Lassie's Great Adventure (1963)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

20 years before, the first of the Lassie movie series was released as "Lassie Come Home". It could just as validly been called "Lassie's Great Adventure", and the present film could have just as validly been called "Lassie Come Home", since she(he) was lost much of the last part of the film. The 2 films differ in at least 2 obvious ways: In the former film, Lassie is separated from her family for most of the film. In the present film, she is with Timmy(Jon Provost) for most of her odyssey, and mostly as a passive companion. A second basic difference is that in the present film, Lassie whines so much, it soon gets old. In the older film, she mostly traveled alone, so it was useless to whine as a form of communication......... The story begins when Timmy, with Lassie, are left to tend Jake Hodges' promotional gas balloon, which had landed out in a forest . While Mr. Hodges is away, getting some things, the balloon gets loose from its moorings in a high wind, and begins to lift off. Timmy jumps in the basket, presumably to add weight. But, Lassie jumps in just before it takes off. They sailed over forest, and water, and habitation, and more forest, until Timmy figured out which rope let out some gas. They descended and landed in an evergreen top, in a forest. Timmy made a sling for Lassie, out of his jacket,, then tied a spare rope to it, and let her down slowly. Then, he went down the rope himself. Instead of sticking by the balloon, as a beacon for rescuers, Timmy made the controversial decision to wander in search of a road, trail, river or cabin. This led to the rest of their adventures. Timmy made a crude bow and arrow, using string and a knife he happened to have(pretty unlikely). This soon became useful when Lassie attacked a big wild boar, that sent Lassie sprawling. Timmy shot 2 arrows into the boar, then clubbed it to death(again, pretty unlikely). He made a fire with an improvised bow drill, and cooked some of the boar, cut with his knife.......As Lassie still had difficulty getting up, the ever improvising Timmy made a travois for her, and dragged her along. But, after a while, he ran out of energy, before discovering a river where they could quench their thirst and think about possibly making a raft to float down it. Finding a suitable site, this they did, until they hit a series of rapids, when they abandoned the raft and tried to swim ashore. They landed in different places, thus got separated. as both were exhausted. Timmy lay down on a boulder and passed out. He was found by a giant of a man, who said nothing, but carried him to his cabin. It was deaf mute Chinook Pete(Richard Kiel), whose pet falcon? on his shoulder made him seem even more scary. Timmy eventually awoke, and received some broth. Meanwhile, the Mounties and US C.A.P. had been flying around looking for the balloon, finally finding it. But this only served as point of departure for further searches. Eventually, with the help of Chinook Pete, Timmy and Lassie were rescued, although separately.........A fun movie, especially for children, but also for adults. See it at YouTube.

A good movie especially for children. A fair bit of action about a boy lost with his dog, Lassie. Although some of the movie is obvious and some scenes could have been made better, this is an action movie for children.My family enjoyed the movie and after seeing this movie would like to see more Lassie movies. This is the sort of movie that many parents will feel is harmless viewing for their children. Recommended for that rainy afternoon.We liked the movie due to it being good harmless family entertainment. There is no bad language or anything like that. We also enjoyed the action and wonderful nature scenes.

We were with friends and family viewing this Lassie movie at a restored theater in Vermont. With two intermissions, the movie was a wonderful family experience that can't be replicated with entertainment aimed at children today.Corny? Yes. Did some of the adults laugh when a wonderful "raft" appears, replete with nicely cut edges? Absolutely. Just as many who teared-up when Lassie collapsed after being gored by the wild boar. And "Lurch" played a great deaf-mute-good guy.I can only hope that there will be a new generation of Lassie films; one can only hope that they will take the ultimate risk and go "retro" with the respect and dedication to message as the original. Kids need this today, now more than ever.

Mostly harmless, this film is just more Wonderdog rubbish starring a trained animal act and a small, blond guy who deserved better than this. I always thought Jon Provost was a capable child actor even if he wasn't a great one.A bore for anyone over ten years of age, although it was nice to see Richard Kiel boosting his career after being in the ghastly excuse for a home movie, "Eegah."