mccanlessdesign Wonderful, fun movie I've remembered always.I saw this when it came out; learned that Iceland was the closest place in concept. Finally visited last month - stunning.I stood in Leif Erikson's actual house foundations - how cool is that!

zardoz-13 "Mary Poppins" director Robert Stevenson's fantasy outing "The Island at the Top of the World" has all the makings of an adventurous outdoors saga, but loquacity between the two leading characters, played respectively by David Hartman and Donald Sinden, sabotaged this formulaic epic. Although Ian Cameron authored the novel "The Lost Ones," Cameron's narrative appears to have been inspired by Jules Verne. Interestingly enough, Cameron is a pseudonym for Donald G. Payne, who also has also written novels under another name James Vance Marshall. The son of Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden of "The Day of the Jackal") vanishes during an expedition two years earlier in the Arctic, and Ross invites Arctic expert Professor John Ivarsson (David Hartman of "The Ballad of Josie") to accompany him on a journey to the North Pole. Although they cannot ply the frozen waters of the Arctic to reach the area where Ross' son Donald (David Gwillim of "Nostradamus") vanished, Ross has found an alternative form of transportation in the form of an airship piloted by French aviator Captain Brieux (Jacques Marin of "Charade") to take them to their objective. Along the way, our intrepid adventurers pick up Donald's Eskimo pal Oomiak (Mako of "Bulletproof Monk") and take him with them to Donald disappeared. Eventually, our heroes find an evergreen section of the Arctic and a graveyard where whales go to die. The whale graveyard reminded me of an elephant graveyard in African movies. Finally, Ivarsson and Ross find Donald. It seems that he is living with a lost colony of paranoid Vikings who abhor the idea of outsiders entering their society. They call their remote outpost Astragard and they have lived there for a thousand years. No sooner have these Vikings greeted our heroes to their colony than they take them hostage, put them on trial—a kangaroo trial—and sentence them to death by immolation aboard a boat in the middle of a fjord. Happily, Donald's attractive girlfriend Frejya (Agneta Eckemyr of "Blindman") rescues them and they embark on a long, arduous journey with the Vikings nipping at their heels.Most of the time, Sinden and Hartman's characters exchange important points of exposition and it almost seems that the movie devolves into a two man drama. "Island at the Top of the World" improves substantially after our heroes escape from the Vikings and literally turns into Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth." The payoff that enables our heroes to escape from the Vikings is rather cheesy. Sinden is really good as a bulldog of a character and his dialogue delivery is gripping. Hartman delivers his dialogue well enough, but he plays a lifeless character without a shred of charisma. The action seems threadbare and the special effects a rather slight.

capone666 The Island at the Top of the WorldThe upside to the melting ice caps is that sun-seekers can finally access those time-shares they bought before the last ice age.Mind you, the explorers in this action-adventure movie aren't looking for cozy accommodations.Determined to locate his son (David Gwillim) who went missing on an expedition to find an island in the arctic where whales go to die, a nobleman (Donald Sinden) hires an archaeologist (David Hartman), an Inuit (Mako) and a balloonist (Jacques Marin) to fly them aboard his dirigible.Soon, the searchers not only discover the legendary bone yard, but also a lost Viking tribe and an active volcano that threatens their aerial escape. Featuring fanatical savages, killer whales and middle-age heroes, this fanciful - but mostly forgotten - live-action Walt Disney escapade from the 1970s is an interesting albeit hokey history lesson.What's more, the real place where whales go to die is called SeaWorld.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

WiFiGuy I was a mere 10 years old when this came out, and basically ignored music other than what was on the radio.However, this movie had a theme played by several French horns that hit me somehow, and to this day 35 years later I sometimes find the theme working its way into my head. My brother also liked it, and eventually picked up the horn and wound up First Chair in High School.I know I'll never be able to get a soundtrack recording of this movie, but it would be nice to hear that theme again. Maybe I'll have to check out the re-releases and see if Disney ever releases it again.WFG.