The Island at the Top of the World

Disney has always strived to create adventure films that children and young adults can enjoy and have fun watching. Over the years great stories were brought to in their heyday of film making, and in some cases the stories were from very obscure areas. With the success that they had with earlier films based on classics from literature Disney embarked on this story based on the novel The Lost Ones by Ian Cameron. With American actor David Hartman leading the cast this adventure carries the audience into a world that stands on its own along side Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
While searching for his son Sir Anthony Ross enlists the help from an American archeologist and a French inventor and discover a civilization of lost Viking explorers living at the top of the world. The story alone is tight it follows along like one of the classics, and with some very well shot action sequences the pace of the tale keeps the audience interested and drawn into the characters. By today's standards the special effects are a little weak but if you can get passed that the rest of the film is a nice adventure for the kids.
This film was shot at a time when Disney was actually trying to move away from the animated film and more into live action. Even though some of these films did have theatrical releases, most were seen on the TV show The Wonderful World of Disney, where they played better on the small screen. One of the biggest problems this film has is that to keep the story authentic when the voyagers encounter the Vikings they all speak a Norse dialect, and since the target audience can't understand it the story becomes a little slow and hard to follow. But all in all its enjoyable and fun, and if you have children that like movies with a little adventure in them you might give this one a try.