Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen are back as Davy Crockett and his sidekick in another film culled from Disney's TV series. This time they encounter Mink Fink, King of the River captaining a boat on the Mississippi. They agree to race him to New Orleans, and then they team up with him to defeat pirates masquerading as Native Americans. This one is slightly superior to the original film mostly due to having a less episodic story.

Capitalizing on the popularity of the Davy Crockett phenomenon, Disney produced a story that had to take place at an earlier time. Mike Fink is a keel boater (boats that are pushed with poles), the best around. Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen) makes a bet with Fink, banking on the ingenuity of Crockett who has never pushed a keel boat. If they don't win the race, they will lose several month's work. The race is fun with Fink using every method he can to take away Davy and Georgie's chances of winning. The two manage to endure and the first half ends. What the heck. But what happens is an alliance among the three men. River pirates have been robbing the hard working people who depend on the waterway for their business. They must find a way to stop them for everyone's benefit. If this phenomenon had been in more recent times, we would have had a series, starring Fess Parker, that would have lasted a long time. It was a different time, obviously.

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates starts off with the credits at the beginning of the movie, so you know you are in for an old fashioned adventure.Set in the 1800's, the dialog is based on the way words were spoken back then, so it might be a little hard for youngsters to maintain focused, I know it took me a little while to get used to the talk. Other than that, this movie is a fast moving fun story.Davy sets out on a journey to sell some fur caps, and along the way comes into contact with pirates, Indians and many more fun situations.The viewer can tell many of the scenes have been shot in a studio with the background added in, especially water scenes, but this shouldn't hinder any person's watching of the movie.

This film is a lot of fun. It originally played on the Disney TV show as a two parter. Fess Parker plays Davy, and Buddy Ebsen plays George Russell, his friend and traveling partner. They run afoul of Mike Fink and his crew; Mike is played by the wonderful and boastful Jeff York. George mistakenly bets all their winter's fur inventory that Davy and he can beat Mike to New Orleans. Mike tries all kinds of devious and underhanded ways to win, but in the end Davy manages to beat him. Mike is contrite, and he and Davy become friends. In the second part, Mike and Davy take on the river pirates from the title, who've been posing as hostile indians and killing settlers coming downstream. Of course, they win.Mike's crew is played by veteran Hollywood actors; Kenneth Tobey plays Mike's right hand man, and believe me, if you've seen Ken as the staunch commander in the original "The Thing", you won't recognize him in this. He's a natural comedian, and with his expressive face he's a source of constant amazement.Don't miss this movie; kids will love it. It's fast paced, and filled with lots of stunts and explosions. And Mike Fink's song is catchy and memorable. In all, a great family film. I still watch it and love it.