Home Rating: - A great family adventure film - but get the 2-disc NTSC version
Walt Disney's hugely expensive adaptation of the classic tale of a family of castaways on a desert island maintains enough of a running thread not to seem too episodic even if it does drag a tad in places. There's not much sense of danger, despite the fact that the anaconda James MacArthur and Tommy Kirk wrestle with in one sequence turns out to be real - this is far too wholesome for that. The Robinsons are very much Disney's idea of the ideal All-American sixties family: the girls don't get to have any fun, unless you count girly stuff like dancing. Some of the animal scenes are a bit worrying 30 years on (such as the Great Danes attacking the tiger) and Kevin Corcoran is plain annoying, but for all that it remains an entertainingly old-fashioned adventure story.

While the UK and European PAL releases typically boast no extras whatsoever, the 2-disc NTSC `Vault Disney' release is as handsome a package as you are ever likely to see and can be heartily recommended to all fans of the film.

Aside from an audio commentary with director Annakin, Tommy Kirk, James MacArthur and Kevin Corcoran, the copious extra fatures include an 18-minute cutdown of the 1940 version of Swiss Family Robinson, featurettes, storyboard-to-film comparison, 6 radio spots, radio story album, stills galleries, original location scouting reports, script extract, the original theatrical trailer and TV spot. But the highlight (or lowlight, depending on your point of view) of the supplementaries is the 'Swiss Family Robinson Calypso' in a 28-minute extract from an episode of 'Disneyland' devoted to the making of the film -

'Yes my friends we had a lot of fun,
Making Swiss Family Robin-sun,
Yes my friends we had a lot of fun,
Spending Walt Dis-i-ney's five mill-i-un.'

Uncle Walt himself, resplendent in brylcream, begs to differ - it was actually $4,518,000, but heck, that wouldn't rhyme (the calypso was actually released to cinemas as a promotional single). If it would have been nice to have seen more of the programme, it does include fascinating footage of the hurricane that hit the crew in the middle of filming one of the raft sequences.

Highly recommended - the NTSC version, that is!

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Rating: - A exciting watch
My mum had the book the swiss family robinson, and she gave it to me to read. I found it very exciting and interesting. I was soo happy when i found the video of Swiss family Robinson.
The family consists of Mum, Dad and three brothers.
They get ship-wrecked, and they get on a lovely Island, but there are pirates and wild animals. will they survive? its a really good watch for kids and big kids too!!

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Rating: - A great adventure
A family is shipwrecked on a seemingly uninhabited island. Using the remaining recourses of the wrecked ship they build an elaborate tree house. They have a realy nice Christmas scene. Then the adventure begins.

This movie has a great family feel to it and I really liked the animal races; it is a classic Disney. The pirate attack scene was suspenseful. You are kept wondering if, and how they will get out of it.

You can see John Mills play a more serious side with his real daughter Hayley Mills in "The Chalk Garden" (1964).

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Rating: - A Masterpiece!
This is without a doubt one of Walt Disney's greatest live action films. Originally released in 1961 and feauturing a stellar cast including John Mills. A New Guinea-bound family is shipwrecked by pirates and manages to transport the goods from the stranded ship to an island where they create their own paradise. There they build their own breathtaking treehouse and have to find a way to survive using only what nature provides. With some wonderful cinematography (especially in the dramatic opening of the shipwreck and then the journey on raft by the Robinson family to exotic shores and yet. They begin to enjoy life in this 'paradise' carelessly on the island with a variety of wild animals and inevitably they begin to have run ins with some dangerous creatures. Along the way they encounter many threats including pirates, but will their island paradise prove toi be a paradise or a prison?
It's a high quality production and I rate it highly.

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Rating: - A great adventure
A family is shipwrecked on a seemingly uninhabited island. Using the remaining recourses of the wrecked ship they build an elaborate tree house. Then the adventure begins.
This movie has a great family feel to it and I really liked the animal races. It is a classic Disney. The pirate attack scene was suspenseful. You are kept wondering if, and how they will get out of it.
You can see John Mills play a more serious side with his real daughter Hayley Mills in "The Chalk Garden" ASIN: 6300186121