The Island at the Top of the World (1974)

 

The cool Disney adventure you probably never heard of (because it was essentially a '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' clone that failed at the box office).

Yes another literary adaptation surrounding a tale that is very much in the same realm as Jules Verne. Initially set in England 1907, wealthy aristocrat Sir Anthony Ross sets out to find his long lost son who went off into the wild blue yonder of the Artic searching for a mystical fabled island. He hires the help of a French aeronaut who has recently invented and built a dirigible and off they sail! Destination: The Unknown! 

Classic boys own adventure type stuff I'm sure you'll agree. Very much in the same vein as many many other adventure yarns that involve mysterious islands or lands lost to time that are either underground or beneath the sea or in a specific location etc...And in all honesty I'm sure you've all seen this type of thing before many many times. As mentioned this does indeed feel very much like a 'Leagues' clone and that is ultimately its downfall for me. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it but it plays out predictably with all your typical cliches, tropes, and results. It feels a bit too ''off the fantasy production line'' if you get me. A bit too generic despite being a big Disney project.

I think the one thing this movie offers originality wise is the fact the lost land and people are Norsemen. An artic island hidden by convenient clouds that in turn also hides a lush Nordic town with lots of blonde Vikings complete with long boats and horned helmets. Usually these flicks offer prehistoric tribes or made-up barbarian-type folk with the odd monsters. Nope, this time it's legit based on real people with real references to their culture and Gods etc...No monsters or oversized lizards this time. Heck the main antagonist is merely the local witch hunter-type fella, a religious zealot.

With '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' the main hook or merchandise factor was the Nautilus submarine, with this movie it was the Hyperion dirigible. The latter was intended to become the next big thing for Disney, an iconic symbol they would use to across all their gear including their famous parks. Can't say I blamed them either, wicked design, striking with a nice realistic x steampunk vibe. This thing dominates the early part of the movie and should have had more screen time for in-depth exploration. Alas this dirigible is all this movie offers really, at least in terms of appealing fantasy visuals. Don't get me wrong the rest of the movie is packed with effects but they're all your standard generic rear screen projection type affairs (that have aged really badly) with the odd glorious matte painting (but so glorious!).

The casting says it all really, if you ask me. Just look at the lead, Donald Sinden as Sir Anthony Ross. Now I know nothing of this actor and nothing against him but this was clearly a James Mason wannabe for Disney. The similarities are hilariously blatantly obvious from his beard, his elocution, right down to his attire. The rest of the team are actors I haven't really heard of apart from Mako and Jacques Marin who popped up in a few other lower-tier Disney kid's flicks. I think that was a big problem for Disney with this movie, no big stars, or at least no big star for either the main role or villain role. And that's it in a nutshell really, a nice family adventure, perfectly fine, nice and safe, but no where near as good as 'Leagues'. A poor mans 'Leagues' if I'm gonna be really truthful, but still worth seeing if you're into this type of fantasy yarn.

 

6/10