User Reviews

Just saw this one in a preview screening at the Hamburg Filmfest. As a long time fan of the early books and audio tapes which have been a great success here in Germany for decades, naturally I had certain expectations for this first movie version of a Three Investigators story. And by "certain" I mean, I already knew this was the first big international movie from Studio Hamburg (the production company) and so I could imagine the style to be quite a commercial as-mainstream-as-possible one. After all, it's a franchise product, isn't it? Well, I was not wrong.

To all the fans: Don't expect an authentic Three Investigators movie. Okay, there are some nods to the old school fan community, but they're sparse and don't really go with the flow, and then that's about it. It's a decent movie for children (although not really appropriate for the very young ones, some scenes may be too frightening), and it still can be interesting for the parents or of kind of an academic interest to the usual grown-up fan, but there are too much points where the protagonists just don't behave like the original characters would have. Also they don't really look that much as how the characters are described in the books. Bob doesn't even wear glasses, for whatever reason...

It's very obvious the movie is designed for this target audience notoriously called "kids". Not children, that is, but kids. It could have been worse of course, at least the boys don't wave mobile phones around, wear baggy pants and listen to hip hop via iPods (only once it starts to get too silly when they pull an itching powder blowgun with even a laser pointer mounted on top!). The makers fortunately chose to display a setting which is quite timeless in appearance. But then they try just too hard to please by putting in some die-hardish action scene, some james-bondish, some mission-impossiblish and some indiana-jonesish stuff and even - how misguided could they get - ROMANCE! While in the original story the three boys become friends with another boy, here this is changed to be a girl (a decision obviously led by marketing considerations). And the first comment one of the boys makes when they first see her, believe it or not, is something along the lines of "Wow, what a hot chick!" Though the boys are displayed as very young ones, as young as one could possibly imagine the characters from the most early books. When the original Three Investigators met girls, they dealt completely different with these encounters. They simply had no business with love interests back then, they were serious detectives only concerned to their mystery cases! It seems the writers of the screenplay had a merely superficial understanding about what made the Three Investigators special from the start - or they were pressed just too hard for prostitution.

By the way, the story has almost nothing to do with the original book episode of the same name. Besides the three main characters there are only two other persons which also appear in the original story (Peter's father and Faraday). The actual villain even turns out to be one from completely different episodes. While the elements which make up the case are typical for TTI stories mostly, it all comes around just too forced, too artificial. At least for the fans, I guess. For everyone else the movie might be a nice family fun ride (the children in the audience laughed at all the moments where it was intended), but then nothing particularly special. The only thing that would make this movie stick out, namely it being a TTI adaptation, of all things is what doesn't work that well. But on the other hand, to make this work well might be an impossible enterprise, considering how hard core the fan community has become over the many years and how diverse and inconsistent the TTI universe has become anyway.

We'll see how the producers will pull off the next installment, which they said is already underway...

I'm a huge fan of the original book series so I was very enthusiastic about seeing this movie, which I finally saw in the form of an English-dubbed version online. Even as a kid in the 1960s I fervently wished these books would be made into movies, and I finally got my wish, though I had to wait over four decades to that to happen. To summarize my impressions of this movie, I thought it was fairly good, but throughout I kept wondering when specific scenes and events would happen, but they never did, although some of the details were quite accurate. The plot is so different from the original book's plot that it was difficult for me to enjoy the story. After all, a plot is the essence of any story, so to alter the entire foundation of a very popular book is to invite failure, which in fact seems to be what resulted, since the filmmakers didn't even recoup their investment yet, from what I read, and old fans are generally coming away disappointed.

Some of the more memorable events for me in the original book were the skull talking to the boys in the cave, the boy Chris Markos being trapped in an underwater cave by a freak accident, finding gold doubloons hidden in a blow hole, Jupiter catching a cold, Pete waking up and not recognizing right away where he was, crowds of treasure hunters flocking to the island, and Tom and Chris and the Ballingers fighting at the end over the various frames to cover up an old hold-up. None of that existed in the film.

In the book plot, a film was being made on the island, and the boys were invited there by Alfred Hitchcock to be filmed while scuba diving, but in the movie, an amusement park was being built on the island, and the boys were there by invitation by Mr. Crenshaw, Pete's father. In the movie the setting was changed from the southeast coast ("Atlantic Bay") of the USA to South Africa, and the Greek boy Chris was replaced by an African girl Chris. There were no underwater scenes at all, to my disappointment. The movie climax involved a hang gliding chase where Victor Hugenay uncharacteristically tries to kill the boys chasing him. African racial issues were also fairly prominent in the movie, such as it being dangerous for white boys to enter a black township, which was a little too much realism that killed the innocent and charming character of the book series, for my taste.

