Have you ever sat through a children’s movie with a message? A very blunt message? That the movie beats you over the head with, over, and over? And over? That’s Walt Disney’s Chicken Little, unfortunately. It takes a good concept, and ruins it in the execution. It’s the final film of Don Knotts, and it’s a sad farewell to a great talent and very funny man.
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Tracy and Jay Osborne’s mother is shipping the unwilling children off to their grandfather’s house for Easter vacation while she attends to business in Hong Kong. The children plot a trip to visit their mother and, with the help of Jay’s pet skunk, evade their grandfather and airport security to escape in a taxicab with two safe-cracking vandals. The foursome proceeds to stage a kidnapping – although just who kidnapped whom is up for debate.
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How to Frame a Figg is a long-time favorite Don Knotts movie. Don stars as Hollis Figg, one of the bookkeepers for the small, but corrupt, town of Dalton. In an attempt to frame someone else for their own shenanigans, the town leaders purchase a second-hand mainframe computer and fire everyone except Figg, who becomes responsible for running the computer, as well as becoming the fall guy for the town’s financial corruption —hence, the title. As you can likely guess, Don Knotts fights back in his own jittery way, eventually winning the day and the girl.
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Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo has three major plots running through it. First is Jim Douglas (Dean Jones) attempting to resuscitate his racing career. With the help of his mechanic Wheely Applegate (Don Knotts) at a race in Europe. Hence the ‘Monte Carlo’ of the title. In addition, a pair of thieves (played by Bernard Fox and Roy Kinnear) have stolen a large diamond from a museum, and hide the stolen jewel in Herbie’s gas tank to escape detection …
And providing motivation for them and police inspectors to chase Herbie on the prolonged race route. Complicating these two is Herbie himself falling in love with another car, a Lancia. It (she?) is owned by a beautiful female race driver (Julie Sommars), whom Jim Douglas begins falling in love with. Is it the highlight of 20th-century cinema? No. Is it an enjoyable family film? Absolutely! The race scenes are fun, as are the interactions between the cast members, with Don Knotts playing his nervous everyman character to the hilt, Dean Jones is as enjoyable as ever, and Herbie actually shows off his personality. It’s an enjoyable movie, and I hope that you and your family enjoy it. I rate it 3 clowns out of 5.
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Many people who were children during 1975 will remember Walt Disney’s The Apple Dumpling Gang with fondness. The basic plot involves three orphans, who become the responsibility of Russell Donovan (played by Bill Bixby), a bachelor and small-time con artist who wants nothing more than to be free of them. After spending time trying to foist the children upon someone else, it’s found out that they own the deed to a gold mine, formerly thought to be worthless, but that produced a sizable nugget of gold after an earthquake.
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In The Strongest Man in the World, Medfield College science major Dexter Riley (Kurt Russell) and his classmates have been working on a new vitamin compound when a lab accident creates a supercharged mix that ends up in Dexter’s cereal box! After breakfast the next morning, Dexter is transformed, possessing a superhuman strength that levels lampposts and destroys doorknobs. The powerful formula comes to the attention of the college dean and two rival cereal companies, touching off a hilarious chain of events. Ultimate control of the moneymaking formula rides on a weight lifting match between the pitifully small Medfield team and the superior State challengers. It’s a mixture of fun, comedy, and adventure that will have everyone exploding with laughter!
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The classic Walt Disney adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,00 Leagues under the Sea, starring James Mason, Kirk Douglas, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas
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I am a large fan of Laurel and Hardy’s March of the Wooden Soldier. It’s a wonderful children’s story for adults. Which, among other things, had a live-action version of Mickey Mouse appear. This was done with Walt Disney’s permission, since he and producer Hal Roach were close friends. In the same way, Walt Disney’s version of the story, Babes in Toyland had a comedy team impersonating Laurel and Hardy. And although I saw it many years ago as a child, I was eager to see it again as an adult.
Read More »Babes in Toyland [Annette Funiceello]
“A diamond … in the rough“. In short, Walt Disney’s Aladdin can be summarized in that one sentence. It’s the story of a poor young man, Aladdin (Scott Weinger). He’s a street rat, who knows that he can be more. He lives by his wits on the streets. He commits petty larceny to eat. With the help of his only friend, the monkey Abu. But who’s still soft-hearted enough to give away his purloined meal to younger children, even hungrier than he is.
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Walt Disney’s classic animated movie, — ‘The Jungle Book‘, based on the stories by Rudyard Kipling, featuring the adventures of Mowgli, an orphan boy raised by wolves, who has to be taken to the human village to protect the wolf pack from the wrath of Shere Khan, the tiger – a wonderful classic, featuring the voice talents of Phil Harris and Sebastian Cabot, among others.
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