Customer Reviews

The Treasure Seekers

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

 

 

Yet again, the film making industry has utterly demolished a great story! Read the book. It's a great family book about the Bastable family, and the children do have many adventures attempting to "restore the fallen fortunes of the House of Bastable", but they do not do it by lying or constantly fighting. They learn a lesson with each adventure instead.

This movie production, however, deviates so far from the book as to be ludicrous. Instead of the father being a businessman ruined by grief, he is an incompetent absent-minded inventor. The children lie. The children are disrespectful of authority. The oldest character, Dora shows teenage angst that never appeared in the book. The minor character of the authoress is turned into a feminist doctor. Why did they have to take the values of the Victorian family out and make a movie about today's societal problems?

A rip-roaring family-friendly adventure, not only wonderful for children, but their parents will enjoy it too. An interesting factoid is that Keira Knightly (as a child) has a brief appearance as the mysterious princess. This scene seems totally superfluous to the plot, but it's true to the book.

This charming film is loosely based on a classic story by E. Nesbit, a wonderful children's author whose English Victorian Age stories are still read today. As in many of her stories, 5 kids are left to their own amusement while a parent struggles to earn a living. In this case, their father is an inventor, who has been at work for 6 years in an effort to create a refrigerator. However he is in serious debt, and in risk of losing everything. He is also struggling with the loss of his wife. The kids are determined to help and take on several well-meaning attempts that usually create more trouble than help for their father.
The film is humerous and loaded with invention. While it is fairly difficult to adapt the book to film in any case, the film is very watrchable on its own. Great acting, accurate period costumes, cars and homes combine to give the viewer a nice immersive sense of the beautiful era of Victorian England. The film has wonderful values, and we all felt great after watching it. Other E. Nesbit stories that have been adapted to film are "5 Children and It", "The Phoenix and the Carpet", and "The Railway Children".

Edith Nesbit was a prolific author who churned out dozens of stories for children during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite their settings in Victorian/Edwardian England, with vocabularies and adventures that seem quaint today, her stories are still humorous and deeply affecting. In the 1990s at least two of the more famous stories were filmed by British television: The Railway Children and The Treasure Seekers.

I think the production of The Railway Children is better developed and more emotionally mature, but there is much in The Treasure Seekers for children and adults to enjoy. The five Bastable children live in London. Their mother is dead and their father is an eccentric inventor, hard at work on a promising idea that unfortunately hasn't generated any income. The children embark on a series of adventures to raise money and keep their home and furniture from being repossessed. This is a children's story, after all, so eventually everything does turn out well, but there are some good morals drawn and lessons learned along the way.

Keira Knightley is featured prominently on the cover of this DVD, but the small role she plays here as an 11 year old princess is completely out of proportion to the amount of publicity she gets. The child actors who play the Bastable children are very good, even if the two oldest seem a little too old for their roles. There is a fine caste of adult stars, including Ian Richardson, Gina McKee, Nicholas Farrell, and James Wilby, all of whom do a superb job. Edwardian London with its customs, mores, fashions and new technologies like motor cars is very well depicted, too.

I read The Treasure Seekers as a child many years ago and still enjoy turning through its pages every now and then. This film is a fairly faithful depiction of the story, and will be well worth watching for many years to come for both children and adults.

It wasn't a terrible movie, in fact parts of it where amusing. But having read all three of the books in the Treasure Seekers' series (The Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, The Return of the Treasure Seekers) I can attest that the movie just isn't the same. The father is turned into an inventor, trying to sell his refrigeration device and save his family financially. Dick does not exist, neither does the Indian uncle. Dora is portrayed as being almost sixteen and even Oswald may have been cast to old. The three youngest siblings are alright though. Eliza, the made is simply huge and does a good job as well. One of things that made the books funny was the naration of Oswald, this element is also lost in the movie. So go ahead and watch it, but read the books to get the real E. Nesbit.

Captivating story with good material for showing different lifestyles attainable by choice. DVD questions for discussion are a good addition to the movie and help encourage problem-solving. Charming depiction of Victorian England with background info on DVD. "It was an exciting story. The kids were fun." "The father's invention was interesting. I didn't know it could take six years to invent something." "I liked how they talked: would you like a spot of tea?" "I would love to watch it again." Best for ages 8 to 12.

Five children in Victorian England attempt to rescue the family from financial ruin. Father is an inventor whose refrigeration machine has yet to make a profit. It's an enjoyable movie with authentic period detail, intereting sets and costumes.

The movie was a bit uneven with some very good parts, and some parts that are a tad boring. The movie would have been greatly improved if younger, more precocious actors had been chosen to play the five children. In fact, sometimes the children seemed a bit immature or stupid simply because the actors playing them were too old. The father was an eccentric inventor who was entertaining, but he came across as a rather irresponsible, letting his children nearly starve while he tinkered with his invention. Some of the smaller parts featured the best acting. Next door neighbor Albert was a perfectly played spoiled rich brat. Albert's uncle (James Wilby) a dashing explorer, was the best character in the movie. The no nonsense maid added a lot. Some of the villians could have been a lot more dasteredly, and the lady doctor was lackluster.

Still there is enough to please fans of period movies.