Swiss Family Robinson

I remember reading Swiss Family Robinson as a kid when visiting my grandparents. I loved the book and was thrilled that Disney had made it into a movie. I don’t remember seeing it the first time - I think it was on TV when I was a kid in the 70s. But later in life I’d gotten it on VHS. My wife and I enjoy it enough we grabbed it for our Amazon streaming library and once again watched this timeless classic. The family Robinson have left their home for a better life without the growing restrictions and issues in their homeland, finding themselves alone on an isolated island when pirates and a storm cause their ship to wreck. Now needing to survive (yes, the easily version of “Castaway” or the other version of Robinson Crusoe) this family come together to build a life of survival on the island. Soon two of the sons are rescuing a lad from the pirates, and eventually they face those pirates. For many, Swiss Family Robinson is where they fell in love with the idea of living in the trees - it’s the first place many of us dreamed of having a treehouse - and I mean house,. It’s still the coolest treehouse of them all. Up there and around the island they find food, and luckily for them, they had plenty of supplies from the ship that wrecked. Their clothes along were a bonus save. But so too the farm animals and dogs they came to the island with. Then they had to deal with the animals on the island... A Warning for some: What I always hated from the first time I watched this film was the way the film treats the animals. I was never comfortable with the little kid (youngest, Francis) and his desire with “I want” every animal he came across, like monkeys with families, a baby elephant - where was its mother - and even the tiger he catches with no care as to it being harmed... the one thing this movie doesn’t ’t do is look at animals as anything other than a tool or this kid's play thing - this kid wants them, but doesn’t even care about them or treat them well. But I also hate that kid, Frances - character - overall. While the others are interesting, this kid is a nightmare. But these are characters who in their desperation to stay alive, find love with one another, and a desire to find a better life, realizing in the end, they’ve found it here. It’s still a classic story and still a good movie and I’m glad to revisit it from time to time. Movies and stories are records of who we are at a point in time - even when they take place at other times - and Swiss Family Robinson, like any other film, is a time-capsule. It continues to deliver an interesting story and some fun to boot. It still has that amazing treehouse. And it still offers a lovely setting. I continue to enjoy it after all these years.

We received 2 DVD's in this set, brand new. I remembered watching this movie when I was young, and decided to buy it for our family since it's rated G. Thank you God for Walt Disney who made so many wonderful family movies rated G. I congratulate all of the fine and wonderfully talented, brave, and daring actors in this movie who did most of the stunts themselves, including ACTUALLY riding a REAL ostrich, zebra, baby elephant, and donkey; pretend to wrestle with an enormous snake in a REAL swamp, which ACTUALLY wrapped itself around them; had to be brave enough to go to, and temporarily live, on an island experiencing an epidemic; experience a typhoon; and pretend not to be terrified of a REAL tiger ! Disk 2 was so fun and I highly recommend it for even the youngest kids because they show the entire Tree House that was built in a REAL tree--FANTASTIC--and everything WORKED !! The Tree House is the REAL DEAL ! Disk 2 featured a fun and enjoyable ethnic island musical documentary about the work done by the islanders, actors, and staff on-site; entertaining actor interviews; video clips; Walt Disney enjoying himself in the Tree House like a kid again; and video clips of John Mills family including daughter Hayley (whom we know well from "The Parent Trap" and her other Disney movies), etc. Many animals were brought to a REAL island and there were many duplicate animals for acting purposes so as not to be overworked. After watching both DVD's, it appeared to me that the actors were the ones who got a few scrapes and bruises and near-misses, but fortunately, no person or animal was seriously hurt. Considering all the garbage movies on the market today, I count myself fortunate to have grown up in an (older) era of wonderfully appropriate movies for children that I still remember with fondness today as an adult. My family enjoyed this movie. It would be fun just to experiment and try to build a tree-house like that--with fully functioning utilities--SO COOL !! You can't hardly ignore the sparks of creativity that entice you to want to build one yourself.

