Note that I don't mind if we deviate and discuss other studios' G Rated live action films as well. We seemed to have grown up in the "G" Golden Age and I myself will address some of those movies below*.
I can remember occasionally traveling to the Studio Theater that existed in a nearby neighborhood. It was a mysterious box of a building down busy 95th street in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago. It had a large parking lot adjacent to one of those giant slides that you rode a potato sack down. And the theater always showed the Disney movies and usually in a double-feature format. I can remember driving over there in our family's red station wagon; I rode backwards facing the rear window on hot summer days. We'd park and get our tickets and look at the movie posters. No candy or pop for us, unless my mom hid some M&Ms or Good and Plenty in her purse. It didn't matter because I was mesmerized by Dexter Riley's adventures, or The Apple Dumpling Gang, or Escape to Witch Mountain.
I know I didn't see every Disney film, but we sure saw a lot of them. In the 70s it seemed like the studio produced more live action vehicles than it did animated films. My memory may be cloudy on where I saw the movies, as many also appeared on Disney's Sunday night program Wonderful World of Disney. I also saw some made for TV movies there as well like the great Mystery in Dracula's Castle.
Besides those already mentioned, here is an incomplete list of the Disney movies in this category that I viewed somewhere back in the haze of my youth:
Big Red
Emil and the Detectives
That Darn Cat!
The Ugly Dachshund
The Gnome-Mobile
The Boatniks
Superdad
The Barefoot Executive
The Million Dollar Duck
One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing
The Shaggy D.A.
Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
The Cat From Outer Space
Hot Lead and Cold Feet
The North Avenue Irregulars
The Devil and Max Devlin
The Black Hole
The Watcher in the Woods
Seeing these again, the storylines are sometimes quite vapid, the special effects cheesy, and the acting is a bit hammy. But I love them anyway. Sometimes nostalgia beats artistry.
So here are my Top Five Disney Live Action Films and some notes about each:
1) Now You See Him, Now You Don't is the second film in the Dexter Riley trilogy starring Kurt Russell. The others were The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Strongest Man In The World. In 1972, five-year-old me couldn't get enough of the invisibility hijinks at Medfield College and the treachery of Caesar Romero's A.J. Arno. Oh, I so wanted to turn invisible!
2) Gus is the story of a field goal kicking mule and the beleaguered professional football team that hires him and his caretaker. The joy of seeing slow motion muddy football craziness cannot be beat. Plus it has Tim Conway as a criminal and Don Knotts as the coach. I still cannot figure out what the magic word is that makes Gus kick (it sounds like "oyage') but I loved this movie.
3) The Mystery In Dracula's Castle. The above mentioned made-for-TV movie always captivated me. Two brothers who decide to film a Dracula movie during their summer vacation stumble upon some jewel thieves at their lighthouse castle location. They of course manage to foil the criminals in a particularly spectacular fashion when they light off fireworks to draw attention.
4) The Parent Trap. I saw this one on TV also. I laughed heartily along with my sisters when the camp pranks were in action. I could not wrap my tiny mind around the fact that Hayley Mills was playing both roles of the twins.
5) Freaky Friday. I was mesmerized by the thought of a mind switch. Oh boy, if I could be somebody else for a day - how much fun would that be? Redartz and I better not make any magic wishes!
So those are my top picks, but there were also some movies that I did not like. I have to say that One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing left me cold. I saw it on a double bill with The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. I don't remember much about it other than a group of nannies chased down the skeleton of a dinosaur stolen from a museum. I remember really not liking it at the time.
And now for the asterisks...
*How can there be a discussion of great children's movies without including the 1968 classic from Warfield Productions, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (boy did that Child Catcher creep me out) or the 1971 Wolper Pictures' masterpiece Willy Wonka &The Chocolate Factory? Those honestly would be way up on my list if I didn't limit the favorite five to Disney flicks.
*On the other side of that coin, I have to say that when I was in grade school, Benji seemed to be everywhere. I remember posters, numerous sequels, books in the monthly Scholastic offerings, etc. And the kids in my school seemed to love the little mutt. But he bored me to tears. Sorry animal fans - Benji is in the doghouse in my book.
The Ugly Dachshund
The Gnome-Mobile
The Boatniks
Superdad
The Barefoot Executive
The Million Dollar Duck
One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing
The Shaggy D.A.
Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
The Cat From Outer Space
Hot Lead and Cold Feet
The North Avenue Irregulars
The Devil and Max Devlin
The Black Hole
The Watcher in the Woods
Seeing these again, the storylines are sometimes quite vapid, the special effects cheesy, and the acting is a bit hammy. But I love them anyway. Sometimes nostalgia beats artistry.
