Customer Reviews

Paddle to the Sea [VHS]

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an English teacher, I am so sorry to read the negative reviews of the two young people. I am in awe of Hollingsworth's ability to tell a good story for students. I own his books, albeit worn and well-read, and I am buying this film for my grandson, so I hope it is the one I saw when I was doing my PHD in children's literature in the early 1970. I have never forgotten the story. Perhaps our young people today are used to blood and guts, and fail to understand there is sweetness in life, too. I love Paddle to the Sea.

"Paddle to the Sea" is the story of a carving of an Indian in a canoe that is placed in the snows of upper Lake Superior, and which has as its goal reaching the Atlantic ocean. A legend written on the carving asks that anyone who finds him please put him back in the water. His passage through lakes, locks, and rivers is depicted in scenes of great beauty alternating with scenes of industrialization and pollution. Whether or not Paddle to the Sea will make it keeps arising as an issue, and the original beauty of the carving degrades as it traverses seemingly insurmountable barriers. This is a movie that MOVES you... an emotional experience as gripping as any, done with simplicity and without dialogue. It should not be missed.

I love this video! I borrowed it from the local library and we don't want to take it back so I decided to buy it. My son and I have watched it every day for a week. It is so beautiful. It takes you into a magical world. It is so much better than the flashy cartoons you get so often. This is the best kids video we have ever found. I wish it weren't so expensive. This video will delight you if you have any sense of the beauty of nature and the magic world of a child's imagination.

This is the kind of film that works its way into your subconscious. A boy carves a small wooden canoe with one wooden passenger...an all-watchful Native American...and sends the small craft into a frozen lake so that it can journey thousands of miles to the ocean. To keep the canoe afloat, the boy pours a bar of lead into the bottom of the canoe. "I am Paddle to the Sea" the boat tells us. The film tracks its journey past frogs, deer, and snakes, past ice and storm, even past the rushing currents of Niagara Falls. A few individuals fish it out of the water but on seeing the instructions (carved on the bottom of the boat) they wisely return the craft back into the lake or stream from whence it came. Thus, the canoe returns to its mysterious source. This is a fine contemplative film that makes us meditate on our own personal journeys, our own attachments, and our own connection to the living world (After all, the canoe started out as part of a tree). In a 21st century world where too many children's films are violent or meaningless, this is a perfect gift for youngsters five and upwards.

This little film is just really fun to watch. I love the idea behind it, and teachers using it in the classroom will want to either read the book to their students first, or explain the premise, as the narration in the film is quite subtle regarding the boy's illness and why he himself cannot 'paddle to the sea.' Very young kids will appreciate all the animals that interact with the canoe, and the film presents the opportunity to segue into science or history or geography lessons.

I grew up attending elementary school in Milan, Michigan in the early 1970s. Once a year, our class would pack into our tiny cafeteria to see a classic filmstrip: Paddle-to-the-Sea. This short film has been restored way better than I ever got to experience it back then. An excellent teaching primer, and just enjoyable to reminisce to. I've shared it with my daughter, who is now in first grade, and she really enjoyed it.

I LOVED THE MOVIE PADDLE TO THE SEA AS A CHILD IN THE 1960'S. I AM LOOKING FOR THE OLD MOVIE VERSION FOR MY OWN CHILDREN AND CANNOT FIND IT. I HAVE NOT SEEN THE 1996 ANIMATED VERSION.

My 6 yr. old son and I read this book and loved it. He is Inupiat Eskimo. I am from Michigan. We had a lot to talk about while reading the superb book - from following along the map to the different reactions of those that saw Paddle.In the book, people carve on the bottom wherever he stops so you can see right where he's been. He has really cool and exciting adventures. This made it real. I thought the movie would be a no-brainer, it was nominated for an Oscar, right ? I know the movie was done in 1966, and I know all about "artistic license" and so forth, but...the movie SKIPPED the saw mill scene, the sled dog ride to the Sault, the trip to Chicago, virtually all of Lake Michigan...and had Paddle going from Superior to Detroit in five minutes or less and then out to sea! No wonder it didn't win an Oscar. The only part we all liked was the first ten minutes - where the boy is carving and then places Paddle on the snowy hill...and then he goes downhill. Unfortunately, so does the movie. Literally and figuratively. Nothing more than a Reader's Digest condensed version. This DVD is going in the next yard sale. Even my 6 year old was visably "bummed out". Don't be thinking "oh kids gotta have blood and guts these days" like one reviewer wrote when she read other bad reviews - but they do need a STORY and the movie omitted the real story and instead made it out to be some sort of 60s evironmental "message", while ignoring the Native message which was in the original story. In the book, the news of Paddle making it to sea comes back to the boy, who is now older. He listens to white men take credit for putting it in the sea but it matters not to him because the knowledge that Paddle made it was enough. In the movie, by contrast, Paddle's journey never ends nor is there a tie back to the Native boy who made Paddle. Yuk. It was so bad it made me angry.

Having first met Paddle to the Sea in print as a child, and having been fascinated by it, I felt this was a true interpretation and faithful to the book. I would introduce the child first to the book and then to the DVD.

I was first inspired by Paddle to the Sea as a young lad in kindergarden. To this day paddle fosters warm memories and reinforces philosophical images of life. Think about it, paddle to the sea. . .