This is a movie I have a very basic and deep-seated love for. I'm not going to claim that it's one of the best films ever made, but it's one of the best of it's kind, and it's one of my all time favourite films to watch. It's from a period where Disney really excelled at making live action adventure film for children, and one of their hallmarks is that they didn't pitch the film at children. They chose material that was well-suited for children, and just adapted it in a fairly straightforward manner. As a result, a film like this has the appropriate grime and menace and never feels dumbed down. Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver is so iconic it casts a long shadow over every portrayal of a pirate on film since. It's a very mannered and big performance, but he never fails to capture the subtle nuances necessary to essentially carry the film. Director Byron Haskin was a genre craftsman who helmed a lot of really fundamentally good genre films. This is one of his best pieces of work.

Filmed in England, this was the very first live action movie made by Walt Disney after a long string of animated features. Up till now I've never seen any of the films based on Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, so I'll have to go with the majority on this board stating that this is probably the finest effort. Robert Newton of course makes for a quintessential pirate, though I could see Charles Laughton in the role quite favorably. His take on Captain Kidd in the 1945 movie of the same name was classic.I don't think I've ever read the Stevenson book, or if I had, it's been so long in the past I can't even remember. Other viewers feel that this film version follows pretty closely, so that will probably save me the effort. With Newton's character, I was waiting for him to show his true colors, and it was quite a while into the film before he managed to take out Mr. Arrow (David Davies) with the plum duff and the old heave-ho overboard. If you didn't know Long John Silver was a pirate, that sequence would probably come off as a complete surprise.What I didn't get though was the ending of the story, in as much as Long John basically got away with the gold treasure, and the two principals, young Jim Hawkins (Bobby Driscoll) and Dr. Livesy (Denis O'Dea) didn't seem to mind that much. I realize Silver had a soft spot for the adventurous lad, but it was really touch and go there for Hawkins the entire time with no assurance of safety. Maybe I'll have to read the book after all.

People today have so much access to film. I believe we have become a bit jaded as our opinions become harsh and unpleasant. I got to see this movie when I was in elementary school. We all wanted to be Jim Hawkins, going away on an ocean voyage to an island with a buried treasure and a dangerous history. And then there is Blind Pew and Long John Silver (the prototype created by Robert Newton) and the black spot. Jim is a boy, but he must be a man in order to waylay the actions of the villains. I had never seen the Wallace Beery presentation, but this one stands well above that one. Walt Disney had the clout and the creativity and the foresight to bring these wonderful adventures to the screen.

A deadly boring, badly acted movie that has not stood the test of time at all - although it probably wasn't that good when it was made over sixty years ago. Robert Newton overacts as Long John Silver and Bobby Driscoll was badly miscast as Jim Hawkins. His American accent was totally out of place, an English boy should have been cast. Most of the movie takes place in the studio even when they're supposed to be at sea. The worst part of all was a completely unfunny and embarrassing Ben Gunn - thankfully, he wasn't in the film for very long.The 1972 version with Orson Welles is far better, despite the dubbing of the international cast.