This silly, family-friendly (although a lot more friendly for the teenage boys in the audience) Disney flick is extremely entertaining. In case you're thinking of skipping it, think again. Dick Van Dyke parachutes from his Navy plane and survives on a pint-sized blow-up raft for four days, then he drifts along to an island - finally living up to his name, Robinson Crusoe. His very funny survival manual only gets him so far, but once on dry land, he doesn't seem to need it. What a handy fellow! He builds a bamboo hut, fashions clothing, constructs a sundial, sextant, and calendar system. I would have been perfectly happy if the entire movie showed all his ideas and inventions - but the boys in the audience wouldn't. . .
After a very long time, Dick finally finds footprints in the sand that aren't his own. He investigates an abandoned Japanese submarine and finds - a chimpanzee. After that, he sees more footprints and finally bumps into Nancy Kwan. She shows off far more skin than acting, which is too bad. She had a promising start with The World of Suzie Wong, but within a few years, she was only given "look but don't act" roles. But she does look very cute!
The last part of the movie gets pretty silly, when Nancy's sisters come to the island and start chasing Dick around. The boys will probably wonder why Dick would run away from all those pretty girls, but I was just marveling at how many beautiful girls with great figures came from the same family. If you think you'll like a comic stranded-on-an-island movie, you probably will. Dick Van Dyke is very cute, and he's always very funny in Disney movies.
