TV Show Review: The Hardy Boys - Walt Disney Treasures

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Good acting by the young stars.

Cons: Slow start

The Bottom Line:

Overcomes slow start

To become entertaining

Help them find the gold

The Hardy Boys Hunt for Pirate Gold

When The Mickey Mouse Club returned for its second season in 1956, it introduced a new serial.  The Hardy Boys in an adventure inspired by the first book in the series, The Tower Treasure. This two disc set in the Disney Treasure series contains the entire nineteen episode run of the first Hardy Boys serial.

Frank and Joe are looking for some excitement in their summer. They're disappointed when their dad is too busy with his own case to find a mystery for them to solve together.

But mystery seems to find them anyway. The new kid in town, Perry Robinson, is in trouble. He's spent some time in reform school and the natural suspect when tools in the neighborhood disappear. Even more mysterious is the old gold coin he's found.

The coin resurrects the rumors in town of treasure. Old Mr. Applegate is rumored to have once had a fortune in pirate gold. He claims it was stolen years ago. Is this a piece of the treasure? If so, where is the rest of it?

When wave six of the Disney Treasures was announced, this was the one I was looking forward to the most. After all, I've been a Hardy Boys fan for years and read the story it was based on a couple times. I must admit I had a hard time getting into the series because the boys were younger then I expects. I'm used to the late teens of the book series and here they are early teens.

Additionally, the story starts rather slowly. The first couple of episodes had absolutely no action. It did get better from there, and once it got going, I really began to enjoy it.

It's been way too long since I read The Tower Treasure and really don't remember any of the details, so I can't compare the book with the series. I did find it interesting that, in the process of streamlining the story, several characters from the books didn't make it, like best friend Chet Morton and the boys' Mom. Chet's younger sister Iola did make the cut and alternates between annoying and helping our heroes.

Tim Considine stars as Frank Hardy. He'd developed a following the previous year as Spin on "Spin and Marty." This series introduced Tommy Kirk who would go on to star in several big Disney movies including "Old Yeller" and "Swiss Family Robinson." It's easy to see why. Both boys do a great job of acting, which is important since they have to hold the story together. A couple episodes pretty much feature only them, in fact. The rest of the cast does a good job as well. Some aren't given much to work with, but even those parts are memorable.

This two disc set contains all 19 of the eleven minute episodes that contain the story. They are shown in their original black and white, but look and sound good for being 50 years old. Additionally, we get the entire Mickey Mouse Club episode that introduced this series with clips of what is to come. It's best to watch this last since it spoils some major events of the story. In the way of extras, we get a documentary that discusses the path it took to get the characters from the page to the small screen and a modern interview with stars Tim Considine and Tommy Kirk.

The slow start disappointed me, but in the end I really enjoyed the serial version of The Hardy Boys. This is a decent take on two well known characters.