So here are my Top Five Disney Live Action Films and some notes about each:
1) Now You See Him, Now You Don't is the second film in the Dexter Riley trilogy starring Kurt Russell. The others were The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Strongest Man In The World. In 1972, five-year-old me couldn't get enough of the invisibility hijinks at Medfield College and the treachery of Caesar Romero's A.J. Arno. Oh, I so wanted to turn invisible!
2) Gus is the story of a field goal kicking mule and the beleaguered professional football team that hires him and his caretaker. The joy of seeing slow motion muddy football craziness cannot be beat. Plus it has Tim Conway as a criminal and Don Knotts as the coach. I still cannot figure out what the magic word is that makes Gus kick (it sounds like "oyage') but I loved this movie.
3) The Mystery In Dracula's Castle. The above mentioned made-for-TV movie always captivated me. Two brothers who decide to film a Dracula movie during their summer vacation stumble upon some jewel thieves at their lighthouse castle location. They of course manage to foil the criminals in a particularly spectacular fashion when they light off fireworks to draw attention.
4) The Parent Trap. I saw this one on TV also. I laughed heartily along with my sisters when the camp pranks were in action. I could not wrap my tiny mind around the fact that Hayley Mills was playing both roles of the twins.
5) Freaky Friday. I was mesmerized by the thought of a mind switch. Oh boy, if I could be somebody else for a day - how much fun would that be? Redartz and I better not make any magic wishes!
So those are my top picks, but there were also some movies that I did not like. I have to say that One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing left me cold. I saw it on a double bill with The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. I don't remember much about it other than a group of nannies chased down the skeleton of a dinosaur stolen from a museum. I remember really not liking it at the time.
And now for the asterisks...
*How can there be a discussion of great children's movies without including the 1968 classic from Warfield Productions, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (boy did that Child Catcher creep me out) or the 1971 Wolper Pictures' masterpiece Willy Wonka &The Chocolate Factory? Those honestly would be way up on my list if I didn't limit the favorite five to Disney flicks.
*On the other side of that coin, I have to say that when I was in grade school, Benji seemed to be everywhere. I remember posters, numerous sequels, books in the monthly Scholastic offerings, etc. And the kids in my school seemed to love the little mutt. But he bored me to tears. Sorry animal fans - Benji is in the doghouse in my book.
Did you see a lot of these films? Below are some posters and photos of some of the "classics", but there are countless others. What were your memories? What were your favorites? And what did you not like? Were you more of an animation fan or did you enjoy these fictional forays as well? Rate them. Rank them, And share your thoughts. Cheers!
19 comments:
I assume G rated is equivalent to U in the UK ? Our film ratings are U, 12, 12A, 15, 18 and 18R (that's porn). "One Of our Dinosaurs Is Missing" reminds me of an incident from 1986 - there was a BBC TV show called The Late, Late Breakfast Show (which was aired on Saturday evenings) and part of the show featured a member of the public performing a stunt which was filmed in advance and broadcast on the show. Unfortunately, one week the stunt went disastrously wrong and the member of the public was killed - The Late, Late Breakfast Show was immediately cancelled but it happened so fast that I didn't even know the cancellation had happened so when I tuned in as normal the BBC was showing "One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing" in that timeslot leaving me baffled about what was going on !
So, Red ol' pal----
MARY POPPINS-?
Then a vast, vast gulf of interstellar space.
And then the rest of the pack comes chugging down the final stretch, I'm thinkin'.
That film is the crowning achievement in Disney's live-action (w/ a few integrated animation bits) film catalogue. I know I throw the word "gestalt" around a lot (maybe I have an affinity for the magic of communal achievement?), but this movie is sort of the ideal of that model. 'Cause whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts, even though those individual parts were flippin' AWESOME already. The entire cast, even down to the supporting roles, is brilliant (Academy Award for Julie Andrews, too, mind you-); the music is obviously some of Disney's best ever; the choreography is FANTASTIC (OMG-- that rooftop sequence. . . I did a show where the choreographer just up and swiped about 90 seconds of it. . .); and the writing has a nuance and depth that you honestly are STARVED for in most other Disney live-actions. Even one of the weakest elements- Dick Van Dyke's horrifically bad cockney accent- has become amusingly beloved over the intervening years.
After that--?
It does get a little tough-- and many on your list I haven't seen. And I think I still need to go off-list for a few-- so we'll have a 4-way tie for second place:
2) ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR
2) DARBY O'GILL and the LITTLE PEOPLE (scared me to DEATH, that Banshee did!!)
