Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

“The world is full of nice, ordinary little people who live in nice, ordinary little houses on the ground. But didn’t you ever dream of a house up on a tree top? ” – Father Robinson

Number of Times Seen – probably 3-5 times (cable in the 80’s and 1 May 2016)

Brief Synopsis – A family is deserted on an island in the South Pacific and must try to stay alive using the Island’s resources while keeping themselves safe from the natural and unnatural dangers lurking around.

My Take on it – Once again, I decided to rewatch a favorite movie of my youth in order to see what the 42 year old in me thinks of it.

There were a number of aspects of the film that I remembered, but most of it felt new despite that.

The story itself is quite fun to watch and it reminded me of the kind of Live-action Disney films I grew up on.  The fact taht they added lots of great sub-plots kept it interesting throughout.

I find it funny that Disney would use the same child actors over and over in different movies and that too brought back lots of memories for me.

Before seeing this now, I read that George Lucas was a huge fan of this film and that it influenced much of his visions in Star Wars. (see trivia)

When I watched it, I actually was reminded of Star Wars so many times that it is quite canny how many similarities there are: love triangle, using the forest itself during the battle and of course the python scene.

I know that Disney invented much of the story, but I’d be interested to know what was added to the original story and of course, what was omitted.

Overall, I enjoyed this, but know that I still enjoyed it even more as a kid.

Bottom Line – Very fun adventure story that has so many sub-plots that help keep it quite interesting.  Excellent cast of “Disney friendly actors” filling the roles of the characters from the original book. Can definitely see the influences of this movie on the Star Wars franchise (see trivia).  Still liked it a lot more as a kid. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – A huge fan of the film, George Lucas named Anakin Skywalker after the director of this film, Ken Annakin. Also, the climactic battle was a direct influence on the final Ewok skirmish in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983). (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy

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