Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Last year, I saw the 1993 film ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’, starring Elijah Wood as the title character. So, it makes sense for me to check out a follow-up film (of sorts, I think) called ‘Tom and Huck’, which was released in 1995. My parents and I saw this film on Disney+ lately and enjoyed it. 🙂

‘Tom and Huck’ is based on the Mark Twain novel ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, which was published in 1876. Ironically, ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ was published before the 1884 novel ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, which is what ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’ 1993 film is based on.

So, ‘Tom and Huck’ is essentially a prequel to ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’, I think. Mind you, I’m not sure about this, considering Huck Finn is older than Tom Sawyer in ‘Tom and Huck’. Elijah Wood was clearly younger in ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’. I might be missing something regarding this. 😐

Also, I’m surprised Elijah Wood wasn’t invited back to play Huck Finn in this film, considering Stephen Sommers worked on ‘Tom and Huck’. Yes, he’s the producer and co-writer of this film instead of the director, but having Elijah Wood back to play Huck Finn could have been a no brainer.

Maybe Elijah Wood wasn’t available at the time to appear in ‘Tom and Huck’. Maybe he was on his way to play Frodo in ‘The Lord of the Rings’. 😀 A shame really! I would’ve liked to have seen Elijah Wood’s Huck Finn interacting with Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Tom Sawyer throughout the movie. 🙂

Instead of Stephen Sommers directing the film, ‘Tom and Huck’ is directed by Peter Hewitt. Peter Hewitt would later work on the 2004 ‘Thunderbirds’ film and would later direct ‘Home Alone: The Holiday Heist’. Those movies didn’t turn out well. Neither did ‘Tom and Huck’ for that matter sadly.

Not that I’m trying to criticise Peter Hewitt’s talents as a director, as I think he’s competent enough working on this film in particular. But ‘Tom and Huck’ wasn’t received well by critics compared to ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’. Maybe Elijah Wood appearing in the film could have helped matters.

Jonathan Taylor Thomas plays Tom Sawyer in the film. I previously saw Jonathan Taylor Thomas in the Christmas film ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ and he voiced Simba in the 1994 ‘Lion King’ film. I enjoyed his performance as Tom Sawyer here as well as him interacting with Huck Finn as his friend.

Brad Renfro plays Huck Finn in the film. He’s good, although he’s clearly older compared to Elijah Wood who was young in ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’. If this film was meant to be a prequel instead of a sequel, shouldn’t Huck Finn be younger? Maybe at the same age as Tom Sawyer here? 😐

The film’s story has the mischievous young Tom Sawyer witness a murder committed by the vicious half-Native American criminal called ‘Injun Joe’. Tom befriends Huck Finn, but is forced to choose between honouring their friendship or a pledged oath, as the town drunk is accused of the murder.

As well as Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro, the film also features Eric Schweig as Injun Joe, Charles Rocket as Judge Thatcher, Amy Wright as Aunt Polly, Mike McShane as Muff Potter, Marian Seldes (who I’ve also seen in ‘Home Alone 3’) as Widow Douglas and Rachael Leigh Cook as Becky. 🙂

I like how there seems to be a romance between Tom and Becky in the film, although on both sides, they can be on the verge of being jerks to each other. Sometimes I’m not sure whether Becky likes Tom or not. I guess it’s teenage love being depicted, but I prefer something sweeter than that here.

There’s also Courtland Mead as Cousin Sid; Joey Stinson as Joe Harper; Blake Heron as Ben Rodgers; Lanny Flaherty as Emmet, Injun Joe’s accomplice; Peter MacKenzie as Mr. Sneed; Heath Lamberts as Mr. Dobbins; William Newman as Dr. Jonas Robinson; Andy Stahl as the Sherriff and Bronwen Murray as Cousin Mary. All the cast deliver some very enjoyable performances throughout this film.

‘Tom and Huck’ has been an enjoyable film to sit through. I wouldn’t say it was as good as ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’, but it was fascinating to watch this kind-of follow-up to the 1993 film. I also found the performance Jonathan Taylor Thomas gave as Tom Sawyer very enjoyable in the film.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