I've always enjoyed this movie. As a kid, I loved the tree house MOST but also the scenery and the adventures they all had. As an adult I can well appreciate the idea of living in solitude with family on a tropical island, making do with what you have and the very real appreciation of needing to plan to fend off both unwelcome human or animal invaders. For those whining about stereotypes and animals, the Chinese pirates in this part of the world are well documented and I commend (old) Disney for getting the look of the ships so correct for this film. Looking at paintings and very early photos of these pirates, they did it very well. With regards the animals, a small child would be easy prey for some larger predators, like a tiger, or even Fritz's size with a huge boa squeezing the life out of you. I don't blame Francis for wanting a baby elephant (what kid stranded on an island wouldn't want one??) and I was glad to see them save the zebra. These are all things you take in stride as a kid, he was harming any of them after all, but people really want to project their baggage onto everything I guess. Overall a great family adventure movie and one I wish there were more of. Tales from this time when the world was still being discovered are always fascinating.

Our youngest suggested it. Although the teens remembered seeing it (and liking it) years ago, they didn't want to watch a "cheesy rerun," like dated speech & visual effects. But the story, and the good and/or interesting characters (man and animal) overcome that early on. The parents are portrayed well. They're strong, asymmetrically so, and interesting. The children are as well. It's kind of a coming-of-age story. There's sibling rivalry, dramatic life-changing events that shakes up and changes family dynamics. Assumptions are questioned, but there seems in this family admirable, if not easy, values: mutual respect, honesty, community and independence, individuality, acceptance of choices and consequences. When, on more than one occassion, the Robinsons are faced with life or death situations, individual acts of bravery are required of each person for the survival of the family. Continuing with the theme of providing not a single plot detail, I'll end my review with the following impressions. This story has heart and humor. It's a classic for good reason.* The imaginative and unexpected problems, solutions, surprises - good and bad - far outweigh its technical "problems." *I've neither read the book nor had had the desire to watch the film. Thankfully, my family's interest overrode my lack of interest. I, along with all of our children who represent the spectrum of movie-watching age groups, thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a great film with "old-fashioned" values that most everyone would agree are applicable, relatable, and accepted today.

The most annoying thing is the child actor yelling his head off about the animals or whatever strikes his fancy. The other thing that's somewhat annoying is that there aren't any extras on the bluray. It's essentially just the movie with some chapters setup for those who want to skip to certain scenes. To me this is essentially a G-rated Errol Flynn without the Australian actor and shot in 65mm color. It's fairly staged and has that … unconvincing Disney gloss to both the acting and production values, notably the script, but like a lot of Disney fare it has a watchable quality to it, though I should probably give it three stars were it not for the high production values. The film has been edited some from what I recall from when I saw it in the theatre all those years ago. But, what are you going to do, write a letter to Disney and complain? Or, I could be not remembering the film correctly, but there were things that my cousin pointed out that simply aren't in the film anymore. Oh well. On the upside the film looks absolutely crystal clear and detailed like never before, or not since it's initial release. And there's no real psychiatric nor even psychological undercurrent here. It has a lot of coming of age stuff, and a family struggling to survive in the south seas, and faced with the peril of not just native fauna, but Asiatic pirates who are in fact multiethnic in spite of sailing a Chinese Junk. If you have some family or are baby sitting for the evening, then give this film a shot.

Like this movie, it was great old Disney movies

This movie was a favorite for my children when they were younger, and is now enjoyed by my grandchildren. We all enjoy watching their adventures on the island and the animal fun. Of course the pirates add an extra measure of excitement. It’s the most requested movie by every one when we go on vacations together. And all without a single cuss word or cringeworthy sexual innuendo!

Swiss Family Robinson is another longtime favorite for my son. He watched it all the time when we had the Disney Channel, and I had to get it on DVD once we got rid of cable. Even now at 17, he still enjoys it. It’s a great adventure story and one of those classic Disney movies that’s just fun to watch again and again. Perfect for anyone who enjoys older Disney films.