2) NEVER CRY WOLF (surprisingly heavy-ish for a Disney film--)
2) Possibly BLACKBEARD'S GHOST-- but I remember reading and enjoying the book more than I remember the film.
Hmmm-- Where does OLD YELLER fall into this spectrum? How many of us couldn't breathe from crying so hard when we were very little when they put YELLER down 'cause he'd contracted rabies? Man. . .
HB
Oh daggone it-! Marti, I turned you and Redz around up above, there-- so sorry! It's like. . . it's like we can't even tell you apart anymore. . .
It's like. . . you guys are both Haley Mills-!!
(Bwah-hahahahaha!)
HB
Hmmm,perhaps that explains why I don't quite feel like myself this morning, HB... :)
And I must agree with you, HB= Poppins tops the list in my book, too. Between the unforgettable tunes, great choreography (I'm just going to parrot your post, HB- that rooftop scene is incredible, perfectly amazing) and comic touches, it just wins all around.
After that, my solid number two is "The Love Bug". I remember seeing that when I was about 9, our local theater sent me a free ticket for my birthday (bet they don't do that anymore}. Buddy Hackett is always fun, and the film set in place a lifelong fondness for VW Beetles.
To round out the top five-
The Parent Trap
Apple Dumpling Gang (on the strength of Don Knotts and Tim Conway)
Million Dollar Duck (mainly because I recall the enticing gold eggs)
By the way, Marti- your movie theater sounds eerily familiar to one in my hometown. It was a big box, held two screens, was next to a shopping mall and had a giant slide in the parking lot next to it...
And "Old Yeller"- aaaugh; I still can hardly think about that movie! Too much angst for this dog lover.
HB and Redartz....d'oh (as I smack my head)...I left Mary Poppins off because of its bit of animation but it is absolutely positively a valid choice and a great film. Bedknobs and Broomsticks, though not as great, also falls into that amalgam of live action and animation category. I was just focused more on the totally live action fiction - as I also glossed over the numerous nature shows Disney cranked out.
Regarding that theater I often visited - one of my most fond memories was looking at the movie posters labeled "Ciming Soon". Back then I think the previews and trailers were less extensive so I remember wondering greatly about the images on those sheets.
And Colin I do believe these would all be in the "U" category, as I don't think any were PG - "parental guidance" although I will say that the ending of "The Black Hole" creeped me out a bit and I do wonder what they were thinking with that film.
I only saw "Old Yeller" once and have no desire to see it again. Yeesh! That ending was traumatic.
And Colin's reference to the Late Late Breakdast show is interesting ... was that the show with some Paul McCartney interview that was controversial or something??? Anyway I'm getting off the rails.
Cheers all. Thanks for commenting early.
Martinex, I do remember Paul and Linda McCartney appearing on the Late Late Breakfast show in order to plug Say Say Say. The only problem was that they seemed to view presenter Noel Edmonds with barely disguised contempt and were not exactly helpful guests, answering questions just by saying, "Yes," or, "No." Whether they didn't like Edmonds or were just stoned or thought it was funny, wasn't clear. Whatever the reason, it got a lot of negative coverage in the press. It didn't do them any harm, the single shot up the charts the following week, even though it had gone down the previous week.
There was also some degree of controversy because the video for the single was supposed to be played on Top of the Pops in the week it first entered the chart but the video wasn't ready in time. The next week, the song went down the chart, so Top of the Pops refused to play it. McCartney's people kicked up a fuss about the fact that the show hadn't honoured its promise to play it and so the BBC arranged the Noel Edmonds interview as compensation.
It should be said that Noel Edmonds is a somewhat controversial character with a whole host of political, "scientific" and social viewpoints that are not of the norm. Whether this informed the McCartneys' view of him is anyone's guess.
I'm almost embarrassed to say that the only films in this category I recall seeing in the theaters were the Herbie the Love Bug flicks. I did see a couple of Benji movies, too.
I do not recall seeing the Apple Dumpling Gang, but in regard to Tim Conway -- one of the great physical comedians of all time!
Doug
Those images brought back so many memories; most of these I recall watching on TV, on the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday evenings. In fact, I recall when Gus was being shown, my dad got a little bent out of shape: the main character, the donkey's owner, was from Yugoslavia, and there was a scene of a soccer match in Belgrade right at the beginning where everybody is waving Yugoslav flags for some reason - at the time, for my dad, staunch Croatian nationalist that he is, that was a like waving a red cloth in front of a bull - I think he almost changed the channel but then just stomped out of the room (and returned later because I think he found the donkey kicking the ball amusing).
