Swiss Family Robinson
Short description
The Robinson family sets out by ship for a new life, but a storm and a run-in with pirates leave them shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. With a cargo of animals, tools and supplies salvaged from the wreck, the father, mother and their sons build a home in the wilderness and gradually tame their surroundings into a comfortable settlement. Their resourcefulness is tested when the pirates who caused the disaster reappear, and the family takes in a girl they rescue from the pirates' captivity.
Ken Annakin directed the film, which followed his 1958 picture Nor the Moon by Night and came before The Longest Day and Crooks Anonymous. Walt Disney Productions made it, with Lowell S. Hawley writing the screenplay and Walt Disney among the producers. John Mills and Dorothy McGuire play the parents, with James MacArthur, Tommy Kirk and Janet Munro as the children and Sessue Hayakawa as the pirate chief. It is an adaptation of Johann David Wyss's novel.
Released in December 1960, the film runs 126 minutes. Made for about 5 million dollars, it took some 40 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget that reflects its broad popularity with family audiences. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 from around 20,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.8 from a much smaller number of votes, and critics' reviews average 6.6, close to what audiences gave it.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Swiss writer Johann David Weiss, first published in 1812. Compared to the literary source, the film contains a number of rather significant differences: in the novel, the family has four sons instead of three (the third oldest is named Jack), and the characters of Roberta and the pirates are absent.
- The Robinson family's pets on the island include dogs Duke and Turk, an elephant named Rocky, a donkey named Lightning, an ostrich named Clementine, and a zebra named Duchess.
- Filming of the movie took place on the Caribbean island of Tobago, located near the coast of South America and part of the state of Trinidad and Tobago.
- Before the film's release, Disney bought the rights to the 1940 film version released by RKO Radio Pictures, and then withdrew all copies from circulation. This was done to avoid any comparison of the Disney remake with the earlier version.
- In the American release, 'Swiss Family Robinson' grossed $40.4 million, which, adjusted for inflation, corresponds to over $370 million today, making the film one of the most successful family projects in the history of cinema.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
