Sappy, silly, melodramatic and hard to believe. But what fun television “Hans Brinker” makes!
The 1962 Disney version of the classic Dutch story is terrific escapism for the entire family.
Parents will remember a simpler time, before “Transformers” ruled the day, when Sunday evenings were set aside for the movie of the week on “Wonderful World of Disney.” Children will find plenty of action as Hans Brinker races for the silver skates and tries to save his ailing father. And everyone can join in on idealized, storybook tour of life in The Netherlands as Americans imagined it to be in the mid-1800s.
“Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates,” was adapted from a popular, classic children’s novel. We meet working-class Hans and his happy family as they take picnics near the sea and clump-clump in their clogs all over a quaint village.
Hans’ father cracks his head on a sea rock, though, and sits indoors with amnesia. Hans and his sister start to dream of winning the annual ice-skating races on frozen Dutch canals, in order to support the family with prize money. Rich families in town, meanwhile, thwart Hans’ budding romance with the daughter of the town mayor.
Hans has to make a couple of important moral choices along the way. But things never really bog down into preachiness, because he also has to chase a thief and deal with bullies during the long canal race. An extra bonus: Unlike most Disney movies, Hans hails from an intact family with robust parents.
The Disney version of Hans Brinker is available on Netflix and other DVD services. An earlier Hallmark Hall of Fame version is harder to find.
