Swiss Family Robinson [VHS]

A family ends up on a deserted island when a storm destroys their boat. Lots of fun and cute animals. Good movie

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.

I have always loved the storyline of this movie and recently introduced my children to it. The movie itself is definitely showing its age with coloration, sharpness, and special effects though, lol.

Very fun film but I am biased as I saw this when I was a kid watching Sunday Disney movie night on our tv. Good Memories and Good Movie makes for a great family movie night. Wholesome with a Can Do Attitude !

The coolest treehouse ever along with fun adventure, sweet romance & pirate action. 🌴🥥🌴

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.

Swiss family Robinson dvd works ok in good condition

I bought this DVD as a Christmas present for my sister and she loves it!

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)Product DescriptionThe film was based on the book by Johann Wyss, written to preserve the tales he and his sons made up while imagining themselves in Robinson Crusoe's predicament. Not originally intended for publication, the narrative was later edited and illustrated by Wyss' descendants.

This is just a quick review for the purchase I made for $6.99 on Amazon.ca, July 31, 2020. Get it while they are still available, because this is indeed the two disc release of the film. Starting with disc two, I’ve already watched a four minute feature with uncle Walt opening up the Swiss family Robinson attraction at Disneyland, another nice little four minute sequence highlighting all of the Disney releases for 1960, and now I’m watching 20 minutes worth of footage from the 1940 black-and-white film adaptation, starring Thomas Mitchell, Tim Holt, Freddie Bartholomew and Terry Kilburn! And it seems that I’ve only just barely cracked the lid of this treasure chest of hidden gems. I wouldn’t expect to ever see it again at this price, unless you can find it at a local flea market, marooned on its own deserted island, so to speak—and even then...

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