This is one of the first adaptations of youth fiction done by Disney that stopped being true to the book and was changed for "improvements" that ruined the movie in the end. The book is way better. "The Mad Scientist's Club" by Bertrand R. Brinley (Also spelled Brinkley) is about a club of smart boys who figure out how to play pranks and solve mysteries in their small town by using their brains and scientific methods. "The Flying Man..." would have been a better episode but I'm guessing the author had some trouble with the liberties the company took with "The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove." Yes, the boys successfully pull a prank on their teacher, but the movie over-elaborates the monster as too cheesy where the book was less and therefore more believable.
Reviews
6 Reviews
My wife vaguely remembers...
14 January 2008
My apologies. My first comment by my wife was about "The Boy Who talked to Badgers", not about this one. I tried to delete but this program will not. So I change it now... Disney actually did a great job adapting really good youth fiction books to the small screen for his television series "Disneyland" and eventually replayed on "The Wonderful World of Disney". many of these odd titles in the series are actually made from books found in the youth fiction section of the library. Because no one, especially kids, reads books anymore, many of these books have been lost or thrown away, removed from library shelves, and copies are difficult to find. My wife and I do not remember this episode in reruns or otherwise, we're guessing because it lacked that Disney "cute" charm that so permeated their other, more popular movies and short films, that these lesser-known book adaptations are over-looked and under-appreciated. Again, my apologies for the first comment with synopsis being wrong. Would be interested in knowing the real plot of this one.
ah yes, this is the one...
14 January 2008
THIS is the one my wife vaguely remembers - about a boy with a younger brother who had learning disabilities, but that's not what they called it then. The younger brother refused to go to school, or something like that. I can't remember if he ran away from home on purpose or just plain got lost on the prairie, but the boy had made friends with a falcon and a badger and followed both around the prairie searching for food and shelter. The falcon or the badger (can't remember which) lead the boy home, and the badger protects the boy from the attack of another wild animal - bobcat or wolf, again, can't remember which. I do remember trying to learn to whistle to attract my own falcon and I never did learn - I'm still practicing! I got into bird watching and bird identification because of this show because I wanted my own cool falcon as a pet, which probably wasn't a great idea in Los Angeles but would have been cool at the time. To this day I gave my daughter a cool falcon name and pay attention when the red-tailed hawks cry up in the sky here in Central California. I'm still hoping to one day learn falconry just because of this show.
Is this the one where...
14 January 2008
...the native American boy is banned from his tribe protecting a live eagle from being sacrificed? I vaguely remember this one, how a young boy is assigned the job of taking care of the eagle to be sacrificed at the next pow-wow, and the boy becomes so attached to the eagle that he lets it go rather than let it be sacrificed. In doing so, the boy either gets banned or just plain rejected by the tribe. The boy has many adventures in the desert protecting the eagle from those who still want to use it for sacrifice, and the eagle protects the boy or warns him of danger. I liked this one but I think it was under-appreciated because it lacked the Disney touch of "cute" or appeal that permeated so many of their live-action films. This one was weird but touched me as being very interesting in its odd way.
The Magical World of Disney: Three Without Fear: Lost on the Baja Peninsula
(1971)
based on the book
Season 17, Episode 14
14 January 2008
Disney did a wonderful job adapting youth fiction books for his series "The Wonderful World of Disney" and "Disneyland". Many of these productions are under-appreciated because they lack that Disney "Cuteness" that tended to permeate his bigger productions. Anything that wasn't "cute" or lacked that Disney charm has been rejected, dismissed, and overlooked by too many critics, this production included. The original book has been hard to find. The story is about a boy, traveling with his father by plane to Mexico, whose plane crashes and survives. He is found by two Mexican children running away from their cruel uncle searching for the home of their grandmother, and must travel by themselves on foot hundreds of miles on the Baja Peninsula surviving thirst and starvation in the desert. That they survive is a miracle, how they survive is what made the book and the movie so interesting. The movie and the book show their mistakes as well as their successes, and the fear of the uncle is downplayed to show more of the children's resourcefulness in trying to survive, which I guess made the movie less appealing due to lack of serious "action". Still, I have been looking for the title of this movie and book, now I can find the book at used bookstores to add to my collection. It would be wonderful to find copies of the series now and refresh my memories of these old shows and find the books they were based upon.
Emil und die detektives! (German title)
14 January 2008
I love reading the book, "Emil and the Detectives" over and over again! It's simplicity is so understated - my brother dismissed it as "third grade", but anyone who's had money stolen from them and wished they could have gotten it back will love how one little boy determinedly follows the thief who stole his two marks while the poor boy was sleeping on a train. The boy is a stranger in the town of old Berlin who makes friends with some local boys who put their heads and resources together and with the help of a lot of kids and a useful safety pin catch the thief in the end. What's wonderful about the book is not only the instant camaraderie among the boys but their resourcefulness in the big city is impressive. It's a great book for third grade and beyond, and Disney did a fair job of translating it into a movie without adding too much Hollywood extraneous.
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