Based on the beloved book by Scott O'Dell, this family movie tells the adventures of a young Native American girl. After her father is killed by a malevolent white trapper, Karana joins her community as they leave their island home in the Pacific to live on the mainland. Upon her departure, Karana realizes that her brother has been left behind. She immediately swims back to be with him and the two remain on the abandoned island. Though Karana is able to domesticate a wolf, her brother is not so fortunate with the animals and is killed by a pack of wild dogs. She is left to survive against the odds.
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Island of the Blue Dolphins movie is about a girl named Karana. She and her brother Ramo are on a Island with their tribe . They saw a boat in the middle of the sea so Karana told Ramo to telltheir father about the boat.I thought the movie was sad because her brother died then she lost her dog and her friend went away to the man that killed Karana dad
The ship that took her people went to Mission Santa Barbara where they all died of illness and are buried there. After several years they returned for her and she also died shortly after her arrival at the mission where she was buried under the name the missionaries gave her Juanna Maria. The island that her people lived on is San Nicolas Island 60 miles off the coast of Point Mugu,California. Her story is not much like the book or movie.Look it up on the web under Juanna Maria or island of the blue dolphin. The Navy now owns it and uses it as a missile test range.They do not allow visitors to the island but there is a lot of info on the web about the island and Juanna Maria.
I am biased, I suppose, as I got to be an extra in this movie which was filmed at Anchor Point, California. I was an Airman, stationed at the Point Arena Air Force Station. Us Air Force guys got into the act because the Universal production company was seeking local native Americans to play the part Indians in the movie. They were to play the part of poor, starving people but the local natives were of large stature, and they could not get a full compliment of Indians so they came to the Airbase and enlisted some of us poor,staving G.I.'s to be Indians. We met at Anchor Point, where we went into tents and were sprayed with brown stain, given dark, long haired wigs, and loincloth es. I have a picture standing next to the female lead, Celia Kaye. By gosh, I really looked like a native. I really enjoyed my experience as an extra as the production crew was ever so nice. When the Aleut ship shot it's cannon and blew up all the Indians, I wanted to be able to see myself from amongst all the other bodies, so I didn't die instantly, as I was supposed to, but rose up on one elbow, before dying. This trick allowed me to see myself when I got to see the movie. I don't think anyone noticed but me.Many years later I got a chance to be an extra in Fire in the Sky, a story about an alien abduction. In this one I was a Doctor, and got about 15 seconds of film time, plus a 1/2 second full face shot. Another company, but still all very nice people. I have never worked in any job to this day that treated everybody so well and these people from Hollywood.Don TimmonsDillingham, Alaska
ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O`Dell was a novel that my class had to study for a project when I was eleven years old . We had to come up with things like " What would you have as a food menu if like Karana you were stuck on an island " and we also had to write a story as to how we thought the novel would end . Being a massive fan of monsters I wrote an ending that featured a great battle with the " Devilfish " which is - While not referred to in the book as such - in reality a giant squid The giant squid features in several passages in the book and I looked forward to seeing the movie version simply because I wanted to see how realistic the special effects team could handle this endevour , I mean a convincing giant squid is very difficult to realise on screen especially before the technique of CGI . Unfortunately when the end titles ran I was still excitedly waiting for a giant squid to turn up and was slightly disgusted when it didn`t appear . You could argue that the producers had the right idea by not attempting the difficult task of bringing a squid to screen since its appearences in the book don`t affect the plot , but this movie version of ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS is very bland , slow moving and in need of some excitement , an excitement that would have been helped by a giant squid