Hello friends, happy Friday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m back with my Disney Movies project, watching all the movies in chronological order. Today I’m back in the 70s to talk about the mid-70s! Let’s jump right into it!

Continuing where we left off last Friday is 1974 – 1976.

From June to August I watched the next 14 movies, and boy was it something. You’ll notice a wacky, goofy or just downright silly theme throughout. When it wasn’t a western, it was plain goofy. Most of these weren’t my favourite, but it’s been something to say the least. Finding all these Disney movies that no one talks about has been an interesting project and I look forward on continuing onwards!

Herbie Rides Again: This was such a goofy movie, but I enjoyed watching this all play out. I was expecting Dean Jones to be in this one since he was in the first, instead they got an actor who kinda looks like him, Ken Berry, who plays Willoughby. He plays the same type of role that Jones did in the first. A man who doesn’t believe Herbie has a mind of its own, only to be proven wrong and he falls for not only the car, but a girl, too. In this movie, we’re introduced to this really mean building developer, Alonzo Hawk. It takes a good twenty minutes or more to understand what this has to do Herbie. It’s finally understood that Herbie’s owner Mrs. Steinmetz, is the last building owner who refuses to give Hawk the OK to blow her house up so he can build a shopping centre. So the whole movie is Hawk going after them, doing everything in his power to force them out and Herbie defending them. It was shenanigans after shenanigans in this, but it was all good fun. Sometimes this would drag on a bit, especially the intro, but for the most part, this moved with ease. Some of the plots got a little ridiculous, like Herbie driving on the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge and men running after it; like that was probably the most outlandish gag, but there were plenty to go around in this. It was enough to be entertaining, without being so over the top it was boring and hard to watch. The one I liked the most was Herbie being able to summon all the other VW bugs to come and help out, that was hilarious! The acting in this was also good; they too felt believable and not too overdone. The way this ended on a marriage, like the film before this, felt strange. The main romance plot started with Willoughby wanting to see Nicole, Mrs. Steinmetz’s granddaughter, more, to marriage in the span of two scenes. There was no build up, it just happened. But that aside, taking this for what it was, a goofy, fun movie, that’s exactly what it was. I don’t know if I’d watch this again, but if it was on, I wouldn’t hate that it was. (1974)

The Bears and I: Well, that was something. I didn’t completely hate this, but I also didn’t like it, either. The film was slow to build up and even when it got to the climax, it was still a very lacklustre, and simplified ending. I honestly wasn’t sure where they were going to go with it; I knew they’d make it a pretty ending, I just didn’t know how. So this was about a veteran, Bob Leslie, who goes to return his partners things to his father in a small village in British Columbia. He finds himself charmed by the place that he stays. While there, he adopts 3 bear cubs because their mother was killed. Even though the natives on the land say he should get rid of the bears, Bob decides he really needs to take care of these bears. Because of this, the natives believe that he’ll bring bad luck upon them. Not long after that men from the government come to tell the natives they must move because the land belongs to the government and they want to build a national park. It then becomes a fight between the two, with Bob playing the middle man. It was so whitewashed to see this depicted because 100% this is not how any of this went down in history, nor how it probably still happens today. The way this ended with everyone getting what they want in a weird roundabout way was kinda laughable because it made no sense how either would give in so easily after the fight both of them put up. It was kinda like, they knew they had to end the film, and they knew it had to be done in a good light, that they just kinda slapped this together. Aside from that mumbo jumbo of a plot, the pacing of this felt all over the place. The beginning was slow as heck, with long drawn out voice over narration, it almost felt like we were back in the True Life Adventure days; then we bust into the native plot and that takes off rather quickly but it peters out just as quick because I lost interest not long after. I don’t know what their goal was with this film, because it was definitely not to show accurate history. Also, the green screens and special effects were terrible in this. This is definitely not a rewatchable movie, the one time was very much good for me. (1974)

