Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

boblipton Jules Verne gets Disneyfied again by the reliable Robert Stevenson, with Hayley Mills, Wilfred Hyde-White, George Sanders and Maurice Chevalier, singing some songs by the Sherman brothers. Given a story that traveled around the world and got its characters involved in floods, volcanic eruptions, mutinies, and capture by cannibals, somehow, everyone remains pink-faced & scrubbed clean at all times, with every bow-tie perfectly tied.It's a perfect movie at a moment when the strains of Hollywood's erosion and its retreat into what is today called a "tentpole movie" model was just about to collapse. While the Major studios like Fox were still relying on blockbusters like THE LONGEST DAY (which outgrossed this film), cheap producers like AIP were serving the Teen market. By the end of the decade, everyone would be going after them and movies like this would be seen as quaint. Well, I guess I'm old-fashioned. I love it.

SplitPersonality1 Previous experience with this film: I went into this one blind. I like some of the old classic Disney films and had a crush on Hayley Mills when I was a kid, so my expectations were a bit higher than they should have been.General Notes: In Search of the Castaways is not a great film. It is not a particularly good film, but if you are looking for basic, safe, family fare, this is your film. Mary Grant (Hayley Mills) and her younger brother Robert (Keith Hamshere) are two siblings in search of their missing sea captain father. With the help of French professor Jacques Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) and a stained note from in a bottle found inside the stomach of a shark; they scam their way onto the ship "Persevero" during a bon voyage party. That is when things start to get a bit unbelievable. Throughout the movie, the explorers endure many trials including an earthquake, an encounter with a giant condor, a flashflood and a tribe of cannibals. The storyline is over the top and the special effects are quite dated. The movie is based on a book by Jules Verne, Les Enfants du capitaine Grant or The Children of Captain Grant, published in 1873. Verne uses the travels of the expedition to describe plants, animals and geography of exotic places to his intended 19th century audience. Unfortunately, it does not translate very well to film.Positives: About the only bright spot in this movie is Maurice Chevalier's portrayal of Professor Paganel. He is a very likable character and when he breaks out into song, (did I forget to mention that this movie has a couple of musical numbers), it doesn't appear forced; it seems as if it is something that his character would naturally do.Negatives: This is a typical 1960s Disney family film so I am not going to hammer on it too hard. Yes, the plot is overdone. Yes, the special effects are laughable. My biggest gripe with the movie is that Hayley Mills is not given a lot to work with. She almost disappears in this film and that is a shame. One of the original taglines for this movie was "A Thousand Thrills and Hayley Mills". It really did not deliver.Overall: This is a 1962 Disney family film. It is exactly what you would expect. There are no surprises in this one. I would recommend this movie to someone nostalgic for Disney. Maybe to seven to nine-year old's that might like some of the fantastic adventure elements of the film. I give it a tepid score of 5.

Lars-Toralf Storstrand To destroy an epic adventure as Jules Verne's "The Children of Captain Grant" in such a way - is a crime that cannot be pardoned. The twist of the history in the beginning, the drop-outs of large parts of the history, and the cheap stage settings is not even worthy for a studio like Walt Disney.Now of course some would excuse this to the lack of special effects compared to today, but that is really no real excuse. In Norway, the book wasn't even translated and published in complete edition to 2013, but this is shameful. To destroy a major literary work like this is ... well I really don't have words for it.I am shocked.

SanDiego Part of Jules Verne's trilogy that includes "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" with Captain Nemo as the antagonist, "Mysterious Island" with Captain Grant as the castaway protagonist going up against Nemo, and "The Children of Captain Grant...aka 'In Search of the Castaways'" with (as the titles suggests) the children of Captain Grant as the protagonists in search of their castaway father. Even if Walt Disney had made "Mysterious Island" (in 1961 another studio made a pretty nifty though obviously 60's style sci-fi movie from it) there still wouldn't be much to tie this film to Walt Disney's classic starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason. Without knowledge of the characters from "Mysterious Island" there is no clue that the Grant children live in the same world as the first film, let alone that of Captain Nemo. With that said, the film does work as a wild and fun Disney adventure (Disney films are a genre all their own). Starring familiar Disney faces such as Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier (hey it could have been Annette Funicello and Burl Ives) this is Walt Disney's film not Jules Verne's and a good time can be had by the whole family. Some of the special effects are inferior to Disney's standard but Mills and company are very watchable as are the endless stream of natural disasters that befall them. Recently remakes have been made of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Too bad a mini-series involving the entire trilogy wasn't tackled. Just a thought.