Review of Swiss Family Robinson

I like desert island and castaway films, and I certainly wanted to see this one. It is weird to see married characters not using first names, calling each other Father and Mother, but then again Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy referred to each other like that in Chicken Run, so you get used to it. Anyway, basically the Robinson family: Father (John Mills), Mother (Dorothy McGuire), Fritz (James MacArthur), Ernst (Tommy Kirk) and Francis (Kevin Corcoran) were going to New Guinea, but are shipwrecked on a tropical desert island. They are forced to stay because of their ship's damage, and pirates lead by Kualan, the pirate chief (The Bridge on the River Kwai's Sessue Hayakawa) roaming the island. The family build a magnificent home for themselves, and have plenty of adventures exploring, including finding a baby elephant, encountering a tiger, riding ostriches, and eventually meeting young Bertie, who turns out to a girl (duh!) named Roberta (Janet Munro). Towards the end the family know they have to defend themselves against the pirates, so they set up many traps and make many weapons to make sure they can't catch them. In the end, Father, Mother and Kirk decide to stay, and everyone else leaves with Captain Moreland (Cecil Parker). It may be just a tiny bit long, but it is a great family film. It was number 89 on The Ultimate Film, and it was number 82 on The 100 Greatest Family Films. Very good!