Absolutely Fantastic

A Disappointing Continuation

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Blistering performances.

Great Disney sequel to the first Disney movie on Davy Crockett. I enjoyed the characters, particularly Mike Fink, who gave the film a lot of humor. I particularly liked the scene when Mike Fink had to eat his hat after losing the keelboat race. Meaning, in Disney fashion, the "sort of" villain was actually a tough guy with honor. Of course, at the end, the King of the River and King of the Wild Frontier part as friends. Excellent plot, good story, good action and a lot of good humor.

Capitalizing on the popularity of the Davy Crockett phenomenon, Disney produced a story that had to take place at an earlier time. Mike Fink is a keel boater (boats that are pushed with poles), the best around. Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen) makes a bet with Fink, banking on the ingenuity of Crockett who has never pushed a keel boat. If they don't win the race, they will lose several month's work. The race is fun with Fink using every method he can to take away Davy and Georgie's chances of winning. The two manage to endure and the first half ends. What the heck. But what happens is an alliance among the three men. River pirates have been robbing the hard working people who depend on the waterway for their business. They must find a way to stop them for everyone's benefit. If this phenomenon had been in more recent times, we would have had a series, starring Fess Parker, that would have lasted a long time. It was a different time, obviously.

*Spoiler/plot- 1956, The story contains two major plots, both dealing with American river history. Mr. Crockett meets and become friends with Mr. Fink on the Ohio & Mississippi Rivers after a challenge of a river race to New Orleans. Then, both heroes team up to clean-up outlaw river pirates that are threatening the peace with the local river Indian tribes.*Special Stars- Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Jeff York, Kenneth Tobey*Theme- Honesty will win out every time.*Based on- Crockett and Fink legendary tales of history*Trivia/location/goofs- Crockett and Fink were real men and historical folk heroes. This is the second feature film released from Watt Disney Buena Vista Productions consisting of several Disneyland ABC TV show episode material. The Mike Fink keel boat race was one TV episode and the river pirates were another TV episode. The first Davey Crockett feature film was 'Davey Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier'. Davey Crockett and the River Pirates were filmed on the actual locations of the Ohio River and other great American rivers. The 'Davey Crockett' fan mania was huge in America due to the popularity of Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen with this TV show. Disney went on to create more of these public fan 'mania' with Guy 'Zorro' Williams and many other folk heroes. These actors were now for making personal appearances at Anahiem's Disneyland theme park and across the country. Look for the typical Disney on screen non-violence in the fight scenes and the obvious moral to the actions of the series heroes at the episode's end scenes.*Emotion- Rather well made movie and thoroughly enjoyable especially for those who lived through this era of Disney TV history in the first ABC network series. Full of fun and good memories for the 'Baby Boomer' crowd, hopefully new ones for the younger set.

This film is a lot of fun. It originally played on the Disney TV show as a two parter. Fess Parker plays Davy, and Buddy Ebsen plays George Russell, his friend and traveling partner. They run afoul of Mike Fink and his crew; Mike is played by the wonderful and boastful Jeff York. George mistakenly bets all their winter's fur inventory that Davy and he can beat Mike to New Orleans. Mike tries all kinds of devious and underhanded ways to win, but in the end Davy manages to beat him. Mike is contrite, and he and Davy become friends. In the second part, Mike and Davy take on the river pirates from the title, who've been posing as hostile indians and killing settlers coming downstream. Of course, they win.Mike's crew is played by veteran Hollywood actors; Kenneth Tobey plays Mike's right hand man, and believe me, if you've seen Ken as the staunch commander in the original "The Thing", you won't recognize him in this. He's a natural comedian, and with his expressive face he's a source of constant amazement.Don't miss this movie; kids will love it. It's fast paced, and filled with lots of stunts and explosions. And Mike Fink's song is catchy and memorable. In all, a great family film. I still watch it and love it.