Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786304293928 Format: Closed-captioned ISBN: 6304293925 Label: Walt Disney Video Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Walt Disney Video Release Date: 1997-03-04 Running Time: 97 Studio: Walt Disney Video Theatrical Release Date: 1960-02-24
Editorial Review:
Robert Louis Stevenson's exciting saga of a young man's quest for his rightful inheritance bursts upon the screen in this faithful Disney adaptation. Award-winning actor Peter Finch stars as the daring rebel, Alan Breck, who joins forces with young David Balfour (James MacArthur) to do battle with scurvy sea dogs and ruthless Redcoats. A strong supporting cast features the memorable screen debut of Peter O'Toole. Filmed in the majestic Scottish Highlands, Disney's KIDNAPPED, with its swordplay, storms at sea, and heroic bravery, is a classic adventure of epic proportions! Sold into shipboard slavery by his wicked uncle, the newly orphaned David Balfour turns his misfortune into adventure in this Disney adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel. Before he can get back to the Scottish Lowlands to claim his birthright, the young man experiences mutiny, shipwreck, clan wars, trickery, illness, and bagpipe playing. Most of this is at the side of the high-spirited Highlander Alan Breck. The Stewart clan leader crashes into his prison ship, jumps aboard, and commandeers both the ship and the boy's life, tutoring him in the ways of subterfuge, battle, and loyalty. Despite the relatively heavy subject matter, the tone is light and the action swift. Add the gorgeous--and genuine--Celtic scenery, and it makes for a quickly passed 95 minutes. Although this 1960 film has no graphic violence, a boy is killed aboard ship and other more anonymous characters die, making this tale more appropriate for gradeschoolers and up. --Kimberly Heinrichs
Customer Reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: great classic Comment: Great version of a classic story. Suitable to show children at school. It brings back many fond memories of childhood Customer Rating: Summary: Hey Disney! Where's the DVD!? Comment: This is a great, great film. One of Disney's finest live action films. It ranks right up there with The Swiss Family Robinson and Treasure Island. So Disney, where is the DVD? I am not talking about the Full-Screen DVD thrown out for members of the Disney fan club, I am talking about a beautiful widescreen transfer with James MacArthur commentary. I think a movie which is one of Peter O'Toole's first (pre-nosejob) performances, and one of Finch's finest should be available for me to buy on DVD.
Please, no more Fox and the Hound 2. Focus your efforts on Kidnapped. If Candleshoe can be on DVD, so can this. Customer Rating: Summary: Still Waiting For the DVD version Comment: I have nothing to add by qualitative review beside reinforcement of the opinion of it as being a rare masterpiece within the Disney field.
Here you are selling VHS copies for as low as $0.59 per copy while the British are selling their DVDs at 5 pounds, or the like. My question is: who's the idiot, or should I say, "developmentally diabled executive" at Disney who can't figure out how to market this classic to all the high-spirited people of Scot Ancestry in America. You know, the ones who are still rewinding their worn out VHS trying to get to the part where Alan Breck Stewart "cannae kill a man who plays the pipes a brae as Robin MacGregor" Customer Rating: Summary: Disappointment with 2005 Masterpiece Theater production inspired me to see 1960 film for second time Comment: It was my utter disappointment with the 2005 British production of Kidnapped, as shown on PBS's Masterpiece Theater, that caused me to see for the 2nd time this more faithful 1960 Disney production. Whoever directed the 2005 film completely changed the plot from that found in the original. Not only were scenes not found in the book included in the film, but the names of the two main character's Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour
were shortened and changed to simply Alan Breck and Davie Balfour. The 1960 film, however, was so well done when I first saw it while I was in high school, it inspired me to read the original book. Customer Rating: Summary: I COULD NOT AGREE MORE !!! Comment: I agree with the other (more eloquent) reviewers awarding high marks to this film. I own nearly 800 classic movies. My family watches one or two every night. This does not make us experts, but it does make our house short on storage space.
Kidnapped is one of those rare, incredible masterpieces, so absorbing, alluring, and timeless that I have watched it dozens of times. There are only a handful of movies ever produced I can say that about. Most are the older Disney films produced before Walt passed away and his company deteriorated (starting with the release of Black Hole which had a particularly gory scene inserted so the film would rate PG and make more money). In consequence, Mr. Disney's passing was the beginning of sorrows for the company, the new management staining Walt's reputation and obscuring his legacy of exquisite family classics.
Kidnapped has a quality and imparts an especially authentic feeling that is indescribable! I watched it again last week, and just thinking about it while writing this review, I may watch it again soon!
It is interesting that there are many great films which, although excellent the first time, evoke no desire for even a second viewing. The classic versions of Kidnapped, Sword and the Rose, Rob Roy The Highland Rouge, Kim (not a Disney film, but a real jewel), Treasure Island, Return to Treasure Island (alias Long John Silver), Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mysterious Island, and Captain Kidd, I never get tired of; all from a period of great movie-making now gone by.