Once again, Disney seem to have all the right elements for another family friendly comedy that ends up being a boring misfire because it is too long and follows the format of the same beginning, middle and and that guided many of Disney's comedies in the 1970's. Formula number 1. Get a bunch of kids in a dangerous situation. Formula on number two. Find veteran actors either as good guys or comical villainous. Formula number 3. Have a lengthy car chase sequence that ultimately ends up with a vehicle ( most likely a cop car) in water.
Two kids are on spring break and hoping to see their mother, Barbara Feldon, they end up on a plane to visit their grouchy and uncaring grandfather. Veteran actor David Niven does what he can to make his character engaging, but his character doesn't really get much to do and is not at all carved out to be anything more then your typical completely self-centered patriarch. Don Knotts gets Darren McGavin instead of Tim Conway a pair of bumbling crooks, involved with mob boss Vic Tayback ("Alice") while stage actor Herschel Bernardi place the veteran cop saddled with on inferior newbie.
Knotts has one interesting sequence where his character is stuck up on a roof with a pet skunk, a scene straight out of an old Harold Lloyd silent comedy. Aging actress Iris Adrian, a veteran of many of these Disney films, plays the woman in the building who keeps pelting Knotts with her powder-puff. There is nothing really challenging or knew about this film, the same tired old formula Disney had been doing since the late 50s with all those Fred MacMurray films. At nearly two hours, it is just too long, and the subject of kidnapping is distasteful as a plot development for a Disney movie.
Two kids are on spring break and hoping to see their mother, Barbara Feldon, they end up on a plane to visit their grouchy and uncaring grandfather. Veteran actor David Niven does what he can to make his character engaging, but his character doesn't really get much to do and is not at all carved out to be anything more then your typical completely self-centered patriarch. Don Knotts gets Darren McGavin instead of Tim Conway a pair of bumbling crooks, involved with mob boss Vic Tayback ("Alice") while stage actor Herschel Bernardi place the veteran cop saddled with on inferior newbie.
Knotts has one interesting sequence where his character is stuck up on a roof with a pet skunk, a scene straight out of an old Harold Lloyd silent comedy. Aging actress Iris Adrian, a veteran of many of these Disney films, plays the woman in the building who keeps pelting Knotts with her powder-puff. There is nothing really challenging or knew about this film, the same tired old formula Disney had been doing since the late 50s with all those Fred MacMurray films. At nearly two hours, it is just too long, and the subject of kidnapping is distasteful as a plot development for a Disney movie.