Tom And Huck is a
remake of the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
which takes place in the year 1845 in Hannibal Missouri.
Twelve year old Tom, mischievous and naive, dreams of escaping
the constraints of town living. He and his brother, Sid, live
with his Aunt Polly, and although he loves her very much, he
wants to experience the adventures of the outdoors like his
homeless friend, Huckleberry Finn, does. Huck has the freedom
to do what he wants and when he wants. Tom slips away from the
watchful eyes of Aunt Polly and goes to see his friend in the
woods every chance he gets.
On one occasion, he
meets Huck at night, and while walking past the cemetery, they
hear a commotion. The two boys go off to investigate and find
grave robbers in the cemetery. As they secretly watch the
robbers in action, they discover that the thieves are none
other than Muff Potter, the town drunk, Injun Joe, and Doc
Robinson. After the three men open the coffin, an argument
ensues between them, and Injun Joe grabs Muff's knife and
stabs the doctor, killing him. Muff gets upset with Injun Joe
and a skirmish starts between those two. In the end, Injun Joe
hits Muff , knocking him unconscious and leaving him on the
ground to be found along with the doctor's body. By doing
this, Joe believes the authorities will think Muff killed the
doctor in a drunken rage. However, as Joe is leaving, he sees
the two boys, but can not recognize them.
As the story
unfolds, Muff is charged with the murder of Doc Robinson. Tom
now has to make a decision whether to either keep quiet and
save himself from Injun Joe, or to tell the truth and save his
friend, Muff, from hanging.
Animal Action:
In an early scene we
see Huck's brother in bed, Huck puts an open jar containing a
tarantula on his brother's stomach and climbs out of the
window. The next morning we see the tarantula again when Aunt
Polly places the jar on the table as Huck sits down to
breakfast. In the first scene, the actor merely placed the jar
containing the tarantula on the other actor's stomach and
later the jar was placed on the breakfast table. Two
tarantulas were used. Each was only in the jar for a few
seconds. Each tarantula had an oversized cage where it was
housed when not being filmed.
Other animal action
includes horses, dogs and chickens, used as background
atmosphere. Horses are also seen pulling wagons or being
ridden.
We had a report during filming that Injun Joe had abused his
own dog that was with him on location. This was investigated
by the Greater Hunstville Humane Society. The actor was
advised to grant permanent custody of the dog to someone else
and he complied. The abuse did not take place on the set but
rather at the actor's hotel room. The dog was not part of the
production. Since the animals that were part of the film
itself were treated according to American Humane Guidelines,
we are rating Tom And Huck "Acceptable."
