Childhood flashback

Omgoodness.. I work nights, so on Sunday I'm up long after the hubby is in bed and one Sunday I surfed into two of three movies that I watched a lot growing up.  The Adventures of The Wilderness Family and The Further Adventures of the Wilderness Family.  They weren't running the third in the set: Mountain Family Robinson. 

I hadn't seen these movies in, probably, 35 years.  I told my husband and he said, "Yeah, sometimes you see movies that you watched growing up and they turn out to not be as good."  That was the case when I YouTube surfed into Dot And The Kangaroo and Waterbabies, as I've blogged about before.  But, not in this case.  These movies still hold up. Can't find a lot of clips, but I think someone posted the entirety of the second one.

I read a review online that began, "A couple of hippies living in Los Angeles who were forced to grow up and get jobs when they had kids, decide they've had enough of the smoggy city and pack up their family to move to the Rocky Mountains." The reviewer was poking fun at it a little because a  lot of "back to nature" kid movies were being made, but he also went on to point out that it's one of the better ones because instead of being naive and making it look like a Disney cake walk, they face actual dangers.  I agree that it's all a little over dramatic at times, but it's a solid family movie.  And it could still work today... people do fantasize about living "off the grid."  Of course, in 1975 they didn't speak of the fact that there were no bathroom facilities so they most likely had to use an outhouse as well (mom washing clothes in the river..hmmm...)  But although the plot is very simple and cheesy, I like cheese when it's well done.  And this was a sweet and thoughtfully made movie.  Robert Logan is good and so were all the other actors.  It's where I first saw George "Buck" Flower before Back To The Future.

Admittedly, the second one is almost exactly the same as the first one, but for some reason it doesn't bother me.  In the first one they survive the outdoor life and a bear called Three Toes while the daughter gets sick, and in this one they survive the first winter and a wolf pack with the main wolf known as Scarface as the mom gets sick. Or the fact that they couldn't get the original daughter back so the daughter now becomes an older teenager. They realized that Boomer (Flower) was the most popular character so they give him more screen time in this one.  And the mother cries a lot again about how bad things always seem to happen.  Which of course they do, or there'd be no conflict.  So maybe they could've been better thought out with a plotline, but there's still so much to love.  Maybe because it takes me back to my childhood so much and I just can't bring myself to be too critical.

The third one deviates a little.  Instead of bears and wolves, the government comes to take their land away which is a more down to Earth threat.  I didn't see this one that night so I can't really remember what all went on after 35 years, but I remember not liking this one as much when I was a kid... probably because of the more realistic conflict.  I bet I'd like it more now.  I bet it wouldn't even be made now if it casts the guv'ment in a bad light.

But what brought the memories crashing back the most was the soundtrack.  I can't find the music it played in the first movie where the kids found a pair of mountain lion cubs and were running with them, but it's a banjo tune that I had running through my head for years without really remembering where I'd heard it until I watched this movie again.  It's always surreal when that happens... you know, it nearly brings tears.  But I'll post a couple of others that I did find.

The montage song, which I always remembered because it mentions the title of the movie.

Then there's Touch The Wind, which had been rolling around in my head all these years, but not clearly, so it was nice to hear it again.  This clip plays both the instrumental music that ran throughout the background of the movies and the version with lyrics that played at the end.  More nostalgic tears. Sigh...

Anyway, that's my childhood flashback for this week.  Wow.. it's a powerful one.  And I think I actually recommend these movies.