In Search of the Castaways

In Search of the Castaways is a 1962 Walt Disney Productions movie. It stars Hayley Mills, George Sanders, and Maurice Chevalier. The movie was directed by Robert Stevenson. It was based on Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children. The movie was Mills's third of six for the Disney Studios. The Sherman brothers (Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman) wrote the songs "Castaway", "Merci Beaucoup", "Let's Climb", and "Enjoy It". Movie critic Hal Erickson wrote, "[The movie] is a roller-coaster of a Disney film, making up in excitement what it lacks in credibility or coherence...the film was ideal Saturday-matinee fodder for the kiddie trade in 1963."

Story

Teenager Mary Grant (Mills), her brother Robert, and their friend Professor Paganel (Chevalier), persuade Lord Glenarvan to rescue her shipwrecked father Captain Grant. They sail halfway around the world on Lord Glenarvan's yacht. The friends suffer an earthquake, a flood, a fire, an attack by a giant condor, and volcano eruption before rescuing Captain Grant. A subplot involves a criminal named Thomas Ayerton (Sanders). He is a former crew-member of Captain Grant's ship. He was responsible for Captain Grant's disappearance. Another subplot involves a romance between Mary and Lord Glenarvan's son John.