However, I believe the filmmakers expertly meshed the different world of the 1960s with the world of the 2000s by not introducing too much high tech equipment, they kept foul language toned down to innocent levels, and they thankfully avoided any flatulence humor. They also kept the essential sense of adventure intact with the presence of a large uninhabited island that contained caves, both of which are guaranteed to fire any boy's imagination. The youthful romance was kept innocent, as well.

The details that were kept fairly accurate were the Jones Salvage Yard and the secret gate to headquarters and headquarters itself (though it contained a modern plastic chair), the Investigators' business card (though it contained the acronym "T3I" that wasn't in the book), Jupiter's pensive gesture (though that consisted of fingers under his mouth instead of pinching his lip), all of which were delightful to see. The film character of Jupiter was appropriately cool-headed, formal, and intellectual to be convincing to me, though not chubby as in the book. The ages of the boys in the film seemed a little young to me, but still quite convincing since if they were any closer to puberty they would have had a different view of the world, likely a different set of interests, and people in general would react to them differently.

Miscellaneous observations... The romantic angle was interesting since such an angle was never present in any of the books. Even boys of ten would be starting to become interested in girls, so that was realistic enough for my taste, even if not true to the books. As others noted, the theme music had a James Bond theme sound due to its half-step melodic sections, which I thought fit well since it related to action and investigation without being too much of a ripoff of Bond film music. The references to presumably upcoming adventures (a stuttering parrot in the salvage yard, Jupiter calculating jelly bean volumes, and Jupiter mentioning a haunted castle) were all delightful. I'm a little disappointed that whiz kid Jupiter would erroneously assume that Gamba was the entity being confined to Miss Wilbur's room, a risky assumption I detected right away. The itching powder gun was very cool but unrealistic in several ways. At least the plot's twists and deceptions of the characters were true to Robert Arthur's style, which was true to the style of the old books.

I'm enough of a fan to keep watching upcoming Three Investigator movies, no matter how bad they become, but sadly, after four decades, I *still* find myself wanting to see the books converted to film *accurately*, not like this.

The first of two Three Investigator movies, the first movie is actually the second of the books. The first book titled, The Secret of Terror Castle, was the second movie made (although renamed The Haunted Castle). The movies are German productions filmed in South Africa. The movies are an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of The Three Investigators on Germany, where the book series continued even after they ended in the US.

Other than the titles and main character names, nothing in the movie is from the book. In this movie, Skeleton Island has been moved to South Africa, Pete's dad does not work for a film studio, and Germans must love to have French villains because Victor Hugenay, who made a couple appearances in the books (but not this one), is the villain twice in this film. I would have enjoyed the movie more if it had an original title, since the story was original, having absolutely nothing in common with the book. The actors cast for Jupiter and Pete resemble the book characters but Bob ended up as a curly haired redhead, without glasses. On the gadgets side, which was kept to a minimum, we see what the Three Investigators are like with 21st century electronics.

More than a few of the plot points are ridiculous, but no more so than many made for TV films aimed at a tween audience. (Parasailing down the street, accidentally dropping his plane ticket on his dad's table at a random café?)

It's been several years since this film and the sequel were released so it's doubtful that any more will be made. The actors have grown out of their roles. If the series ever does continue, I recommend leaving it to Nickelodeon, who would probably put Rocky Beach, California, back in California. I still have hopes of a good studio bringing The Three Investigators into the 21st century, and doing justice to the books.

I have both movies and I will watch them again in the future. My reaction to this movie is the same as any movie I see that was taken from a beloved book. Eventually I come to terms with them and life goes on. It's just a movie.

Having no children, I am not familiar with children's books until they become movies. As an adult, I have found seeing the movie first makes reading the book easier as you already know the characters and plot.

The three investigators are far smarter than any child or adult on the planet. While this is all fun, it is extremely unrealistic. To add to the fun, spy music is played during the introduction. Our trio of bad child actors go with dad to the cursed Skeleton Island off the coast of South Africa where they plan to build an amusement park. The island is also the sacred ancient burial ground for a local tribe, of which one man guards the land. Realistically an amusement park would never get built on a burial ground, especially in South Africa today. This demonstrates that the screen play was poorly adapted from an older book to modern times. They drive modern vehicles, but there is a lack of cell phones.

