Based upon Jule's Vernes 'Captain Grant's Children', In Search of Those Castaways (1962) is an incoherent yarn about Mary Grant (Haley Mills), the determined daughter of a missing sea captain (Jack Gwillim) who sets about traveling to exotic ports and hidden mysterious locales in search of dear IL' daddy. On this trip she takes family friend and confident, Jacque Paganell (the marvelous Maurice Chevalier) and meets up with the unscrupulous and hardened, Thomas Ayerton (George Sanders).
The cast also includes Wilfred Hyde-White as the stuffy Lord Glenaravan and Michael Anderson Jr. as his son John. But Robert Stevenson's direction on this occasion seems to fall apart on a series of vignettes that have no coherent or driving narrative. Verne's works usually present this sort of problem for screenwriters, in that Verne himself often wrote episodic stories that later became loosely strung together as fantasy novels of their day; visionary then; stagnant and wholly unappealing by 1960s standards; completely out of touch by today's expectations. Peter Ellenshaw's matte paintings extend the world of fantasy that Mary and company traverse to good effect. There's some great trick photography taking place during the flood sequence. There's also Chevalier warbling a very family friendly little ditty, 'Enjoy it.'
In the end, it seems hard to take up Chevalier on that musical request. The end of the story is a forgone conclusion by reel two. We know Mary's going to find her father; it's a Disney film. There seems to be some discrepancy as to the proper aspect ratio for this film; 1:33:1 or 1:75:1. The theatrical prints appear to have been printed in the latter format since title credit sequences on this DVD occasionally run off the top and bottom of the screen. However, an usual practice occurred in the late 1960s and early 70s in American cinema, whereby certain films were shot in full frame for the sake of economy and then artificially cropped to 1:75:1 for theatrical presentation. Having explained this; the print for In Search of Those Castaways might very well have been one such film, with title sequences specifically formatted for the 1:75:1 theatrical engagement.
Hence, when Disney remastered the DVD they forgot to format the titles for 1:33:1 to avoid confusion. At the very least, these credits have not been framed properly. At worst, Disney has given us another full frame only version of a widescreen movie. Yet, for the rest of the presentation, everything looks pretty much as it should. There is no apparent cropping to speak of and scenes appear quite natural in 1:33:1. As for the rest of the image quality: colors are quite solid, pure and rich. Blacks are deep. Whites are generally clean. Film grain is present during the matte shots but absent elsewhere for a picture that will surely not disappoint. The audio is engaging, if dated.
The cast also includes Wilfred Hyde-White as the stuffy Lord Glenaravan and Michael Anderson Jr. as his son John. But Robert Stevenson's direction on this occasion seems to fall apart on a series of vignettes that have no coherent or driving narrative. Verne's works usually present this sort of problem for screenwriters, in that Verne himself often wrote episodic stories that later became loosely strung together as fantasy novels of their day; visionary then; stagnant and wholly unappealing by 1960s standards; completely out of touch by today's expectations. Peter Ellenshaw's matte paintings extend the world of fantasy that Mary and company traverse to good effect. There's some great trick photography taking place during the flood sequence. There's also Chevalier warbling a very family friendly little ditty, 'Enjoy it.'
In the end, it seems hard to take up Chevalier on that musical request. The end of the story is a forgone conclusion by reel two. We know Mary's going to find her father; it's a Disney film. There seems to be some discrepancy as to the proper aspect ratio for this film; 1:33:1 or 1:75:1. The theatrical prints appear to have been printed in the latter format since title credit sequences on this DVD occasionally run off the top and bottom of the screen. However, an usual practice occurred in the late 1960s and early 70s in American cinema, whereby certain films were shot in full frame for the sake of economy and then artificially cropped to 1:75:1 for theatrical presentation. Having explained this; the print for In Search of Those Castaways might very well have been one such film, with title sequences specifically formatted for the 1:75:1 theatrical engagement.
Hence, when Disney remastered the DVD they forgot to format the titles for 1:33:1 to avoid confusion. At the very least, these credits have not been framed properly. At worst, Disney has given us another full frame only version of a widescreen movie. Yet, for the rest of the presentation, everything looks pretty much as it should. There is no apparent cropping to speak of and scenes appear quite natural in 1:33:1. As for the rest of the image quality: colors are quite solid, pure and rich. Blacks are deep. Whites are generally clean. Film grain is present during the matte shots but absent elsewhere for a picture that will surely not disappoint. The audio is engaging, if dated.