In ‘Kidnapped’, the second Disney adaptation of a Robert Lewis Stevenson novel, directed by none other then Disney mega giant director Robert Stevenson (no relation), you get your basic historical looking period piece with lots of Disney fighting, melodrama and sword play. Sadly there is no romance to be had, no pretty young women to kiss young heroic men desperate for pretty lips to press against theirs. BUT there are plenty of action packed moments that accelerate as the plot continues along.
Some of the more amusing standout moments include A battle of bag pipes (instead of swords) between the son of Rob Roy ( a character in another Disney English film) played by known other then Peter O’Toole and Scottish loyalist Alan Breck Stewart. Stewart was the lone survivor of a small boat that got plowed into by a bigger boat that held the protagonist David Balfour aboard.
Once on board the bigger boat, together these stout adventurers hold off the captain of the ship and his rowdy crew that means to do Stewart in simply because he’s a do-gooder. While hiding out in the Captain’s cabin from the murderous crew, David reminds Stewart that it is not Christian to seek revenge. He says this as he is ready to run steal through someone’s heart. ‘Don’t seek revenge? Heck, what a judgmental attitude." The captain they are keeping out of the cabin, has kidnapped David. This was arranged by David’s uncle Ebenezer.
His uncle would not have traded his nephew off to the good bad captain had he managed to kill him first. Ebenezer tried hard to lure David to his death by sending him up a flight of stairs in the castle where he lives, only to have the stairs drop off into nothing. David went up the stairs in the cursed (cursed by a old lady carrying a buddle of sticks who was mad at his uncle) House of Shanks, to find a box (his uncle told him about) with answers to his questions about his family origins, only to almost plummet to his death as we have already mentioned. He did this because David was getting too close about finding out about his proper inheritance. Never trust a grumpy old man who likes to point guns as visitors who come to call at his door.
At the beginning of the film, a letter sends him off to his Uncle’s house where he meets the man who then has him kidnapped and thus all the action that we have already mentioned. There are plenty of other exciting things that happen as the action struts along. Aww so much action. Action that got more exciting as it went along. I mention this because for some reason or other I found the first part of the film to be a tad slow and not so action packed. Despite the somewhat boring pace, I overall found Kidnapped to be a very well made somewhat boring action-packed film. If it is well made, should boring not be part of the same sentence? Well, overall yeah.
The setting, costumes, cinematography, acting and other various movie making abilities were apparent in my evaluation of it being a well made film. I just wasn’t kidnapped by the storyline. Maybe it was too old fashioned and too English for me. Perhaps I didn’t give the film enough of a chance. Leonard Maltin said it wasn’t that exciting in his Disney book of films and maybe I just accepted that as part of my predisposition of the film when I started watching it.
I have been viewing Disney movies non-stop now for months and rushed through this one. It’s a hard one to find because it is available widely on VHS but VHS isn’t wildly well distributed anymore. If you belong to the Disney Exclusive DVD club it is available to watch. If it was more easily available and if I didn’t have other Disney films to watch and review, I might just watch it again. But it is time to move on and sail on another Disney sea.
If you like old time adventures with some English Disney Posh, this might be your ship to sail on.
Other Notable Versions
Kidnapped 1948
Kidnapped 1995
Kidnapped 2005
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