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| Treasure of Matecumbe | 
| Actors: Billy Attmore, James Brodhead, Val De Vargas, Robert Doqui, Johnny Doran
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $8.32
You Save: $6.67 (44%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $7.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  (6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 19478
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 107 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: DISD100053D
UPC: 786936785937
EAN: 0786936785937
ASIN: B001B73Q34
Release Date: August 26, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 1976
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Album Description
At last...the best of Sunday night TV is back! It's the legendary TV show popular with audiences for 29 years. The longest-running prime-time series in television history (1954-1983). The winner of numerous awards, including seven Emmys. It's THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY! In post-Civil War Kentucky, young David Burnie (Johnny Doran) becomes the unexpected heir to the family secret: a map leading to buried treasure on the Florida isle of Matecumbe. The youth, joined by four fellow adventurers (Robert Foxworth, Joan Hackett, Peter Ustinov, Billy Attmore), begins his search for the treasure despite deadly interference by his late father's archenemy (Vic Morrow). The angry threat of a hurricane and the presence of hostile Indians set the mood for the frantic trek to the swampy site -- a destination that could provide untold wealth for the searchers ... or for their evil pursuers!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A Disney adventure with a Mark Twain feeling! January 4, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the post-Civil War South, a young boy named Davie and his best-friend Thad find themselves on a big river adventure heading towards Florida with treasure map in hand. Along the way, they team up with a sly, adventurous southern lady, a kind-hearted snake-oil salesman, and Davie's own heroic uncle Jim, but they also must steer clear of pursuing river pirates, a tribe of dangerous Indians, gators, a hurricane, and even the Ku Klux Klan!
"Treasure of Matecumbe" is the perfect Disney adventure for the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn fan who is looking for something new. Unquestionably a product of '70's Disney with a then-modern, folk-style opening theme song, '70's Disney production qualities and styles, and favorite actors of the time (Peter Ustinov is enjoyable as ever as medicine-show man Doctor Snodgrass), "Treasure of Matecumbe" has its flaws, but it holds up well as a fun, family adventure viewers of any age will enjoy. While it isn't the most realistic film at times, it has a lot of clever moments and plenty of Disney charm, and it comes off as one of the finer of Disney's lesser-known 1970's offerings.
The DVD is now available in wide release, previously only available to members of the Disney Movie Club. It is a barebones release in fullscreen format, but the picture and sound quality are good (at least to this layman's eyes and ears). Speaking as both a Disney fanatic and someone who loves Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn-based films, rediscovering this Disney treasure that is very similar in theme has been a real treat! As another reviewer stated so well, it very much feels like "Huckleberry Finn" meets "The Apple Dumpling Gang", so if you know those stories, you'll know exactly what to expect. For those who buy this film and enjoy it, I highly recommend not only those films (for Huck Finn, my favorite is the Disney/Elijah Wood version, though the Patrick Day one is the best for matching the book), but also "Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" and other films about Twain's two classic rapscallions, not to mention other Disney films from the 1970's. It's most regularly considered the worst time at the Walt Disney studios, but some of us enjoy the films of that era as well. Each decade from the Disney Studios has its own special qualities that can be viewed as charming or otherwise. "Treasure of Matecumbe" is no exception, but regardless, it is a fine family adventure in its own right and should be a welcome addition to any home video library.
 Wonderful World of Disney! December 6, 2008
Treasure of Matecumbe is another family action film from Disney. Although not one of their best-known or higher budget movies, this one still manages to entertain. Lots of adventure, some decent stars, and the Disney talent for filmmaking...
A Real Treasure September 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Treasure of Matecumbe" is one of my favorite childhood movies, and rewatching it recently has been a treat. I saved up my points from the Disney Movie Rewards club to get it, but I'm glad that it's available now.
To quote another review, the DVD presentation is NOT cut; though the back claims a 107 minute run-time, it runs approximately 117 minutes (1:57). It is disappointing that the presentation is fullscreen (1.33:1 aspect ratio) when it undoubtedly was filmed in widescreen, and it hasn't been restored as much as one would hope. (Tthere is a large amount of grain, artifacts, etc.)
Fans of Disney films would be wise to pick up this great movie. It's a great film every member of your family can enjoy.
 Skip It, Read the Book If You Can Find It. August 31, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I had always wanted to see this movie as it was based on one of my favorite books, the historical novel "A Journey to Matecumbe" by Robert Lewis Taylor, who also wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "The Travels of Jamie McPheeters." The book is a wonderful exciting and funny tale of a post-Civil War journey by a young boy and his uncle from Kentucky to the Florida Keys being pursued by the Ku Klux Klan and a vengeful southern aristocrat, with lots of great adventures in between.
I spent $[...] for this movie and now wish I hadn't. The names of a few characters from the book are retained, but almost everything else is changed. It is neither particularly exciting or funny and it wastes the talents of a number of excellent character actors like Peter Ustinov, Dub Taylor, George Lindsay and Joan Hackett. It was also made on the cheap with lots of stock footage of the exotic locales that the characters are supposed to visit and lots of process shots filmed in front of blue screens. I suppose very young children MIGHT like it, but there are some violent scenes that make it problematic even for them. It's an eternal mystery why Hollywood buys the rights to film wonderful books and then doesn't put on the screen anything of what made the books wonderful in the first place.
Cross-burning, lynching and squaws! Where's Leonard Maltin? ;) August 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you're looking to relive fond memories of sitting in front of the TV Sunday afternoons watching The Wonderful World of Disney, this will fit the bill nicely.
Treasure of Matecumbe has everything you'd expect from the generally mediocre live-action output Disney was known for in the 1970s: Bad rear-projection shots when people are outdoors? Check. Grainy, mismatched inserts of wildlife borrowed from True-Life Adventures episodes shot 25 years earlier? Check. Half-hearted attempt at a contemporary-sounding theme song (wholly inappropriate for the post-Civil War setting of this film)? Check.
Sort of a hybrid of Huckleberry Finn and the Apple-Dumpling Gang, Treasure of Matecumbe (presented full-screen pan-and-scan, subtitled, no extras) follows the river-borne trek of two boys in pursuit of buried treasure. Along the way they pick up a southern belle and a crooked medicine man, face thuggish river folk, alligators, mosquitoes, a hurricane, masked Indian tribesman, and... the KKK?
Yes--in what must be a Disney first, we actually see a white-hooded mob set a cross on fire at would-be lynching (here, to punish a white Yankee "traitor"). The lynching is disrupted when the boys attack with MOLOTOV COCKTAILS!
In a later scene, male prisoners of the Matecumbe tribesman are referred to repeatedly as "squaws" (which, per the film, apparently translates to "slaves").
While I admit I was initially somewhat shocked by these scenes only because they were so unexpected, this feeling was quickly supplanted by immense gratitude that I was not forced to endure a 10 minute lecture from Leonard Maltin explaining the historical context or apologizing for this now politically incorrect content.
Does this mark the end of Disney's kowtowing to the easily offended? Will Disney begin releasing vintage content without apology and without censorship? Let's hope!
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