Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventure

1995 "A journey into a world where legends come to life. Dreams come true. And every boy is a hero."
5.9| 1h38m| PG| en
Details

A young boy draws on the inspiration of legendary western characters to find the strength to fight an evil land baron in the old west who wants to steal his family's farm and destroy their idyllic community. When Daniel Hackett sees his father Jonas gravely wounded by the villainous Stiles, his first urge is for his family to flee the danger, and give up their life on a farm which Daniel has come to despise anyway. Going alone to a lake to try to decide what to do, he falls asleep on a boat and wakes to find himself in the wild west, in the company of such "tall tale" legends as Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Calamity Jane. Together, they battle the same villains Daniel is facing in his "real" world, ending with a heroic confrontation in which the boy stands up to Stiles and his henchmen, and rallies his neighbors to fight back against land grabbers who want to destroy their town.

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!
Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Dorathen Better Late Then Never
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
kralspam Just saw this with my daughter on cable. I'd never heard of it until now, but it is an interesting parable.I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it.It's about as subtle sometimes as an anvil on the head sometimes (Paradise Valley, the train from a Harper's Weekly nightmare), but it is an interesting take on the co-opting of traditions and symbols, the taming of the American West and the loss of the traditional, independent, potentially dangerous but exciting traditional American lifestyle in order to provide a predictable, comfortable, boring existence serving the greed of a rising industrial system. It is pretty ironic that it comes from Disney.
Chromium_5 First of all, the casting is perfect. That's the one good thing I can say about this movie. Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, and Roger Aaron Brown make the most of their characters and have great chemistry together. Swayze is particularly hilarious as a tough-as-nails Pecos Bill. But the rest of this movie is a disaster. It has almost NO plot, and what little shreds of a plot it has are ridden with holes. I'll explain.You see, there's this guy Stiles who wants to buy up all the land in a community. So he holds a town meeting promising to give people vast sums of money in return for their land. Everyone is positively giddy about it, until this guy Jonas stands up and makes a touching speech about how the land is their heritage and it would be a sin to sell. Everyone gets on his case about it, and he concludes with, "Well, I ain't selling." Then what happens? Do they discuss it further? Does Stiles resume the meeting? No! Everyone just gets up and LEAVES! The meeting isn't even adjourned; they all just... walk out of the building! Did they forget what they were doing? Do they have Attention Deficit Disorder? Someone please explain this scene to me.Now, if I remember correctly, Stiles is so mad about Jonas ruining his meeting that he does the logical thing and... shoots Jonas. At the last minute, Jonas's son Daniel gets ahold of the deed to their land and runs away with it, because Stiles will stop at nothing to snatch it right out of his hands (a tried-and-true legal tactic). Daniel runs away and falls asleep in a boat. Then he dreams about being in the Old West with Pecos Bill. Then he wakes up, and Stiles tries to run him over with a train. Suddenly all the townspeople are on his side and he gets to keep the deed. It's all very confusing.What a dumb movie. 2/10 stars.
orange-girl87 Tall Tale: A movie that tells a tale of a boy growing up in the 1800's. Cars were just coming into fashion (his interest was what got him into all this trouble in the first place). It goes on, into the Sahara Desert, through fights with bad guys, standing up to Paul Bunyan (one of the best quotes of the movie is at this point), basically any sort of adventure you can imagine! While the message is aimed at children, it can be useful for adults, too- loyalty, friendship- and it's not preachy. It has many adventures, and a damn fine blue ox to boot! Patrick Swayze's dry humor is perfect for the role, as are the roles of Paul Bunyan and John henry equally well played. The young kid did a great job too- it must have been AWESOME to ride that horse!!! If someone is looking for a lighthearted adventure, Tall Tale is the movie for you!!!!!
keakakui I am only commenting on this "movie" because of previous criticisms listed above. This "film" was never in cinema houses because it was produced as a children's special for HBO. It's really too bad that others can't manage to see it through the eyes of its intended audience: a seven-year-old who is enthralled by the likes of Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, Scott Glenn, Catherine O'Hara, Roger Aaron Brown, Scott Wilson, William H. Macy and Burgess Meredith acting out his/her favorite childhood stories. Come on! Who WOULDN'T have fun watching this cast? I, for one, am glad that there is still mindless, FUN entertainment for children to watch in between the movies we adults view that are full of explosions, blood, gore and full frontal nudity. I'm certainly no prude, and I don't even HAVE children -- I just remember fully what it was like to be a child!