Swiss Family Robinson (film)
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| Swiss Family Robinson | |
|---|---|
 Cover of 2002 video release |
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| Directed by | Ken Annakin |
| Produced by | Bill Anderson |
| Written by | Lowell S. Hawley based on novel by Johann Wyss |
| Starring | John Mills Dorothy McGuire James MacArthur Janet Munro Sessue Hayakawa Tommy Kirk Kevin Corcoran Cecil Parker Andy Ho Milton Reid Larry Taylor |
| Music by | William Alwyn |
| Cinematography | Harry Waxman |
| Editing by | Peter Boita |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Productions through Buena Vista Distribution |
| Release date(s) | 21 December 1960 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 126 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Swiss Family Robinson is a 1960 film adaptation of the Johann David Wyss novel. It was directed by Ken Annakin and produced by Walt Disney Productions.
[edit] Plot
The movie begins with a ship in a big storm, it soon crashes into rocks. Later, the Robinson family break out of their cabin room and discover that they are not too far from land and also find animals under the decks; a donkey, 2 pigs, 5 goats, a cow and its calf, 4 chickens and 12 geese. Among the animals are the captain's two Great Danes, “Duke” & “Turk”. Some time later, the family gets to work on building a raft, soon board it and head for the island, with Duke & Turk not too far behind before Father decides to have them board the raft too.
After they land on the island, the family gives thanks to God that they made it safely, and set up camp. As Father and his two older boys, Fritz and Ernst, make plans to return to the ship to bring the rest of the animals and other supplies, little did any one know that an un-friendly face is watching them, a tiger. The next morning, Father, Fritz and Ernst work on bringing in the animals and other supplies from the ship, they soon see another ship far off at sea. But on closer inspection, they found out that it was a pirate ship. In fact, it was the same pirate ship that chased them into the storm. As the boys prepared to fire one of the ship's cannons on the ship, Father has the idea to put up a Quarantine flag, a warning that there's black death aboard, and it worked. As they sail for the island again, with the animals in tow, they spied sharks, who they scare away with their rifles. Afterwards, they found a sea turtle and tie a rope on it so it could pull them ashore.
Meanwhile, Francis, the youngest boy, was having an adventure of his own. He planned to put a rope around a leg of an elephant calf, and it worked. However, out of the bushes the tiger, who has been watching the family, comes out to see if he can make a snack out of the boy and elephant. Francis tries throwing sticks at the tiger to stop him, but this angers him and is about to attack the boy when suddenly the dogs, Duke & Turk, attack the tiger and fight it off, leaving Mother free to get Francis out of the way. The elephant was scared, but he couldn't get away with a rope on his leg. The tiger tried to get its claws on the dogs, but they wouldn't let him touch them, and then BAM! They knocked the tiger over again. Soon the tiger decides its had enough and ran off into the jungle, with the dogs not too far behind to try and tackle it again, until Francis tells Duke & Turk to let it be. Afterwards, Mother tells Francis that he shouldn't have wandered off like that, that he could have been killed. But after asking, she forgives the boy and says that he could keep the elephant, who later is named “Rocky”.
The family gets to work on building a treehouse for them, knowing that they couldn't sit on the beach for fear that the pirates might return. During the building, Francis also gains a new pet in a little monkey. When the construction was finished, Father and the boys showed the new house to Mother, and she was pleased with what they had done. Soon, Father, along with Fritz and Ernst, figure that since they are on the island, they should explore it and see if they could find a ship to take them to New Guinea. While Father goes over a list of animals they've identified thus far, they saw that Francis was being attacked by an ostrich. They captured the giant bird and discover Francis is all right from the experience. The family soon tames the ostrich, naming it “Clementine”, before Father convinces Mother that they should let Fritz and Ernst sail around the coast to see what they could find.
After being gone for days, Fritz and Ernst spotted the pirate ship they scared off. As they come ashore, they spy two people, the pirates, led by Kuala, have captured. One was a captain of the ship the pirates captured, along with his grandson, Bertie. The boys manage to free Bertie before being chased off by the pirates, who still have Bertie's grandfather for ransom. As they try to head for home, the boys discover that Bertie was really a girl, whose real name was Roberta.
While traveling through a murky swamp, Fritz is attacked by a big snake. Ernst comes in to try and free his brother, and with a sword they stole from the pirates managed to scare off the snake before setting off again. Out of the swamp, they rescued a zebra from a bunch of hyenas, cheetahs and vultures, later naming the zebra “Duchess”. They soon returned to their family on Christmas day, much to Father, Mother and Francis' surprise. After the boys them Father the whole story, he makes a plan on how to deal with the pirates should they return. First, go to the ship the next morning, pick up anything else they might need, and then blow it up. According to Father, with hundreds of islands and thousands of riffs, the pirates won't remember exactly where they are. Second, knowing that the family will be outnumbered, they decide to use a rock formation atop of a hill not too far away as their fortress, and at the bottom of the hill, they would put in pits, snares, and other things. Francis had the idea to dig pits to put in other animals like lions, tigers, among others so that when the pirates come, they'll fall in and become the animals' food.
After all the work they had done, Father decided to have a little celebration. During the night, the tiger from before wandered into one of the pits. Francis was the first to hear the tiger's roar, and knowing that the tiger might be caught set off first, and soon Father in lead, followed by the elder boys, along with Duke & Turk. Much too their surprise, the pit actually worked and the tiger was caught. So to that end, Father sends Francis back home while he and the boys covered up the pit again for the pirates.
Next morning, the family decided to have a race of the animals to start off their celebration; Francis riding Rocky (the elephant), Fritz riding “Lightning” (the donkey), Ernst riding Clementine (the ostrich), Roberta riding Duchess (the zebra), and Francis' little monkey riding Turk. As the race starts, the animals went off in different directions, Duchess took Roberta out to the beach before heading back, and Roberta spotted the pirates, alerts the others who soon head for the fortress...
[edit] Trivia
- The family's animals included Duke & Turk the Great Danes, Lightning the Donkey, Rocky the Elephant, a little monkey, Clementine the Ostrich, Duchess the Zebra, a cow and her calf, 5 billy goats, 2 pigs, 12 geese and 4 chickens. The tiger in this movie appears to be the movie's main animal villain, along with the sharks, snake, vultures, hyenas and cheetahs.
- The original cast called for a fourth son who was rather ponchier and round, named Patrick Malloy Robinson. He was later cut from the cast when he was found sleeping with one of the other male cast members. The Patrick Malloy Robinson incident was covered up by the crew and never made the tabloids.
- This film inspired the Swiss Family Tree House attractions at Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris.
- The first Walt Disney movie to include a Wilhelm scream.
- Contrary to the movie, two Great Danes can not fight off a tiger. But when Walt Disney came up with the idea to have a tiger on the island, he wanted the dogs to make contact with the tiger, which a dog who was a hunting dog did. According to director Ken Annakin, the hunting dog they used was capable of chasing down Mountain Lions, and while shooting, the two dogs really were chasing the tiger.
- Strangely enough, the name "Rocky" was the real name of the baby elephant in the movie. Kevin Corcoran and the elephant became best friends during production, on and off screen. Not to mention, the ostrich was never a favorite of John Mills at all.
- The makers of this movie had lots of help from the people of Tobago, where the film was made.
