Customer Reviews

Walt Disney Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventure

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

 

 

Excellent for the whole family. A real gem. I have watched it several times and could watch it again and again.

I Really Enjoyed watching this movie in class today. I might get it for Christmas. If Depends.One of the best Disney Movie i ever seen.This was better Than Holes.



DVD Release Date: 3/15/05

I realized after watching this movie that this was the first live-action movie that I could remember having watched about some of America's larger-than-life legendary heroes. When I was younger I read stories of Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry, among others, but the only place I recall having seen these legends was in animated shorts. Disney brought these characters together in a particular place and time to form a tale of growing up, eras passing, and morality.

The Hackett family lives in Paradise Valley. Daniel Hackett (Nick Stahl, who has appeared in "The Man without a Face," "The Thin Red Line," "Sin City," and numerous other films) is a stereotypical rebellious young boy frustrated by being stuck doing chores on the farm while the young industrial United States seems to be passing him by. Jonas Hackett (Stephen Lang, credits include tv's "Crime Story" and "The Amazing Panda Adventure") is Daniel's father, with a firm belief in right and wrong and the rights of an individual. Jonas loves his son but is frustrated by his son's lack of appreciation for his values.

J.P. Stiles is a railroad man who plans on putting his railroad through Paradise Valley so that the mineral wealth of the valley can be strip mined. However, Jonas Hackett is a pivotal landowner who is at the center of the resistance to selling to J.P. Stiles. J.P. Stiles has men and guns and pressures Jonas, to sell his land, and will use force if he must. Unfortunately, Daniel witnesses his father being hurt by Stiles' men, just after his father gave him the deed to the farm for safe-keeping.

Daniel runs from Stiles' men, feeling guilty that he left his father, and yet needing to protect the deed. Daniel runs to a boat on a lake in the valley, where the rope tying the boat to a dock slips. Soon Daniel awakes in a desert, surrounded by outlaws. Fortunately, Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze) arrives in a tornado to shoot the trigger fingers off the outlaws before they can kill Daniel. Daniel is unwilling to believe his eyes, and sees Pecos Bill as someone or something that belongs in the past.

Daniel and Pecos begin the journey back toward Daniel's home, but along the way the meet with Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt, "Working Girl," "Benny & Joon," and numerous others) and John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown, "Moon Over Parador" and "Robocop 2"), who join with them, though Paul frequently wonders why they are doing anything for Daniel, who seems to want to do nothing for anyone other than himself. During one portion of their trip they encounter a scroungy-looking Calamity Jane (Catherine O'Hara), who only makes a brief appearance, and Burgess Meredith as an old man and William H. Macy as a railroad magnate.

Throughout the journey back to Daniel's home the three legends try to get Daniel to understand the code of the west, which is little more than doing the right thing. I was continually annoyed with Daniel because he seemed to be taking along time to get the point, but just when I thought all was lost, he FINALLY understood.

Unfortunately, I can say little more without spoiling the fun, so I will stop here and say that I enjoyed the ending.

"Tall Tale" is more than a simple morality story. The West, and the United States, is changing. We see a horseless carriage. J.P. Stiles' train is a mechanical monster that exemplifies the lack of environmental concern of early industrialists. Jonas Hackett represents the traditional values. The United States was on the cusp of changes that would take us away from the wild days of the old west and vault us into a world power. You sense that Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry knew that their time was passing, and that other things were replacing them. Yet, the values that they represented, hard work, belief in the individual, and taking care of the weak, represent values that needed to endure dramatic changes, which is the real lesson of this movie.

I have watched this movie twice. The first time I was not impressed. The second time I enjoyed the movie. I am unable to tell you why the big difference, but I think the second time I focused on the legends more than on annoying Daniel, and I found the portrayal of the legends to be good. There is a fair amount of violence in this PG movie, including trigger fingers being shot off (no blood, but you do get to see a finger), a jail break, and more than a little violence, so this movie is probably unsuitable for the younger members of the family and some older children.

In spite of the breakthroughs in technology, film makers have generally overlooked American legends. Perhaps American legends are considered too irrelevant and uninteresting to make a popular movie. It is also possible that children are no longer familiar with these legends that were still well-known when I was a child. But perhaps a good movie like this can inspire a child to pick up a book and learn more. I can only hope.

This is a wonderful feel good movie. I reviewed the soundtrack which rocks our home when we play it. The movie just adds a full dimension to the music. When young Daniel rides Widowmaker at the end of the movie his smile is just too wonderful. This movie is a great kids' movie and teaches great lessons.

In "Tall Tale" you have all the makings of a classic story. There is a very appealing, naïve young hero, who overcomes huge obstacles to right a terrible wrong, at great personal risk and potential loss. You have a greasy, sharp tongued villain and a herd of similar henchmen. You have an evil machine that seems to have a life of its own. You have the classic motive for action both good and ambiguous--money-and you have three--not one, but three--larger than life legendary heroes, who mentor and protect the naive, young hero, but do not diminish him by solving his problem for him. Could there be a more classic script? Probably not.
It's a western, America's favorite genre, wonderfully cast, beautifully staged, and lovingly filmed. The wide open West, the mountains, the desert appear as if they were just made for the locale of the story.
For the first 10 or 20 minutes, you won't even be fully convinced that it is a fantasy. It looks just like another Western, but as it takes off and the story develops, it becomes more and more improbably and more and more engaging. The legendary heroes begin to grow larger than life; the villains get slimier and slimier.
I'm giving nothing away by telling you that it all comes out well in the end (all tall tales do), but not without some last minute heroics by the protagonists.
Best of all this is a movie kids can watch and enjoy as much as the adults. The modest violence is child's play compared to more modern films, and the villains manage to exude evil without using a single four letter word. No one takes off all their clothes.
If you are feeling beat up after a long week of work and want to see an uplifting, you-can-do-it-if-you-try movie, get "Tall Tale" while copies are still available.
This is a true classic.

Tall Tale is one of the most beautiful western movies I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. I first watched this movie at a very young age and fell in love with it right away and I still feel the same way after all these years. Tall Tale perfict for any age.

I also believe that this movie dosn't recieve the reckonition that it deserves. I was thrilled to find this movie for sell. Even though the price my be a bit high I would gladly pay every penny in hopes of bringing back a piece of my childhood that was long forgotten.