Tom and Huck (1995)

Tom and Huck (1995)

Taglines: A lot of kids get into trouble. These two invented it.

Tom and Huck opens with Injun Joe (Eric Schweig) accepting a job position from Doctor Jonas Robinson (William Newman). Tom Sawyer (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) is then seen running away from home. He and his friends ride down the Mississippi River on a raft, but hit a sharp rock, which throws Tom into the water. His friends find him washed up on the shore, and Tom finds it was Huck Finn (Brad Renfro) who carried him to safety.

Huck learns of an unusual way to remove warts – by taking a dead cat to the graveyard at night. There they witness Injun Joe and Muff Potter (Mike McShane), the town drunk, digging up the grave of Vic “One-Eyed” Murrell for Doctor Robinson. A treasure map is discovered and when Doc tries to betray the two men, Injun Joe murders him with Muff’s knife.

The next morning, Muff is charged for the murder. Unfortunately, Tom and Huck had signed an oath saying that if either of them came forward about it, they would drop dead and rot. The boys embark on a search for Injun Joe’s treasure map, so they can declare Muff innocent and still keep their oath. The only problem is, the map is in Injun Joe’s pocket. After Injun Joe finds the last treasure, he burns the map, leaving no evidence to claim Muff innocent.

Joe then discovers that Tom was a witness to the crime. He finds Tom and threatens he will kill him if he ever tells anyone about the murder. However, at the time, the entire community believed that he was dead, and the friendship between Tom and Huck starts to decline because of the fact that their evidence (the map) to prove Muff innocent, while preserving their oath, is destroyed.

Tom and Huck is a 1995 American adventure comedy-drama film based on Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Mike McShane, and Amy Wright. The film was directed by Peter Hewitt and produced/co-written by Stephen Sommers (who also worked on another Disney adaptation of Twain’s work, 1993’s The Adventures of Huck Finn). The movie was released in the U.S. and Canada on December 22, 1995.

In the film, mischievous young Tom Sawyer witnesses a murder by a vicious half-Native American criminal known as “Injun Joe”. Tom befriends Huck Finn, a boy with no future and no family, and is forced to choose between honoring a friendship or honoring an oath, when the town drunk is accused of the murder.

Tom and Huck Movie Poster (1995)

Tom and Huck (1995)

Directed by: Peter Hewitt
Starring: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Charles Rocket, Eric Schweig, Amy Wright, Michael McShane, Rachael Leigh Cook, Marian Seldes, Lanny Flaherty, Courtland Mead
Screenplay by: Stephen Sommers, David Loughery
Production Design by: Gemma Jackson
Cinematography by: Bobby Bukowski
Film Editing by: David Freeman
Costume Design by: Marie France
Set Decoration by: Ellen Brill
Art Direction by: Michael Rizzo
Music by: Stephen Endelman
MPAA Rating: PG for some villainous acts and mild language.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: December 22, 1995

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