Tonight with the Family: Elijah Wood, very young and perfect as a wandering wanderer

12-year-old Elijah Wood plays Mark Twain’s most famous character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, released in 1994 in France. A good adaptation of the novel of the same name with a nice balance between the seriousness of the subject matter and Disney-style fun.

from the age of 10

The film is directed by Stephen Sommers, who would later sign another Disney live-action version of The Jungle Book with Jason Scott Lee (1994). At the age of twelve, Elijah Wood already shows what kind of actor he is, dressing up as a little girl, lying with bewildering ease, and also conveying the emotions inherent in Mark Twain’s story.

What will the children like?

• Jim, a victim of racism, is on a hunt to find his family throughout the film.
• Huckleberry, his game and his story (he’s also the narrator of the film).
• The Duke and the King (Jason Robards from Once Upon a Time in the West and Robbie Coltrane, aka Hagrid from Harry Potter), two crooks who are a bit intimidating at first, but their grimaces lighten the atmosphere. They come to start the action again and drag Jimmy and Huck into one of the scams.

What could be bothering them?

• Huck’s father, played by Ron Perlman, is an abusive alcoholic who criticizes Huck. He is a terrible father figure, and his mother is dead: he must survive on his own.
• Jimmy is a slave, his family is the property of wealthy landowners; He and Huck visit another plantation where a slave is briefly beaten in front of them.
• Throughout the film, Huck sees slavery as normal, which leads to Jim’s mistreatment. Huck feels guilty for allowing his friend to be treated like this.
• It may bother the parents more than the children, but the “hack” is shown when smoking a pipe without anyone noticing.
• In the end, Jim is hanged, while Huck is injured and presumed dead at the end of the film. Fortunately, all’s well that ends well!