As a mystery, this is strictly for kids as there are as many suspects as there are in a Scooby-Doo cartoon. The kids are able to make connections that don't exist. The kids do things I wouldn't want a child to do such as sneak around, breaking and entering, and creating disruptions. The movie does have a theme of racial harmony as we have an inter-racial kiss, something I didn't expect. Entertaining for kids, tolerable for adults.

If your child loves Scooby-Doo, they should love this film.

i just saw the English edition. i was greatly disappointed! the book series was based on the honesty and credibility of young teens from the 80's. the movie has taken so many creative liberties it hurts! Jupiter Jones is supposed to be super smart, a little heavy, and the leader. to make matters worse Jupiter is aggressive when dealing with adults, in the books he is polite and considerate. in the movie he is just a quiet boy that may or may not lead the team. the other 2 boys are worse! the movie starts with Mr. Crenshaw picking up the team from the airport, but the book has them kidnapped and marooned on an island. its not a theme park they are building its a movie they are making. in the book Chris is a boy, in the movie Chris is a girl. because they changed the sex of Chris they added in a romance between the 3 boys. in the books the boys were not old enough to care about girls. they even changed the missing treasure from lost golden doubloons to a silver crown.

on the whole the movie is worth watching if you don't know the back story. if you have ever read the books you will be greatly disappointed in the movie. it is rated PG.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch 'The Secret of Skeleton Island'. To keep it simple: I liked the movie. Nonetheless, the movie is obviously made for a family audience, kids, younger teens. As Wikipedia says 'The Three Investigators' are a juvenile detective book series, good mystery books for kids/teens. The movie tries to be the same. In my opinion they succeed even though the changes are more than obvious. 'The Secret of Skeleton Island' as a book is up to 5 percent in the movie. 95 percent are modernized, relocated etc. For those you know and love the books (or tapes): you will not be bored because you don't know the story. The question is: is it a good thing? What was changed? The movie has plenty of humor. It is funny, yes, but do we want to remember 'Home Alone' by seeing 'The Secret of Skeleton Island'? Bob seems to know more than Jupiter. That is odd. The investigators are younger than expected. Yet, filming several movies will let them grow into it. The location of the movie is South Africa. Quiet interesting. It enriches the movie. The 4th kid is a girl. That's OK if you forget the puberty scenes. What was good about it? As I already said. South Africa was a good choice even if the topic eventually comes to the different races. Jupiter appears to be a little Sherlock Holmes (just a little bit) and mentally grown-up. I liked the popping up of hints. Hints towards other cases, e.g. 'The Stuttering Parrot' or 'Terror Castle'. From the beginning of the movie you have the impression of other movies: - James Bond (music, starting scene), - Indiana Jones (cave). The only thing I still can't answer myself: are the changes good and do I want it similar in 'Terror Castle' or more like the book?

Talking to a family friend about movies that he had watched during the Christmas period,I got told about a family film that he had recently tracked down,which was an adaptation of a huge adventure series of children's books by Robert Arthur, Jr.Being keen to start my movie viewing year off in an easy-going manner,I felt that it would be a good time to meet The Three Investigators.

The plot:

After successfully solving an art forgery case,young investigating team Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw & Bob Andrews decided to pay a visit to a island in Africa,where one of the investigators dads is designing a theme park to be built on the island.Reading up on the history of the island,the gang discover that the island is meant to be cursed,due to there being some legendary treasure buried deep within it.digging around for details on the inhibitions of the island,the gang soon discover that mythical curses are not the only thing that they are up against.

View on the film:

Directed in a slick, brisk manner by Florian Baxmeyer,the screenplay by David Howard, Ronald Kruschak, Philip LaZebnik and Thomas Oliver Walendy transfer Robert Arthur's outdoor Adventure US novel to a hi-tech African jungle.Whilst the screenplay sadly fails to give any of the gang strong personalities,the writers do very well at capturing the spirit of the book,by mixing high-octane thrills (sky gliding!) with cave-searching mystery chills,with the writers also finding space to include a sweet message on anti- apartheid.

Joined by a likable trio of kids,Langley Kirkwood gives a deliciously cheeky performance as Tom Farraday. Initially appearing to be rather charming,Kirkwood soon shows that in Farraday,The Three Investigators may have met their match.