Author: Andrew Carrieri

Based on Mary Rodgers’s 1972 children’s novel of the same name, Disney’s Freaky Friday was theatrically released on January 21, 1977. The live action fantasy-comedy is ninety-eight minutes in length. A remake of Freaky Friday starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan was theatrically released on August 6, 2003. Plot Summary On a Friday the…

Based on Sterling North’s 1963 memoir of the same name, Disney’s Rascal was theatrically released on June 11, 1969. The live action comedy-drama is eighty-five minutes in length. Plot Summary In the middle of the twentieth century, an aged Sterling North (voiced by Walter Pidgeon) recollects a childhood summer fifty years earlier in rural Wisconsin….

  Based on Sterling North’s 1943 children’s book Midnight and Jeremiah, Disney’s So Dear to My Heart was theatrically released on January 19, 1949. The musical drama, a hybrid of live-action and animated elements, is eighty-two minutes in length. Plot Summary In 1903 Indiana, a passing train affords the townspeople of Fulton Corners a brief…

Based on the legendary figure from English folklore, Disney’s The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men was theatrically released on June 26, 1952. The live action adventure drama, Disney’s second completely live action film after Treasure Island (1950), is eighty-four minutes in length. Plot Summary In 1190, the Earl of Huntingdon (Clement McCallin)…

  Based on Esther Forbes’s 1943 children’s novel of the same name, Disney’s Johnny Tremain was theatrically released on June 19, 1957. The historical fiction drama is eighty minutes in length. Structure Johnny Tremain is divided into two approximately forty-minute segments during which a young man named Johnny Tremain (Hal Stalmaster) evolves from a politically…

Based on James Otis Kaler’s 1881 book Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus, Disney’s Toby Tyler was theatrically released on January 21, 1960. The live action film is ninety-five minutes in length. Plot Summary Convinced that he is no longer wanted by his guardians, his Uncle Daniel (Tom Fadden) and his Aunt Olive…

Based on Upton Sinclair’s 1936 novel The Gnomobile, Disney’s The Gnome-Mobile was theatrically released on July 19, 1967. The live action fantasy comedy is eighty-four minutes in length. The Gnome-Mobile had been contemplated since the publication of Sinclair’s book, when the author suggested that Walt Disney create a related film. Disney, who had not yet…

  Based on Herminie Templeton Kavanagh’s 1903 work of Irish folklore Darby O’Gill and the Good People, Disney’s Darby O’Gill and the Little People was theatrically released on June 26, 1959. The live action fantasy adventure film is ninety-three minutes in length. Plot Summary In Ireland, an elderly widower, Darby O’Gill (Albert Sharpe), has for…

Image Copyright Disney Based on Erich Kästner’s 1929 novel of the same name, Emil and the Detectives was theatrically released on December 18, 1964. The live action mystery film is ninety-nine minutes in length. Plot Summary In the small German town of Neustadt, young Emil Tischbein (Bryan Russell) boards a bus to Berlin, where he…

Image Copyright Disney A prequel to Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955), Davy Crockett and the River Pirates was theatrically released on July 18, 1956. The eighty-one minute film is an edited compilation of the final two episodes of the five-part Davy Crockett miniseries, which aired as part of Walt Disney’s weekly “Disneyland”…

DVD Cover Copyright Disney Based on the real life military and political career of frontiersman Davy Crockett (1786-1836), Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier was theatrically released on May 25, 1955. The film, which was followed by a prequel, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, in 1956, is ninety-three minutes in length. Repackaging Davy…

DVD Cover Copyright Disney A live action suspense comedy, No Deposit, No Return was theatrically released on February 5, 1976. The film, which debuted as part of a double bill with Dumbo (1941) in the New York City area, is 112 minutes in length. (1) Plot Summary Hoping for a long-awaited reunion with their traveling…