Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

Directed by Ken Annakin. Starring John Mills, James MacArthur, Tommy Kirk, Dorothy McGuire, Janet Munro, Kevin Corcoran, Sessue Hayakawa, Cecil Parker. [G]

Larger-than-life adventure courtesy of Walt Disney, concerning a family that is traveling from Bern to New Guinea to start a new life, but their ship wrecks during a storm and they get stranded on an uninhabited island. Forget the harsh realities of survival; this is pure fantasy (the cast of “Gilligan’s Island” rarely had it so good), with an engine driven by adolescent imagination: lush scenery, exotic animals, fiendish South Seas pirates, and—for the older boys in the audience—even a pretty girl (Munro). Primarily aimed at kids, who will be enthralled by the “ultimate treehouse” and a climactic battle full of booby traps, coconut bombs, and log avalanches, but adults should probably enjoy it, too. Based on Johann David Wyss’ novel, previously adapted as a film in 1940, and re-adapted several more times in the years since (mostly for television).

71/100