THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD is a Disneyfied version of the globetrotting adventure flicks that popped up in the 1970s - a genre that includes personal favourites like THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT and many other long-forgotten escapades.
This one is a Victorian-set adventure, heavily indebted to the works of Jules Verne, which sees a group of characters using an airship to travel to the Arctic circle, where they hope to track down one of their own who has gone missing. Along the way, they hook up with a friendly Eskimo (played by Japanese actor Mako, no less!) and have a stand-off with a long-lost tribe of Vikings who have lost none of their bloodthirstiness.
THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD is a fun and forgettable family adventure film that passes the time amiably enough. There's nothing here that's controversial, just one old-fashioned adventure after another, and thankfully it's not as twee as I'd feared given its Disney pedigree. Donald Sinden is on good form as a pompous aristocrat along for the ride. Part of the fun of watching comes from watching the ridiculous scenarios, like characters being able to outrun lava flows without ever being affected by heat and the like.
This one is a Victorian-set adventure, heavily indebted to the works of Jules Verne, which sees a group of characters using an airship to travel to the Arctic circle, where they hope to track down one of their own who has gone missing. Along the way, they hook up with a friendly Eskimo (played by Japanese actor Mako, no less!) and have a stand-off with a long-lost tribe of Vikings who have lost none of their bloodthirstiness.
THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD is a fun and forgettable family adventure film that passes the time amiably enough. There's nothing here that's controversial, just one old-fashioned adventure after another, and thankfully it's not as twee as I'd feared given its Disney pedigree. Donald Sinden is on good form as a pompous aristocrat along for the ride. Part of the fun of watching comes from watching the ridiculous scenarios, like characters being able to outrun lava flows without ever being affected by heat and the like.