Search - Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer on DVD

Rip-off alert! Poorly dubbed and edited Russian miniseries!

03/25/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is a 135 minute version of Priklyucheniya Toma Sojera i Geklberri Finna (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Hucklebery Finn), a 1981 Russian television miniseries with an original running time of 225 minutes. 90 minutes have been excised from this version, and the action abruptly jumps from one scene to another with oddly placed fades to black. Most of the actors have remarkably expressionless faces, and the dubbing is reminiscent of Japanese Godzilla movies. The last thirteen minutes of the disc were so badly damaged that the DVD player kept freezing, and we couldn't jump to the next chapter because the DVD is only divided into five chapters, each about thirty minutes in length. The film is deceptively packaged---the Russian names have been translated to English (star Fyodor Stukov is credited as Fred Stack), and nothing in the credits indicates the film's origins. Don't waste your money on this."

Not great, but better than Disney's 'Tom and Huck'!

02/10/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Of all the Tom Sawyer films I've seen, this one stays the closest to the book. A little slow moving at times (not all the sequences in the book transfer well to film) but mildly entertaining. Some scenes drag on much longer than necessary. especially the fence painting sequence. However. if you can get past the voice dubbing this is a fairly enjoyable film. The dubbing is horrendous! Both Tom and Huck sound as if they were dubbed over by women trying to do a child's voice. It comes off sounding extremely ridiculous. Some of the scene transitions are sloppy as well.
The actors have talent but again, it is overshadowed by the poor dubbing."

Best Version Yet Filmed

teacherdeb | Nashville, TN USA | 12/10/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a teacher, I love classic stories when they are faithfully brought to the screen. The director here has been true to Twain's story of Tom Sawyer and his best friend Huck, showing us life on the Missippi in the 1840's.Not just for kids, this film can be enjoyed by the entire family. There is the famous fence painting scene when Tom tricks all the other kids to do his work, the intrige of the murder of Dr. Robinson, the hunt for buried treasure, trapped in the caves and young puppy love.Majestically filmed on the great river, the director paints a tale of adventure that has thrilled readers for generations. This is the type of film that your family will watch a number of times, and all will hail as what great films are ment to be."

What a disappointment

Kenneth E. Legan Sr. | Shabbona, IL United States | 01/11/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I can hardly believe MGM/UA would be a part of this messed up production. The acting was barely passable. The audio is so horrible you cannot understand anything being said by Huckelberry Finn who, of course, is a major character. There are no subtitles available on this DVD so good audio becomes even more important. I would not recommend this version of Tom Sawyer to anyone under any circumstances. What a shame that this wonderful work of Mark Twain is not available in a decent format."