For some reason when this comes up, it is my favorite topic. I watched every single one of Disney's live action movies in order about ten years ago. The Ron Miller era of the late 70's early 80's, with Condorman, Amy, North Avenue Irregulars, One of my Dinosaurs is Missing, and Unidentified Flying Oddball is a hard to beat track record of suckitude. I have often wished that Doobie would pluck me from my outlaw poster status and have me do write ups of all these films.
I liked Condorman as a kid when it came out, but I have a feeling that I would have a different opinion if I were to watch it now. I think I actually saw it as a double feature with one of the Muppet movies...I'm thinking the Great Muppet Caper?? My parents were pretty good about taking me to Disney flicks when I was growing up...I definitely have to give them credit for sitting through a few duds on my behalf!
How about 'The Devil and Max Devlin' starting Elliot Gould and Bill Cosby? Or 'Charley and the Angel' with Fred McMurray and Harry Morgan
When I was a kid/young teen, my grandmother would take my brother and I to the movies fairly regularly. She only chose G rated fare, and that mean mostly Disney movies. So Ive seen almost all of them at one point or anther, though some escape my memory. SuperDad I remember. I remember really, really noticing the green screen 1970s look whenever the actors were shown close up. In one scene, SuperDad is water skiing out of control and goes over a jump ramp. (Cut to close up of obviously green screened Bob Crane). He lets out a high pitched scream, and I remember the whole audience really cracking up at that moment. Of course, by "whole audience" I mean me, my grandma, my brother and the other 4 people in the theater that afternoon. These were not smash hit movies. (In fact, the theater we usually went to seemed to exist only to show Disney movies (though it was named the Fox Theater). It was a single large screen in a big round theater. If it was an animated re-release of a Disney classic, there'd be a big crowd on weekends. But the newer live action stuff, not so much. By the time the theater finally died, they had a projectionist and the same person would sell tickets and then get you popcorn in the snack bar lobby.)
And Cloris Leachman, who was nominated for a Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe. Actually got to see this in a theater, with a projector and everything, a few months ago. It's not THAT bad ...
Last Flight of Noah's Ark, One Little Indian, hell, any of the Gould or Garner vehicles were pretty bad. Gus, World's Greatest Athlete, and of course Boatniks...(now available as a disney movie club BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE) What kind of world do I live in when you can get Boatniks on Blu Ray, but not Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, or Old Yeller?
I remember as a kid, growing up in Thousand Oaks, seeing 'Gus' in the movie theatre when it was released in 1976. It was a real thrill when Ronnie Schell's character is talking on the phone, and he says 'That's right operator, to Thousand Oaks, California.' It was very exciting.
This sentence actually made me gasp aloud. I stand with mawnck on this one. I loved it as a kid, and when I went on a Disney-Netflix spree some years ago I watched it again and was surprised by how much I still enjoyed it. But this has been such an awful week...why talk of Superdad? Why not One and Only Genuine Original Family Band? Follow Me, Boys? I'll take a discussion of Blackbeard's Ghost. Sigh.
Totally a guess here: Perhaps the kind of world where Disney has a clean unfaded copy of The Boatniks that didn't require much restoration work.
I'll talk to you about Follow me, Boys anytime. Any movie that has someone named "Beefy" in it, I'm all for.
Then you have two Dick Van Dyke vehicles he made for Disney -- 'Lt. Robin Crusoe' (the opening sequence on the raft is funny) and then 'Never a Dull Moment' which doesn't really feel like a typical Disney live action movie. But again pretty funny.
Walt actually wrote the screenplay to Lt. Robinson Crusoe. I think Summer Magic may be favorite, corn and all.
My understanding is that Walt came up with the story, idea and so he is credited with 'story by' but the screenplay is credited to Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi.
Summer Magic is a terrific little gem! For me, I credit the music, especially Burl Ives. My mom bought the Sing-Along LP when the film came out. I drove everyone in my family crazy, since I was off-key more than on. But the songs are fairly easy to sing, and a lot of fun! Weird but true... I can still remember most of the lyrics. "Ugly Bug Ball" was my favorite.
I'm a sucker for Blackbeard's Ghost. I haven't seen it in ages, and it might not be as good as I remember but I met Peter Ustinov when I was a kid. I definitely recognized him physically from that movie, but I was more familiar with his voice from Robin Hood. He was very gracious to me...I think I still have his autograph stored someplace that I'll eventually find when I don't need to.
Don't know if TCM has shown it or not... but I'd really like to see Something Wicked This Way Comes once more. The movie bombed at the box, unfortunately. But was one of the few Disney film book adaptations done correctly. It kept the feel of Bradbury's book. And creeped the heck outta me!
