Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786304291702 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC ISBN: 6304291701 Label: Buena Vista Distribution Company Manufacturer: Buena Vista Distribution Company Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Buena Vista Distribution Company Release Date: March 04, 1997 Running Time: 126 minutes Studio: Buena Vista Distribution Company Theatrical Release Date: December 21, 1960 Sales Rank: 241
Amazon.com: The Disney touch is all over this grand, colorful version of the Johann Wyss adventure of a European family set off for the new world of New Guinea. The film opens on a ship jostled and torn by a raging storm while a family struggles to make it through alive. Tossed into a reef near a deserted tropical island, father John Mills takes charge and the family soon turns their island prison into a veritable paradise. Their multilevel tree house, built in record time, is complete with running water and a working pipe organ scavenged from the ship, while their grand yard is abloom in English roses. As a tale of hardship and pioneer pluck, the tale is pure fantasy, but as entertainment it's energetic and appealing. The island is impossibly populated by ostriches, zebras, lions, and elephants, a private zoo that delights the youngest boy and offers plenty of comic relief. The two older brothers discover even wilder life when they rescue the prisoner of oriental pirates (led by hard-bitten Sessue Hayakawa). There's little real danger anywhere in the film--even the climactic battle with the pirates is a cartoonish affair, with coconut bombs and nonlethal booby traps, until the final desperate, deadly moments. Hardly a faithful adaptation of the novel, but a lush, beautifully photographed film and an entertaining adventure safe for all ages. Dorothy McGuire costars as the proper, worry-prone mother. (Ages 5 and older) --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - great family movie
what can i say that hasn't been said about this classic. it's a great family movie. great way the family comes together to defend itself. great way the boys are entrusted to go out and work for themselves ... Read More
Rating: - File under 'whimsical farce'.
Pass on this one, unless you have fond memories of it from childhood or you're buying it for kids. And this from a big Disney fan, but this was not one of Uncle Walt's better efforts.
Rating: - The tree house movie was (is) great.
As a paperboy working for the San Diego Tribune from 1959 to 1962 I was fortunate to be treated to a free movie from time to time; a guest of the Union/Tribune. There were several movies that we saw as a result ... Read More
Rating: - Everything it was advertised to be....
I bought this as a gift for my daughter's birthday in Decemter (I shop VERY early)
Rating: - Wonderful World of Disney
I grew up watching this movie during the Wonderful World of Disney night on TV. This was one of my favorite of all the "old" Disney movies. It has all the characteristics of great movies; trouble, adaptation, resolution, ... Read More
- great family movie
- File under 'whimsical farce'.