The Castaway Cowboy: This movie started with a Disney disclaimer, which we haven’t seen in quite a while. I also knew going in that this was going to be a western, so with those two combined, I knew this wasn’t going to be for me. I have to say it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, but it still wasn’t my cup of tea. The disclaimer was for the depiction of the native Hawaiian people. This film made them come off as bumbling idiots, and the that this cowboy had to come in and show them the proper way of living, which is terrible, because he’s taking away their culture, but that’s kinda the whole plot of this movie. One day this man, Constain, washes ashore this island, played by James Garner, I guess this is his run of Disney movies. He plays the same role basically as he did in the one before. He’s a military deserter who has found himself on this island and he thinks he’s going to tame the cattle as well as the native people of this land. The first half was more fast paced than the second half; by the second half I was bored and didn’t really care what would happen to any of these characters. I knew that nothing bad was going to happen to them and that things would work out fine. The good people would win, the bad would lose. It was pretty predictable, which again left me bored; who cares what’s going to happen if you can already predict it. This felt less western than other films Disney has done in the past, but it still wasn’t great, bad depictions aside. Even the acting was very subpar. There were moments where it just felt so wooden and stiff, then other moments when it was way too over the top. It didn’t feel like there was an in between here. This is definitely a film I wouldn’t see myself watching again. (1974)

The Island at the Top of the World: This was such a wacky movie, but I was thoroughly invested the whole time, despite how strange it could get. The plot is that an American archaeologist teams up with an Englishman to embark on this quest to find an island at the top of the world (like the title of this movie). The American is interested in studying the land of the forgotten Viking colony, but the Englishman is set out on finding his long-lost son. It’s quite the journey, as one would expect, as they’re taking a blimp to get there. Even when they do find the son, the movie keeps going. It honestly felt like this was never going to end, but I also didn’t hate all the hijinks that they found themselves in. The acting wasn’t half bad, but boy were the effects really bad. The green screens, were decent, but that scene with the killer whales was hilarious at how fake and cheesy it all looked. The bad effects aside though, there was still a lot of beautiful scenes to look at. They managed to make this look really nice as they traveled through the different islands and climates. As well I have to say the dog who was traveling with the blimp operator, totally stole the show. It was so cute and at times really played a great role in comedic relief. I don’t really have much more to say on this one because I actually enjoyed this and could see myself rewatching this someday. (1974)

The Strongest Man in the World: We’re back at Medfield college where once again, we have to save the school from financial woes, what’s new. Kurt Russell reprises his role as Dexter Riley, although I feel like we didn’t really see much of him in this. He was there in the beginning, left during the middle, then came back to save the day in the end. Joe Flynn also reprises his role as Dean Higgins and he’s crazier than ever. This time, Higgins is told that he has 30 days to make something happen or he’s gone. That’s when he goes to the science department because that’s who he’s going to fire first. Only it’s the science department who save his butt from being fired, and the school from going under. Dexter accidentally makes this cereal that makes you extremely strong; so they use that to start a weight lifting competition with a competing school… only they know what Medfield is trying to do, so they then try to steal this formula. It was an interesting concept that’s for sure, but it wasn’t very original. It follows the previous movies, beat for beat, so if you’ve seen those, then you kinda already know what to expect. The shenanigans went on for longer it felt in this; the middle really dragged, like the whole Chinatown part felt like it came out of left field. I get that it was set up for the “bad guys” to use this acupuncture-like technique to get the formula from one of the kids, but it was all very strange and the jokes weren’t all that funny – even back then I don’t think they were funny. They were just stupid. The acting wasn’t bad in this, it did come across as over the top at times, especially in the end when the Medfield students had to lift weights without their special cereal; it was supposed to be funny, but it was more cringy than anything else. In the end, this one kinda just flopped because I’ve seen this before. I guess if you were just seeing this one before the other two, your opinion might be different, but for me, I’m kinda Medfield college-d out at this point. I can’t see myself rewatching this one. (1975)

Escape to Witch Mountain: This was another interesting film; I didn’t love it nor hate it. I did think it had some enjoyable moments, but I kept going, what is the plot here?! Why are a group of old men chasing two children? We meet Tony and his sister Tia as they enter an orphanage, as their foster parents have just died. It’s here we start to learn that these two aren’t quite as they seem. They can levitate themselves and objects, and talk to themselves in their mind. While out one day Tia tells a man not to get in his car because something bad is going to happen, sure enough it happens. Next thing we know, that man is paying a visit to the orphanage claiming he’s their uncle. But really, he just wants these kids for his boss for some nefarious reason. They may have said why this really rich old man wanted them, but I don’t quite remember. The kids hightail it out of there, escaping. While on the run they meet an old man, Jason, who they convince to help them escape from their “uncle” and his boss. The movie is basically that, one gag after another as the uncle obtains more and more people to help him search and find these two kids. It’s definitely outlandish in the types of things they get into, but I get that it’s supposed to be for kids and their enjoyment. The ending was straight up weird, for all this talk about escaping to witch mountain, we see no witches, and I don’t want to spoil the ending for those interested in watching, but the way it concludes leaves a lot to be desired. It made zero sense. Why weren’t there any witches? I was hoping this was going to be more on the spookier side and something in the similar vein as to Hocus Pocus… but it was nothing like that at all. At least the acting was decent. The kids were cute and delivered their lines with feeling and emotions. There were moments when it came off as a little wooden, but I won’t hold that against them. Anyways, not a bad movie, but definitely geared towards younger audiences who aren’t looking for a lot of structure in their movies. I don’t see myself rewatching this one. (1975)