Anyway, my picks:
1) Candleshoe - weird to think that Jodie Foster appeared in this after Taxi Driver; this is just a fun little movie - at least I remember enjoying it both times I saw it, once as a pre-teen and then again in my teens.
2) The Parent Trap - agree with everyone else on this one.
3) A tie between two of the Kurt Russell flicks, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Now You See Him, Now You Don't.
4) Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN - haven't seen this since I was about 8 or 9 years old, but it's a sentimental favorite, because it was one of the first (and actually few) times, back in the mid-'70s, that my whole family went to see a movie together in a theater (which was in the nearest larger town, and which screened an odd repertoire of films, mainly older stuff from the '60s or earlier '70s, like this one).
5) The World's Greatest Athlete - another sentimental favorite; I actually read the novelization first when I was about 9 or 10 years old and found it really entertaining; when I did eventually see the movie on TV it was a bit of a letdown, but I still liked it.
Steve Does Comics - thanks for that info around the "Say, Say, Say" interview; I knew that rang a bell.
Doug - don't be embarrassed for not seeing these; perhaps I should be embarrassed for seeing so many mediocre flicks!
Re "The Love Bug" It is kind of amazing that they were able to give a VW so much personality with such slim special effects. Is that when the "slug bug" road trip game started?
Well, I don't know about the rest of you but Winter is definitely suddenly here! Cheers!
Edo I totally forgot about that Crusoe movie starring Dick Van Dyke. Wow. I remember something about a smart chimp and Van Dyke battling some island statue. That should be in a time capsule from the early 70s.
Great story about your father and Gus.
I'm like Doug, I haven't seen most of these (and the ones I have seen I barely remember); I remember liking the Herbie movies as a kid, and I kinda remember That Darn Cat because Frank Gorshin was in it, but other than that, not a lot that rings a bell here.
Mike Wilson
Edo's comment on "Crusoe" reminded me of another: "Swiss Family Robinson". It was pretty enjoyable, at least to 11 year old me. For many years, the only movies our parents would let us see were Disney flicks like today's fare. I was 14 before even seeing a "PG"...
I almost cited SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, as it was a huge must-see flick when it came out in the theaters when I was a kid. It's one of the several that my Mom got us late to the theater for, well after it had started (I've mentioned this before, I'm pretty sure)-- so we came in somewhere in the middle, watched to the end, sat through the interval, watched the next show up until the point where we'd arrived, and then she hauled us out. In fact, that's how we saw MARY POPPINS as well.
My memories of SwFR were great-- but we watched it on family movie night several years ago, and. . . man, it just does not hold up over time, IMO. The final sequence where the kids cheerfully join in with killing the invading pirates (or whatever) was surprisingly off-putting to the parent of young kids of one's own. Sooooo it didn't make my list of #2's. . .
HB
Oops- in my list of UK film ratings I forgot about PG which comes between U and 12. And talking of Paul McCartney interviews - about 20 years ago he admitted during a BBC interview that Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds is about LSD and not about a Julian Lennon drawing which is the official explanation.
Ahhhhhhh, I dunno Colin-- I do tend to take Paul's anecdotes and remembrances with a pretty big grain of salt with stuff like that. 'Specially since a) it was John's song, not his, and b) John never, ever wavered on his story about the title being based on one of Julian's school drawings. And boy, if there ever was a "bad boy" pop star who didn't like to miss an opportunity to be an incorrect rebel. . .
HB
Didn't someone unearth the actual drawing of Lucy that Julian had produced that day? Surely that would settle the matter for good.
I'm sure I've read/heard an interview that John had given it to Paul or Ringo at some point, and that it was hanging on their wall. Possibly in Beatles Anthology?
That sticks in my mind 'cause my thinking was exactly the same as yours, BSmith.
HB
I still have an affinity for The Black Hole. Have a nice DVD edition in my movie cabinet right now in fact. It had such a meancing atmosphere and wonderful effects, despite the two silly robots (one voiced by Slim Pickens no less). I loved the cast as well. Maximillian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Ernest Borgnine and Yvette Mimieux. That's a pretty stellar line-up.
That is a great cast JJ. I just remember it being particularly dark, with an inordinate amount of calamity and gruesome death for a children's movie. Didn't it end (SPOILER ALERT) with Maximillian Schell merging with a robot who had whirling blades for hands and ending up in some version of hell? And didn't Perkins get gutted by those knives? What was that movie rated - surely that couldn't have been "G"? Like I said, I can't imagine what Disney was thinking in that story...it was so un-Disneylike (or is my imagination off; I haven't seen it in many years).
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