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The Great Elephant Escape
Great Elephant Escape, The (1995)(TV)...Clive Porter
Plot Synopsis: Julian plays the master of a game preserve in Africa. When a woman and her son come there on vacation, complications arise as the boy becomes involved in a plot with a native boy to save a baby elephant from poachers. Julian and Mom to the rescue! A sweet film.
To see some location/technical notes regarding the filming, Click Here.
Review:
another sweet little television movie, this time with a definite kid-interest.
If
I recall correctly, this one first aired as part of a Disney family-film
series, and it is suitably wholesome. Stephanie Zimbalist plays the
mother of a young boy who takes them both off to Africa, where they
stay at a preserve. Julian is the major-domo at the preserve,
managing guests, workers (including some of the local Masai
tribesmen), and animals alike. When the boy makes friends with a baby
elephant, he also bonds with young of the young local boys, and
typical boyish chaos ensues. But when the baby elephant is due to be
sold off to a man the boys know is cruel to animals, they decide it's
up to them to rescue it. So, the two boys and their elephant trek
through the grasslands all alone, with their nemesis right behind,
and getting more unfriendly by the yard. Then it's up to mom and the
handsome game warden to find and rescue boys and elephant.
All
in all, a very sweet movie, really nice for the kids, and a real
pleasure to watch Julian do something without any threatening
overtones or even any real sexual/romantic tension (there's just a
little attraction going between him and the mom, so it's not all
about the kids...). He's rather much of a hero in this one.
Availabililty: this film was never released for the big-screen; it may be aired on television again in the future, due to its nature as a "family film"; it appears to have been released on home video at some point soon after the original airing, but it is unlikely many copies were sold or kept by video stores for rental, so finding this one might turn out to be a real quest.