The Apple Dumpling Gang: Going in, I knew this was a western so I kept my expectations low… and you know what, this wasn’t a bad movie; goofy sure, but not bad. I actually found myself entertained by it all. Sure there were moments here and there that I thought lost my attention, but it didn’t happen often and it wasn’t a typical Disney western. In this one, Donovan is new in town when he accidentally acquires 3 young children. He doesn’t want them, he doesn’t even know what to do with them. But over the course of some time, he grows fond of them, as I felt was coming. We’re also introduced to Dusty, who in the beginning, you’re led to believe is the children’s mother, not the mail courier. I like how spunky they made her. She was tough as nails and even told Donovan straight to his face how she felt about raising the kids because he said she seemed so good at it. I didn’t really care for where they took her character in the end. Just because she found a man, didn’t mean she had to change the way she dressed and acted. It was kinda inevitable where they were taking both her and Donovan, they didn’t really hide that fact and I saw it coming a mile away. These kids are told there’s gold in town, but no one really believes it, so when they do find some, they team up with two outlaws, Theodore and Amos to help keep the greedy townspeople away. These two were comedic and entertaining; they were an interesting duo. The actor who played Theodore had great facial expressions and his comedy was very show, whereas the other guy was more slapstick. I feel like some of their scenes could have been cut down, like the one where they’re stealing the ladder, that felt like it went on forever and made the movie drag a bit. The kids were already cute and acted their hearts out. All in all though, not a bad movie for what it was. Would I watch it again? Probably not, but if it was on I wouldn’t complain. (1975)

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing: This movie gets a 1 star rating for the nannies and that’s it. This is one of those Disney movies that make this project hard; like I wouldn’t recommend this AT ALL. The only reason you should watch this is if you’re a completist like myself. I just watched this to knock it off the list of Disney movies. Boy oh boy was this ever racist. I should also mention, that this movie isn’t on Disney+ and there’s a clear reason as to why, it’s heavily racist in the yellow face, accents and bad Asian stereotypes. The plot was decent, I will give it that. Lord Southmere escapes China with a microfilm that has the formula for a mysterious Lotus X. But when he gets back to England, he’s then chased by the Chinese who want the microfilm back… only he can’t remember where he placed it. It’s in one of the dinosaurs at the museum, he just doesn’t remember which one or where. While at the museum, Lord Southmere runs into his old nanny, Hettie who he tells where he thought he put it. Hettie then makes it her mission to find it and protect it… which leads to a dinosaur being stolen. This was a wild movie. Like I said, the plot wasn’t that bad, but every time Prince John or his cronies came on the screen I just couldn’t watch. Their accents hurt to listen to and seeing them pretend to be Asian was hard to look at. It was all just really bad. The parts that I did like was watching the nannies come in and cause mayhem. The actress who played Hettie was so good. Her line delivery was so on point and perfect. It was the perfect mix of dryness and sarcasm, it worked so well. I would have watched a whole movie of just her. She’s the redeeming quality to this. I think it’s pretty clear I will never be rewatching this one. (1975)

The Best of Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures: A compilation of all the True-Life Adventure movies all rolled into one, clip-show if you will. Now at first, I was like, why isn’t this movie on Disney+, for the most part all of these “documentaries” are there. I was actually reading Letterboxd reviews before I finished watching this, and when they said they added the lemmings, I went, well, that’s why it’s not on Disney+. Now if you missed it in my mini review of White Wilderness from 1958, I learned that that film isn’t on Disney+ because Disney fabricated the whole thing lemmings segment. They talked about how these creatures jump off to their death, when in reality it was Disney throwing them off a cliff. Of all the clips to use in your “best of” film, was that really a good choice? I think not. But I digress. If you’ve never seen one of the previous “documentaries” (you’ll notice I put that word in quotes because as I’ve said in the past, I take those movies with a grain of salt. Most of them Disney manipulated something one way or another to make something seem true life, when it probably wasn’t.) this is a good way to get all those films rolled into one. If you have seen them, this is a refresher on most of the animals they’ve covered. True to these films, the use of repetition is wildly used, and the way they edited things together, for example, making the scorpions look like they’re square dancing, could be a bit much – makes you really think, how can this be true life when you can clearly see that it’s been edited to move that way. Another thing I thought interesting was the narrator talked about the wolves living a domestic life… I’m like but they’re wild… they’re not living a domestic life. The way we shove personifying animals in what is supposed to be a documentary has always bugged me about these films. Anyways, this felt a little tedious to watch, but it could be entertaining at times. It’s not worth a rewatch, to me. (1975)

