Another family feature already, because I hadn't arranged my queue with care in that regard. Anyway, I chose this more for title recognition than any other reason, knowing only that it was a live-action Disney movie tied to a book in the Robinson Crusoe subgenre. Subsequent research told me that it takes even more license than usual for Disney, including dropping "The" from the title for some reason. Oh well. It may not help kids cheat on an English test, but at least it's pretty popular in its own right.
During the Napoleonic Wars, between the threat of pirates and a raging storm, a crew abandons a ship bound for colonial New Guinea without warning its five passengers below deck, who find out only when they become castaways. Mercifully, the nearest island, while uncharted, is quite lush, and the wrecked ship still has plenty of useful elements. Over the course of maybe months, the family contends with the forces of nature and, ultimately, the same pirates. They also face some internal conflicts, such as one on the Lord of the Flies-type question of how much effort to put into signaling for a rescue.
Before I go any further, I should address the elephant in the room -- or rather the literal one on the island. It's one of many examples of Asian or African fauna you wouldn't expect to find in the wilds of the South Pacific, regardless of the family's theory of a onetime land bridge. And while it could have been worse, the animals on set were frequently treated in ways no longer permissible. That alone was enough to reduce my overall rating. I'm also concerned that the youngest brother, Francis (Kevin Corcoran), keeps capturing and adopting animals that are more dangerous than the picture implies. Indeed, the 10-year-old actor very nearly got his face stomped by said elephant.
The other way it's badly dated, as we might expect from a 1960 screen adaptation of an 1812 story, is in gender roles. Father (John Mills, whose accent discrepancy is the opposite of Dick Van Dyke's), young adult brother Fritz (James MacArthur), and teen brother Ernst (Tommy Kirk) do pretty much all the grunt work, and even Francis exercises more resourcefulness than Mother (Dorothy McGuire -- that makes three Old Yeller alumni), who offers little more than admonitions for safety. (Yes, the parents call each other "Mother" and "Father" even in private.) Another female castaway, Roberta (Janet Munro), turns up later and is about equally unimpressive, serving mainly to drive a wedge of jealousy between Fritz and Ernst. Perhaps it's just as well that Disney cut out the fourth brother from the novel.
If you can forgive these elements, you might just enjoy the whimsical aspects. The adventure bits did inspire parts of Star Wars and, I suspect, Home Alone, especially at the climax, despite this not being played for laughs. If anything is funny on purpose, it's the race involving various unconventional, largely uncooperative mounts. Even the quieter parts can be nice, as with the more innovative uses of ship parts and rainforest provisions. And it may soothe the soul to think that when life lays waste to your plans, you can still make something pleasant out of it -- possibly even preferable. There's something to be said for simplicity.
It's not the best live-action Disney fare of the 20th century. Maybe it should never have been made. But since it has, why not do as the family and make the most of it?
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