Posted by Jon on May 18, 2011 at 06:14:28 user Jon.
In Reply to: Re: Film in the news posted by Rob Boden on May 18, 2011 at 03:35:56:
Well, I don't think that Capt. Flint's stowing food and fuel at the North Pole should necessarily be laid down to "unobtrusive adult planning"; after all, Nancy roped him into that. And the mass descent of natives on Wildcat Island after the storm wasn't exactly scripted (Capt. Flint commending Mrs. Dixon for the oatmeal that he noted he should have thought of, for example). Had emergency plans been laid, no doubt Mrs. Blackett and Mrs. Walker would have revised them at their first meeting so the Beckfoot launch would have stopped at Holly Howe en route, even if they did allow the camp to remain despite the coming storm.
Captain Flint's moving the camp from Swallowdale to Wildcat Island to avoid the impending grouse season is the best (and perhaps the only) example of "unobtrusive adult planning". Other than plans where the adult was, or intended to be, (Capt. Flint in PD, ML & GN; Mrs. Barrable in CC; Cdr. Walker in SW) an active participant in the action, their primary roles seem to be managing the commissary. Any other adult involvement was either reacting to events (the Jacksons and Dixons hosting the quarantined explorers, for example, in WH, or the response to the storm) or prompted by the explorers (getting Mrs. Blackett to convince Mrs. Tyson to let them first stay at her farm and then move up to Titty's Well, Mrs. Walker letting them join Jim Brading on Goblin, or the aforementioned North Pole setup). For that matter, a large part of the action in both SD and PM consists of measures taken to thwart adult (GA) plans.
I certainly hope the film makes it across the Atlantic once it's released.