Product Details

• Actors: Ron Howard, Don Most, Royal Dano, Antonio Fargas, Jack Elam
• Directors: Robert Totten
• Writers: Jean Holloway, Mark Twain
• Producers: Steven North
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: May 7, 1996
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301777670
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #317,947 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very good, March 6, 2004

By 

fra7299 "fra7299" (California, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Huckleberry Finn [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is one of those movies that you are better off renting than buying. It stars Ron Howard as Huckleberry Finn and Donnie Most as Tom Sawyer (no joke, Ralph Mouth from Happy Days). Although Ron Howard has the look of a Huck Finn, I thought this was a terrible choice for this character. Both Howard and Most don't fit not only because they are made more for "series" television, but also because they are way too old to be playing these characters.

The movie attempts to be faithful to the book, and does a half way decent job, but the 78 minutes makes for quite a bit of plot skipping and assuming on the part of the audience. They don't spend too much time on the relationship of Huck and his Pap or home life with Widow Douglas, but spend quite a bit on the scenes with the duke and king and escaping down the Mississippi.

What makes this movie particularly disappointing is that it doesn't bring the novel to life at all, and fails miserably at giving it an "adventure" feel. The film seems to be presented in a "series" way rather than film. You feel like you are watching the Waltons and waiting for a commercial when they move to a new scene. The producers also decided to add a tacky song into the movie for no apparent reason.

There are appearances by "Mark Twain" (an actor dressed up like the author), who gives his two cents on the characters and how they fit into the time period. There is not much of reason to put this in, and, although it is an attempt to give background information for this time period, it comes off as being corny and silly.

The recent Elijah Wood version, although not as accurate as this one, is a better movie, as is the 1985 version with Patrick Day.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Three Thumbs Down, August 11, 2003

By 

Steven Woodward (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Huckleberry Finn [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I watched this movie with my 2 sons. We were all disapointed even though we like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, we like to watch Happy Days reruns with Ron Howard, and we like old movies. A much better choice is "Tom and Huck (1995)" which is destined to become a classic.