People are voting emotionally.

One of my all time favorites.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Walt Disney Studios was probably hoping lightning would strike twice in this adaptation of a Jules Verne-like story by James Vance Marshall (writing as Ian Cameron). "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" it's not, but it does offer some great, grand scale action and atmosphere, not to mention the appeal of a "Land That Time Forgot" type of tale. The acting is generally enjoyable, the characters have sufficient rooting interest, and the special effects are pretty decent, most of the time.David Hartman ('The Bold Ones: The New Doctors', 'Lucas Tanner') is American archaeologist Professor Ivarsson, recruited by English businessman Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden). Sir Anthony is desperately searching for his estranged son Donald (David Gwillim), who disappeared into the Arctic circle in search of adventure. With the help of brilliant Captain Brieux (Jacques Marin) and his magnificent airship, they venture off to the top of the world where they discover a community populated by the descendants of Vikings.Sinden is a standout in a cast also including Mako as a not-so-brave Eskimo villager named Oomiak, the beautiful Agneta Eckemyr as a Viking babe named Freyja, and Gunnar Ohlund as a scary Viking high priest known as The Godi. Hartman is quite likable, and Gwillim is similarly engaging. Eckemyr isn't a great actress, but she is rather appealing. And, just to push some of our emotional buttons, an unanticipated participant on this journey is a sweet French poodle named Josephine.There are some thrilling moments, all punctuated by Maurice Jarres' majestic score. Our heroes will have to enter the mouth of a volcano, dodge a lava flow, struggle to keep the airship aloft, evade The Godi and various Viking antagonists, and fight off some aggressive Orcas. Although filmed at Disney Studios, and in Oregon, the matte paintings are good enough to give us a feeling of wintry Arctic locations.Pretty good family entertainment, overall, competently handled by journeyman director Robert Stevenson.Seven out of 10.

For a Disney movie, this was above average in conception and execution. The Balloon vehicle provides very interesting plot twists. The lead actors aren't top stars except Mako in a good support role as an eskimo guide, but they all turn in good performances that stand above normal campy Disney fare. The French pilot and English Expedition head clash most enjoyably. And there is a comic mascot. There are several true villains and they battle weather elements as well. This is not a great film, but for Disney it stands out and is a satisfying adventure flick with typical Disney ending. All the elements are there and even the music is good.

"Mary Poppins" director Robert Stevenson's fantasy outing "The Island at the Top of the World" has all the makings of an adventurous outdoors saga, but loquacity between the two leading characters, played respectively by David Hartman and Donald Sinden, sabotaged this formulaic epic. Although Ian Cameron authored the novel "The Lost Ones," Cameron's narrative appears to have been inspired by Jules Verne. Interestingly enough, Cameron is a pseudonym for Donald G. Payne, who also has also written novels under another name James Vance Marshall. The son of Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden of "The Day of the Jackal") vanishes during an expedition two years earlier in the Arctic, and Ross invites Arctic expert Professor John Ivarsson (David Hartman of "The Ballad of Josie") to accompany him on a journey to the North Pole. Although they cannot ply the frozen waters of the Arctic to reach the area where Ross' son Donald (David Gwillim of "Nostradamus") vanished, Ross has found an alternative form of transportation in the form of an airship piloted by French aviator Captain Brieux (Jacques Marin of "Charade") to take them to their objective. Along the way, our intrepid adventurers pick up Donald's Eskimo pal Oomiak (Mako of "Bulletproof Monk") and take him with them to Donald disappeared. Eventually, our heroes find an evergreen section of the Arctic and a graveyard where whales go to die. The whale graveyard reminded me of an elephant graveyard in African movies. Finally, Ivarsson and Ross find Donald. It seems that he is living with a lost colony of paranoid Vikings who abhor the idea of outsiders entering their society. They call their remote outpost Astragard and they have lived there for a thousand years. No sooner have these Vikings greeted our heroes to their colony than they take them hostage, put them on trial—a kangaroo trial—and sentence them to death by immolation aboard a boat in the middle of a fjord. Happily, Donald's attractive girlfriend Frejya (Agneta Eckemyr of "Blindman") rescues them and they embark on a long, arduous journey with the Vikings nipping at their heels.Most of the time, Sinden and Hartman's characters exchange important points of exposition and it almost seems that the movie devolves into a two man drama. "Island at the Top of the World" improves substantially after our heroes escape from the Vikings and literally turns into Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth." The payoff that enables our heroes to escape from the Vikings is rather cheesy. Sinden is really good as a bulldog of a character and his dialogue delivery is gripping. Hartman delivers his dialogue well enough, but he plays a lifeless character without a shred of charisma. The action seems threadbare and the special effects a rather slight.

This is one of the better-regarded of the Disney studio's live-action efforts, particularly among those made following Walt's death. It's a fantasy adventure on Jules Verne lines; actually, the film coincided with the somewhat similar (and equally good) THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1974). We have a handful of people embarking on an expedition to the Arctic via airship in search of the leader (Donald Sinden)'s son – the others are David Hartman (young but expert explorer), Jacques Marin (French captain of the vessel) and Mako (the Eskimo who last saw the boy alive). Eventually, half-way through the proceedings to be exact, they find him – along with a lost Viking civilization (which speaks in its native tongue) and the location of a fabled whale graveyard! The film may take a typically juvenile viewpoint, but it's no less engaging for all that – of course, we also get humor (including Sinden's traditionally Victorian haughtiness), romance (between his boy and a local lass) and a variety of thrills (the party having to fend themselves against not just standard human villainy but a rather intense attack by killer whales) along the way. The production design of the mythic landscape is attractive (as is the widescreen photography) and, while dated, the special effects (notably the eruption of a volcano and the climactic explosion of the airship – it's purely coincidental that I watched this only a day after THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU [1969]; see my review for that film) are quite nicely done.