The first of two Three Investigator movies, the first movie is actually the second of the books. The first book titled, The Secret of Terror Castle, was the second movie made (although renamed The Haunted Castle). The movies are German productions filmed in South Africa. The movies are an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of The Three Investigators on Germany, where the book series continued even after they ended in the US.Other than the titles and main character names, nothing in the movie is from the book. In this movie, Skeleton Island has been moved to South Africa, Pete's dad does not work for a film studio, and Germans must love to have French villains because Victor Hugenay, who made a couple appearances in the books (but not this one), is the villain twice in this film. I would have enjoyed the movie more if it had an original title, since the story was original, having absolutely nothing in common with the book. The actors cast for Jupiter and Pete resemble the book characters but Bob ended up as a curly haired redhead, without glasses. On the gadgets side, which was kept to a minimum, we see what the Three Investigators are like with 21st century electronics.More than a few of the plot points are ridiculous, but no more so than many made for TV films aimed at a tween audience. (Parasailing down the street, accidentally dropping his plane ticket on his dad's table at a random café?)It's been several years since this film and the sequel were released so it's doubtful that any more will be made. The actors have grown out of their roles. If the series ever does continue, I recommend leaving it to Nickelodeon, who would probably put Rocky Beach, California, back in California. I still have hopes of a good studio bringing The Three Investigators into the 21st century, and doing justice to the books.I have both movies and I will watch them again in the future. My reaction to this movie is the same as any movie I see that was taken from a beloved book. Eventually I come to terms with them and life goes on. It's just a movie.

Director Mr Florian Baxmeyer portrayed the Book of Robert Arthur successfully on this Movie.Screenplay was nice written by David Howard.I'm a big Fan of "Three Investigators" Book series. In our country this series recognized by Rakib Hasan. We called it " Tin Goyenda - Kongkal Deep" On this movie acting of 1st Investigator was brilliant, also others did great too. Music was just great. They used some rural songs of South African territories. We didn't saw any Special effects on this Movie. No horror & nudity. 100% for kids and Family Movie. Personally i want's to say Casting wasn't good enough. Three investigators weren't brave although it was described in book they were very brave. Dialogue wasn't good enough. I wanted more thrilling scenes on this movie, I had expected more from this movie. I can say , it was nice try. We expected more adventures from movie. We didn't found nothing ! For a tight budget movie crews were did great. Thanks for their efforts on this movie. Sorry, 5 out of 10!

I'm a huge fan of the original book series so I was very enthusiastic about seeing this movie, which I finally saw in the form of an English-dubbed version online. Even as a kid in the 1960s I fervently wished these books would be made into movies, and I finally got my wish, though I had to wait over four decades to that to happen. To summarize my impressions of this movie, I thought it was fairly good, but throughout I kept wondering when specific scenes and events would happen, but they never did, although some of the details were quite accurate. The plot is so different from the original book's plot that it was difficult for me to enjoy the story. After all, a plot is the essence of any story, so to alter the entire foundation of a very popular book is to invite failure, which in fact seems to be what resulted, since the filmmakers didn't even recoup their investment yet, from what I read, and old fans are generally coming away disappointed.Some of the more memorable events for me in the original book were the skull talking to the boys in the cave, the boy Chris Markos being trapped in an underwater cave by a freak accident, finding gold doubloons hidden in a blow hole, Jupiter catching a cold, Pete waking up and not recognizing right away where he was, crowds of treasure hunters flocking to the island, and Tom and Chris and the Ballingers fighting at the end over the various frames to cover up an old hold-up. None of that existed in the film.In the book plot, a film was being made on the island, and the boys were invited there by Alfred Hitchcock to be filmed while scuba diving, but in the movie, an amusement park was being built on the island, and the boys were there by invitation by Mr. Crenshaw, Pete's father. In the movie the setting was changed from the southeast coast ("Atlantic Bay") of the USA to South Africa, and the Greek boy Chris was replaced by an African girl Chris. There were no underwater scenes at all, to my disappointment. The movie climax involved a hang gliding chase where Victor Hugenay uncharacteristically tries to kill the boys chasing him. African racial issues were also fairly prominent in the movie, such as it being dangerous for white boys to enter a black township, which was a little too much realism that killed the innocent and charming character of the book series, for my taste.However, I believe the filmmakers expertly meshed the different world of the 1960s with the world of the 2000s by not introducing too much high tech equipment, they kept foul language toned down to innocent levels, and they thankfully avoided any flatulence humor. They also kept the essential sense of adventure intact with the presence of a large uninhabited island that contained caves, both of which are guaranteed to fire any boy's imagination. The youthful romance was kept innocent, as well.The details that were kept fairly accurate were the Jones Salvage Yard and the secret gate to headquarters and headquarters itself (though it contained a modern plastic chair), the Investigators' business card (though it contained the acronym "T3I" that wasn't in the book), Jupiter's pensive gesture (though that consisted of fingers under his mouth instead of pinching his lip), all of which were delightful to see. The film character of Jupiter was appropriately cool-headed, formal, and intellectual to be convincing to me, though not chubby as in the book. The ages of the boys in the film seemed a little young to me, but still quite convincing since if they were any closer to puberty they would have had a different view of the world, likely a different set of interests, and people in general would react to them differently.Miscellaneous observations... The romantic angle was interesting since such an angle was never present in any of the books. Even boys of ten would be starting to become interested in girls, so that was realistic enough for my taste, even if not true to the books. As others noted, the theme music had a James Bond theme sound due to its half-step melodic sections, which I thought fit well since it related to action and investigation without being too much of a ripoff of Bond film music. The references to presumably upcoming adventures (a stuttering parrot in the salvage yard, Jupiter calculating jelly bean volumes, and Jupiter mentioning a haunted castle) were all delightful. I'm a little disappointed that whiz kid Jupiter would erroneously assume that Gamba was the entity being confined to Miss Wilbur's room, a risky assumption I detected right away. The itching powder gun was very cool but unrealistic in several ways. At least the plot's twists and deceptions of the characters were true to Robert Arthur's style, which was true to the style of the old books.I'm enough of a fan to keep watching upcoming Three Investigator movies, no matter how bad they become, but sadly, after four decades, I *still* find myself wanting to see the books converted to film *accurately*, not like this.

I am a big fan of this book ! In our country its not same as the original but seeing the 2 The Three Investigators movie now i know our edition is better then this . The story is really awesome as well as the charterers but i don't know what they did but i don't this film . Directing was not good . Script sucks . also the cast. they kinda ruined an awesome story . if they are trying to make another sequel the i have to say 'please please do something else with the money' Its also my dream to be a Film-maker. And i swear if i ever get just one bit of a chance i will nail this story on everyone's mind . This book have some of the best story in this world . and if i had the chance i will do anything to make it perfect .