Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

This is How Movies Should Be Made

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

The producers of SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON appear to have taken the original novel by Johann Wyss, copied across the characters and the basic premise, and then get rid of it entirely in favour of a typically twee Disney-fied adventure. That's the only explanation I can give for this extraordinarily dated would-be adventure yarn, which is colourful and exotic but a far cry from the contemporary Jules Verne adventure films like JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH or 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.The problem with SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON is that it's so kiddie-centric. Viewers are stuck watching an annoying little brat racing around and shouting all the while. Apparently the viewers think this kind of behaviour is cute, but it really isn't. Half of the running time seems to consist of wild animals being trapped and abused for human pleasure; they're treated as circus objects throughout and I this didn't sit well with me at all. What about that poor baby elephant, taken away from its family and sitting around tied to a tree for most of the running time, all on the whim of a bratty kid? Elsewhere, there are so many goofs and unbelievable things happening that this plays out as an unintentional comedy (the bit where they build a water wheel with a few basic tools is a highlight). There's some late stage fun to be had with some Oriental pirate villains, and John Mills can be relied upon to deliver a solid performance, but as a whole? SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON isn't very good.

Even though I was a teenager in 1960 I don't recall seeing this movie back then. We didn't go to the movies often and when I did, it was usually a "western" with Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. Anyway now it is available as a Netflix streaming movie and that is how I viewed it. The picture and sound are just fine for such an old movie.The basic story is a husband and wife want to get away from the rat race and are traveling by ship from their home in Switzerland to New Guinea to start a new life. But before they arrive they are caught in a bad storm and are shipwrecked on a deserted tropical island. The captain and crew must have seen it coming and deserted early, leaving the family, with three sons, to fend for themselves.They do the best they can to salvage useful items and supplies from the wrecked ship and set about building their new home. It ends up being a quite elaborate 3-cottage cluster in a very large tree with nicely spread limbs. The family finds a number of animals, a Tiger, a small elephant, and several others that lead them to think it might be a land bridge, so they build a small boat and set sail to try to go around the island. Another shipwreck and an encounter with a band of pirates results in their rescuing a teenage girl as her grandpa is captured. In the end the pirates return, the Family Robinson work hard with improvised defenses to hold off the pirates and, when it seems the pirates will prevail a ship arrives and starts shooting at the pirates and their ship to save the day.When it was all over the parents decided they wanted to stay in this "New Switzerland" with the prospects of additional settlers, but the two older boys would likely return to Europe, one of them with the girl, for an education and a new start.

An absolutely stupid, corny story with terrible bad acting and the most annoying movie character ever (played by Kevin Cocoran). John Mills, a mediocre actor at best, was OK here as the father but that awful third-rate actress Dorothy Macguire was just terrible as his wife. Like most Disney crap, the whole thing is too Americanized. The "acting" by James Macarthur and Tommy Kirk is absolutely awful. Kirk was later fired from the Disney company for sexually abusing an underage boy. How he did not serve time in jail I do not know. Janet Munro sticks out like a sore thumb and the idea of this twenty-something woman with large breasts being mistaken for a young boy is absolutely stupid beyond belief. Thankfully this crap could never be made today, not least because of the way the animals are treated.0/10.

I just downloaded this movie the other day, and really enjoyed this movie, it was good to see James Macarther(Hawaii 5-0 fame) I saw this once back in the 80s and only seen parts of it, but yesterday I got to see it all the way through, it is an awesome movie, the only spot I thought was a little cheesy was James Macarther and Tommy Kirk found the kid under the headband was a girl!!!!!1lololol I was dumb founded, I found myself talking to the t.v Hey guys you mean to tell me you just now figured that out?!!!!! I figured it out when her James& Tommy were running away from the Chinese pirates, going up the hill, I mean come on guys you cant see a woman when you see one???!!!!!!!!! and even THAT was hillariouse! I highly recommend Swiss family Robinson,Michael Smith