe Kirk hates Sam, because Sam isn't as good as Yeller, and Sam earns Kirk's respect, or something. Or Kirk and Kirsten are romancing and Corcoran is jealous because the old gang is breaking up. It needed a serious subtext.
As an action movie it's okay - not terribly well directed or exciting despite the stakes of the story. Everyone worries about Kristen being raped, which is a little different for Disney. Corcornan's whiney-ness isn't new or surprising - but it really got on my nerves here, mostly because he's older than I've seen him before, but also because he's a little brat when kidnapped by the Apaches (they respect him for it). I kept going "shut up kid".
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