Around The World In 80 Days

I don’t know how I missed this 2004 Disney movie. It’s a great movie for the family. At the time we rented it our son was 9 years old. It wasn’t too young or old for him. It was just right. Not to mention that my wife and I enjoyed it as well. This one was recommended by @DeanZimm from Twitter.

THE ADVENTURE

The entire movie — as you might have guessed — was about a dreamy inventor who was challenged to travel around the world in 80 days. Along the way he meets up with two partners in his adventures (Jackie Chan being one of them) — who needs a ride to China and a beautiful French artist — who ends up falling for the inventor.

WHY YOUR KIDS WILL LIKE IT

Boys will like it because of the great Martial Arts action that Jackie Chan does. He does all the cool “chan” moves that he’s famous for without any blood or gore. It’s the typical “no body gets shot or really hurt but everybody gets knocked out” fighting. My son now looks forward to watching a little more of these good old martial arts movies with me.

Boys and girls will like the fantastical adventure that the team has. And the love interest of the inventor and french artist is played out appropriately. Those inquisitive about fantastical inventions will like some of the gadgets that they briefly show in the movie.

THE REST OF US ADULTS

There is plenty of silliness to go around for the entire family… and the “cameos” by other actors is fun for the adults to identify and laugh at. They do fast forward the “world travel” by skipping to the next destination — which only makes sense or else the movie would last way too long.

REGARDING THE RATING

The movie was PG and did a great job at keeping it a family friendly movie. We watched the “deleted” scenes and understand why Disney deleted some of these to make it extremely family friendly. Not that there were horrible… just not appropriate for some younger viewers who may inquire about the meaning of the gags/lines. One deleted scene shows the inventor smiling while buttoning his shirt (implying a sexual encounter with the french artist ) and everyone surrounding them commence to give high fives and handshakes for “scoring”. Not a prude here, but I have to think through the eyes of my son. AND, in fact, he asked, “what are they talking about dad?” There were only a few words (I believe 2 hell and one damn) in the movie.

IN CONCLUSION

I liked it because of the creative imagination, the great martial art stunts that the movie is filled with and the fact that I didn’t have fast forward during any scenes for my 9 year old.

Thanks for watching,
— Matt Clark