Ride a Wild Pony: This movie wasn’t bad, it was just really sleepy and boring. The whole premise is about trying to find out who a pony belongs to. It was tediously long and could have been told in a shorter time frame. I feel like this could have been a twenty/thirty minute short; not the hour and a half snooze fest that this was. Also there were just no redeeming characters for me; both the kids were whiny and didn’t deserve the pony. So, the plot is Scott is a poor boy… from a poor family (sorry I had to)… and in order to get to school he’s given a wild pony to ride. One day, that pony takes off, leaving Scott heartbroken and on the hunt for him. Meanwhile, the pony ends up on a ranch where a young girl in a wheelchair, Josie falls in love with him and learns to ride him. When Scott sees this pony, he’s determined it’s his. It then becomes this whole court scene to see who the actual owner is, is it Scott or Josie? Like I said, neither Scott or Josie are great characters. I will say, by the end they do learn to share and they become a bit more reasonable, because they sure don’t start off that way. Also, the whole way they let the pony determine who it belonged to was such a weird cop out ending. This story felt like it was written by a kid the way some of this went down. As I said, it’s not bad, it’s just not entertaining in the slightest. I think this was trying to go for heartfelt, it just missed the mark on it. I guess there’s a reason it’s not on Disney+, also there’s a scene where Scott gets hit by his father, which is probably the main reason it isn’t on the streaming service, but it’s available for free on YouTube. I will not be watching it again. (1976)

No Deposit, No Return: Another not on Disney+ movie, but this one I can’t figure out why because this was actually a really nice and endearing movie. I thought the plot was hilarious, if a bit exaggerated at times, and the acting was heartwarming and they all had great chemistry together. The premise of this one is two kids, Tracy and Jay just want to see their mother for the Easter break. She’s unfortunately not coming home from her job in Hong Kong, so Tracy makes a plan to visit their mother. She stages a whole kidnapping to gain money not only for themselves, but for the two safe robbers, Duke and Bert, they’ve picked up to kidnap them. Duke and Bert are well known safe crackers, but they’ve never stolen any money. In fact they own Big Joe money, and that interest keeps going up, clickety click. When Tracy sends the ransom note to her grandfather, their grandfather knows the children aren’t in real danger and won’t send the money. He hopes this whole ordeal will shape them up. The police get involved, and then the children’s mother as well, and the whole thing starts to get blown out of proportion. The first half of this film flew by, I was so invested in these children and in Duke and Bert. The four of them made for quite the dynamic and it worked so well. You could tell the kids really liked them, and you could tell that Duke and Bert liked them right back and would do anything for them. When Duke buys Tracy a new dress, that was such a beautiful little scene! The chase scene where the police chase Duke and Bert felt like it went on for ages. They probably could have cut that down a bit, but kids do love big theatric chases and silly gags, which this was full of. Even Jay owning a skunk as a pet was a huge gag throughout the film. I hated it, but I saw how it played out and in the end I couldn’t hate it completely. Speaking of endings, that was a close to the wire end, where we didn’t know what was going to happen. The stakes got really high and it became quite intense. After all the silliness, it got a bit serious and I liked how in between all the funny, there could be real serious moments. It was a great balance and made me like it even more. This is a movie that I could see myself rewatching because it adorable, funny, and full of good acting. It just sucks it’s not on Disney+. (1976)

