Set in 1907, the film follows American archaeologist John Ivarsson (played by tall drink of water David Hartman,) as he is called into the posh home of an English aristocrat named Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden.) An expert in the Arctic as well as Scandinavian lore, Ivarsson is rapidly swept up into a hastily-prepared expedition to a legendary lost island, where Ross’ son, Donald, is believed to have gone missing. The set up for the plot is given swiftly, through dialogue between the two men as they travel on foot, by coach, and then by boat toward their destination. This helps get the momentum going, and sets a quick pace that the film will follow for most of its running time. Sinden gives a memorable performance, his drive to locate his estranged son helping to push the action forward. His constant insistence that he and his crew must continually push forward brings to mind 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea’s Captain Nemo, only not so schizophrenic. With his beard, baritenor voice and British-sophisticate manner, Sinden appears and acts like a cross between Orson Welles and Mary Poppins’ David Tomlinson.
The pair travels to France, where Ross has funded the construction of a large dirigible, designed and captained by the eccentric French pilot Captain Brieux (played with wide-eyed bluster by Jacques Marin.) The airship, dubbed the Hyperion (in a nod to the Disney Company’s own history,) is a fancifully-designed Victorian vessel that serves as a central visual icon for the film. Realistically sized and shown to run on gas-powered propellers, the design may be too modest to qualify as “steam-punk,” but is memorable nonetheless, and even ended up as a life-sized prop in Disneyland Paris' Café Hyperion years later.
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| Big bag o' gas |
The trio (there’s an unseen mechanic, but he’s soon ditched) return to the Eskimo village where the young Ross was last reported, meeting with a local named Oomiak (portrayed by Japanese-American actor Mako Iwamatsu.) On Sir Anthony’s insistence, they continue forward with the frightened native in tow, basically kidnapping the young man against his will. Oh well, they apparently figure, there’s a White man in trouble and a guide is needed, willing or not. I have to admit that at least Ivarsson shows some compassion for Oomiak, but his excitement at the prospect of a new discovery leads him to not push the issue. No matter, as Oomiak soon befriends the ship’s mascot – the Captain’s poodle, Josephine, who continually moans the same stock-sounds as the dog from Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean.
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| Happy Leif Erikson Day ... Hinga Dina Doergen! |
Our intrepid crew soon reaches the mist-shrouded island (after passing a pod of Narwhals – GODDMAMNED NARWHALS!!), which leads to some nail-biting scenes of the Hyperion slowly making its way around cliffs and through icy canyons in order to reach it. Despite the captain’s best efforts, Ross, Ivarsson and Oomiak are thrown from the ship, and the Hyperion spins off, out of control. I have to say that I actually felt a twinge of sadness when this happened, with the Captain and his dog peering out hopelessly from the gondola’s window as the ship spiraled off into the fog. No time for regret, though, as the remaining crew are promptly captured by Vikings! Turns out that this hidden island, a lush volcanic oasis surrounded on all sides by ice, is inhabited by a village full of the Nordic seafarers’ offspring – and the junior Ross (David Gwillim) is alive, shacked up with a young woman named Freyja (played by golden-haired Swedish actress Agneta Eckemyr.)
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| Welcome to |
Once the party reaches the island (called Astragard by the villagers,) the pacing of the movie slows considerably – as if Sir Anthony’s discovery of his son has tempered his furor to push ahead, and the film itself obligingly does the same. Though taking up a bit less screen-time than the journey there, our time on the island feels much more drawn out. Ivarsson is called upon at this point to serve as the exposition-giver, supplying his crewmates (and the audience) with a steady stream of Viking tidbits that relate to the actions occurring around them; fortunately David Hartman’s warm drawl helps this from becoming too tiresome.
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| Ladies and gentlemen, direct from Hell - Spinal Tap!! |
Before long, the village’s fearsome Godi (a head chieftain,) weary of strangers from the outside world, decrees that they should be killed. This sets off a lengthy climactic flight from the village through the volcanoes and ice caverns that surround the island. Once through, and while floating on a makeshift raft of pack-ice, the group encounters a half-frozen graveyard of whales, foretold of by Norse legends. Before they can escape this, however, they are attacked by a pod of Orcas (“killer whales!”) Our heroes naturally grab the nearest whale-bones they can reach and start beating the attacking orcas off – until they’re finally rescued by Captain Brieux (who survived in the Hyperion – what luck!), who promptly shoots each of the whales dead. Huzzah!
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| (Don't) Save the whales |
It’s in its final reel that The Island At The Top Of The World begins to most closely resemble its nearest Disney family-adventure cousin, 1962’s In Search Of The Castaways. While Castaways was a deliriously over-the-top cliffhanger (as noted in my review of that film,) Island tends to stick with somewhat more believable thrills, at least until the climax. Despite this, one almost gets the feeling that this story was written as something of a spiritual sequel to that earlier film (just as Castaways felt like a successor to Swiss Family Robinson.) Both films deal with the recovery of a long-lost family member in a faraway locale, prompted by a chance discovery (here a page from a book, in Castaways a note in a bottle) and resulting in a climactic chase through a volcanic island. Both stories come from books (Castaways was a Jules Verne novel, Island a novella called The Lost Ones by Ian Cameron,) though I was surprised to learn that the original story was set in 1960 – meaning the filmmakers decided to adapt the film into a Verne-esque Victorian yarn, similar to Castaways, but likely trying to capture some of that old 20,000 Leagues magic.
Apparently plans were afoot at Disney to adapt other elements from Cameron’s story into a sequel, named after the original book. However the film failed to set the box-office alight, and so it remains as an enjoyable (if somewhat pedestrian) adventure curio, enjoyed mainly by those willing to delve deeply into Disney’s live-action catalogue.
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