THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON

US, 1960, 126 minutes, Colour.
John Mills, Dorothy Mc Guire, James Mac Arthur, Janet Munro, Sessue Hayakawa, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Cecil Parker.
Directed by Ken Annakin.

The Swiss Family Robinson is one of the most popular of the Disney live action features. It was directed by Ken Annakin who had made The Sword and the Rose in England for Disney in the early 1950s. Annakin had made a number of small British comedies and thrillers but was to make Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and its companion Monte Carlo or Bust during the 1960s.

The film is based on the classic novel by Johann David Wyss. Filmed a number of times, it seemed the ideal subject for a Disney live action feature which had developed since the mid-1950s. The cast is very strong with John Mills and Dorothy Mc Guire as the parents and James Mac Arthur who had appeared in a number of Disney films including Kidnapped as the older son. The film has all the elements of stories of people shipwrecked on desert islands and having to survive. The Robinson in the title alludes to Robinson Crusoe, the classic story of this kind of shipwreck. However, it has been the subject of so many films including Nim’s Island as well as The Blue Lagoon.

1. A Disney film. Was it good entertainment? Quality entertainment? The production values and the way that it was filmed?

2 Was it a good adventure? The period setting, the ship adventure, the isolated island, adventures from foreign island, pirates and battles? Were these good ingredients for an entertaining film? Why?

3. The film was about a family. Was it good family entertainment? Why? How exciting was the sequence of the wreck? How dramatically was it filmed? Was the escape plausible? The atmosphere of the wreck, the danger, the hope for survival? How desperately did they want to survive?

4. How plausible was it that they should have rescued so much material from the ship? (Did plausibility matter in this film?)

5. How authentic did the film seem? The voyage and the wreck, the family migrating, the nature of the island, their resourcefulness on the island?

6. Were they an attractive family? Could the audience identify with them easily? How attractive and kindly was mother? How strong and resourceful and decisive was father? Did you like the three sons? How serious was Ernst? How heroic was Brits? How mischievous was Francis? What were your impressions of the island? Could you have survived there as they did?

7. The importance of the sequence with the lion? The elephant? Were the dangers and challenges realistically portrayed? Or were they too contrived for this film?

8. How happy were the sequences of them settling onto the island and of their building the house? How well did the family settle? What about Francis's mischief? The house in the trees? Could they have settled there permanently? The happiness of the family together?

9. How strong was the atmosphere of nostalgia? The sequences where they thought about their old way of life? And yet they had embarked on a new way of life?

10. Were the pirates convincing? Were they frightening? The dangers for the family? The need then for the boys to find out what was happening? The need for pirates to be in the film to give some conflict and adventure for it? Wore they effective in this way?

11. How did the English captain and his granddaughter change the atmosphere of the film? Did they seem to intrude? How real was the danger? of the escape? The danger of the boys with Roberta?

12 How important for the film were the adventures on the way back to the home? The discovery that Roberta was a girl, the rivalry among the boys, falling in love with Roberta? The actual dangers of the island and being lost? Were these sequences exciting? How well were they counterpointed by the sequences of mother and father and Francis at home? The Christmas nostalgia? The longing for the boys and the joy when they arrived?

13. How well did the film show a girl changing the lives of boys? Who really loved her? Was the rivalry plausible, their fights?

14. Would life still have been possible in happiness after the arrival of Roberta? Or did something have to happen and their lives change? For the future of the boys?

15. How interesting was the climax with the arrival of the pirates again? Were the pirates merely villains? Were they characters at all? Was the need for self defence clearly put in the film? What else could the family have done?

16. How exciting was the battle? Was it realistic? Far fetched? The ingenuity of the defence and the carrying out of the defence Could they have saved themselves at all?

17. Did you mind the coincidence of the arrival of the English? Was this appropriate for this kind of film? Were you glad that there was a happy ending?

18. What future did they all have? Were they wise to stay on the island? Was Ernst right in going back to England? Would they have a happy future?

19 How happy a film was this? How optimistic about human nature and resourcefulness? Do people need films like this for entertainment? For encouragement?