Gus: This was a completely goofy movie; it was fast-paced and action packed… yet I still found it kinda boring. This is a plot we’ve seen before, something isn’t working and they have one more chance to fix it, only this time it’s not a school, but a football team. I’m sure there was a movie similar to this one about a sports team in the dumps, but I can’t recall it now. But anyways, this one is about the California Atoms, a fake NFL team, among the real teams this movie was  allowed to use. The team is really bad, and are being threatened to exist if they don’t win the Super Bowl. So now this team has to do everything they can to not only win the Super Bowl… but win a game to get there. They hear about this miraculous mule, Gus, in Yugoslavia that can kick a ball on command that they fly him and his owner out to America. At first it’s for the halftime show, but then they realize they can use Gus to kick for them to score points. Obviously, craziness ensues and it becomes gag after gag of just slapstick comedy. Once or twice is funny, but when it starts to become the whole movie it gets boring fast. Plus, the whole thing about Gus being the star of the team was so ridiculous it was hard to watch. I know that this was aimed for children, but I just couldn’t get into this one. I did find the ending surprising though, I like that they didn’t completely rely on Gus to be the shining star. I feel like this cast was a pretty stacked cast. I noticed the Don Knotts was in this film, he’s become the new face of Disney as he’s been in the last couple of movies and I know he does another one coming up. Although, he was barely in this film. I thought they would have used him more for the comedic bits, as he’s a physical comedian, but he had a few bits throughout and that was it. In the end, the acting was good, a little over the top, but that just matched the cheesiness that was this film. I don’t think I’d watch this one again. There wasn’t enough to keep me entertained to watch again. (1976)

Treasure of Matecombe: I’m going to be honest, I’m really surprised this movie was on Disney+, it does start with a Disney disclaimer, which we haven’t seen for some time. At first I thought it was for the treatment of black people, because we have, what I believe to be a slave, in the first few scenes show up, but he doesn’t last long. Then it gets worse when we have white people pretending to be native Indians, and then it gets even worse when we see this scene where our main character, Davie’s uncle is about to be lynched, by these religious people who are basically the KKK. It was so out of nowhere, like that whole scene didn’t need to be added. They could have had his uncle in some sort of other dilemma, they didn’t need to go in that direction. So, that happened. Davis’s uncle does manage to get away because he helps him in his quest, which leads me to the plot. Davis’ family has buried treasure somewhere, but no one knows exactly where. That’s why the black guy gets killed in the beginning, these thugs that eventually are after Davis, kill him because they think he knows where the treasure is. The whole movie is a quest to find it and the people Davis meets along the way. In theory, when you take out all the racist stuff, it’s not a bad concept for a film, this just felt very, very long. It was one thing after another, which it was entertaining at times, but it also was kinda boring at times, too. I know that I zoned out in the middle a bit because I’m like are they ever going to actually find this treasure? Then they tried to throw in a romance, but I’m glad it was subtle. I didn’t mind Lauriette as a character, she could really stand on her own, which could be very entertaining to watch. The acting wasn’t bad in this either and there were some really nice shot scenes, but this wasn’t for me. I don’t see myself rewatching this ever. (1976)

The Shaggy D.A.: Dean Jones is back to grace our screens in a funny and better sequel to the Shaggy Dog. In this one, Jones plays Wilby Daniels, who was first played by Tommy Kirk in 1959. Now Daniels is older and has a family of his own. When his home is robbed clean, a ring that has a curse placed on it, that can change him into a dog if the incantation on the ring is spoken aloud, has gone missing. It ends up in the wrong hands. As Daniels wants to run for D.A. but his opponent has gotten the ring and is trying to keep him a dog so he can’t run against him. Now, with the help of his son and the ice cream man, Daniels must get that ring back. This was such a silly romp, much like the original, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I liked this one more. I think because this one stuck to a simpler plot, it was easier to follow and there was less back and forth that made the first one feel all over the place. This one was very straight forward and held my attention a lot better. Also, I think this one might have had less kooky gags in it, too. The dog still walked, talked, drove and wore clothes like the first, but it didn’t feel as weird. Also I think in this one they do a better job of giving an explanation of where the dog Daniels turns into goes… he just becomes that dog. It wasn’t made very clear in the first movie, there was too much happening to truly grasp that; this one slowed down in plot and let us really understand the whole turning into a dog situation. It was still an overall hoot to watch. The acting could be over the top, but I expect nothing less from a Disney movie like this. The running time was manageable at an hour and a half, which made this easy to watch and I was invested for most of this. There were parts in the middle where it kinda faltered a bit in excitement. The part where all the dogs came together to save Daniels was really cute to watch. I kinda wish they hadn’t gone and edited the dog’s mouths to make it look like they were talking; they just sped up the dog moving and it looked so robotic and mechanical – it looked really weird and I couldn’t help but notice it. This might not be something I’d rewatch, but it’s also something that if it’s on, I wouldn’t be mad about. (1976) 

Have you seen any of these movies? Let me know in the comments below!