Review of Lassie's Great Adventure

20 years before, the first of the Lassie movie series was released as "Lassie Come Home". It could just as validly been called "Lassie's Great Adventure", and the present film could have just as validly been called "Lassie Come Home", since she(he) was lost much of the last part of the film. The 2 films differ in at least 2 obvious ways: In the former film, Lassie is separated from her family for most of the film. In the present film, she is with Timmy(Jon Provost) for most of her odyssey, and mostly as a passive companion. A second basic difference is that in the present film, Lassie whines so much, it soon gets old. In the older film, she mostly traveled alone, so it was useless to whine as a form of communication......... The story begins when Timmy, with Lassie, are left to tend Jake Hodges' promotional gas balloon, which had landed out in a forest . While Mr. Hodges is away, getting some things, the balloon gets loose from its moorings in a high wind, and begins to lift off. Timmy jumps in the basket, presumably to add weight. But, Lassie jumps in just before it takes off. They sailed over forest, and water, and habitation, and more forest, until Timmy figured out which rope let out some gas. They descended and landed in an evergreen top, in a forest. Timmy made a sling for Lassie, out of his jacket,, then tied a spare rope to it, and let her down slowly. Then, he went down the rope himself. Instead of sticking by the balloon, as a beacon for rescuers, Timmy made the controversial decision to wander in search of a road, trail, river or cabin. This led to the rest of their adventures. Timmy made a crude bow and arrow, using string and a knife he happened to have(pretty unlikely). This soon became useful when Lassie attacked a big wild boar, that sent Lassie sprawling. Timmy shot 2 arrows into the boar, then clubbed it to death(again, pretty unlikely). He made a fire with an improvised bow drill, and cooked some of the boar, cut with his knife.......As Lassie still had difficulty getting up, the ever improvising Timmy made a travois for her, and dragged her along. But, after a while, he ran out of energy, before discovering a river where they could quench their thirst and think about possibly making a raft to float down it. Finding a suitable site, this they did, until they hit a series of rapids, when they abandoned the raft and tried to swim ashore. They landed in different places, thus got separated. as both were exhausted. Timmy lay down on a boulder and passed out. He was found by a giant of a man, who said nothing, but carried him to his cabin. It was deaf mute Chinook Pete(Richard Kiel), whose pet falcon? on his shoulder made him seem even more scary. Timmy eventually awoke, and received some broth. Meanwhile, the Mounties and US C.A.P. had been flying around looking for the balloon, finally finding it. But this only served as point of departure for further searches. Eventually, with the help of Chinook Pete, Timmy and Lassie were rescued, although separately.........A fun movie, especially for children, but also for adults. See it at YouTube.