 Welcome back to the Agora cafe where I drop first great truth bombs while drinking third-grade American coffee Skull This video is probably gonna be pretty short because I don't really have time to make a longer one. I've got too many Deadlines screaming past me like at 15s But I wanted to have something to commemorate the one-year anniversary of my YouTube channel And that's today July 15th at least today when you're You know where you're seeing this or at least the earliest that you could see this Data going to post it when I'm recording. This is actually the ninth, but I have to allow time for editing and Uploading to YouTube and then YouTube processing it, you know, there's always a gununga gap between When it's recorded and when it goes live I've got Iceland behind me which is thematically appropriate for Today's lecture. I'm also rocking my Hanover high school t-shirt, which doesn't have any thematic connection to this movie But you know got to represent So You know, as I said, this is gonna be a short topic. It's not gonna be an interview. I actually had planned to have an interview that would be the video that I would post for the one-year anniversary, but The person I was going to interview had to delay and I have to say had a pretty good excuse. I'd say for delaying This is also not going to be my my fatwa on how libertarianism and Critical race theory are the natural completions of one another. I want to do something like that, but I don't have time right now But if you want to see something longer by me, I've got that recent Talk I gave on left libertarianism to the Prague chapter of the Students for Liberty That you can check out it's not, you know, it's not an it's not an agorah cafe Video so you won't find it on that page, but I'll have a link to that in the description So if you want if you want to something longer from me, you can even Check that out anyway, so My topic for today is eight things you may not have known about The island at the top of the world Now unlike the last things you may not have known video I did which was on the three musketeers. This is about a much less well-known topic indeed my first thing that you may not have known about this movie is This movie exists So it's a 1974 Disney movie. It's kind of a mash-up of Jules Verne and each writer Haggard involves an expedition to the Arctic in a Rather steampunk air steampunk airship called the Hyperion to look at the hidden valley of Astragard Which is kind of a mash-up of Asgard with either the Greek word for star which was later borrowed into Latin as in the saying Adastra per Aspera which is inscribed on My mysterious ring Or the Sanskrit word for supernatural weapon anyway in this hidden valley of Astragard we find viking still living the old Viking lifestyle and When when they arrive there's a bit of a conflict between the visitors and the visitees But it's the the I think what I loved most of all was was stuff before they even get to the Viking When I first saw this as a kid when I like most of all before they even get to the the hidden Valley that's kept forever warm by thermal springs. There's a the coolness of the Airship be the coolness of just the Arctic landscape as they're traveling and See the music about which more anon Number two The second thing you may not have known about the island of the world is the scriptures by Joss Whedon's grandfather You know so the scriptures by John Whedon Who was a scriptwriter for many different things? He's probably best known for his work on the Donna reach show, which is Product a bit different from this But he is indeed the grandfather of the once celebrated and nowadays not quite so celebrated Joss Whedon Who is you know best known for things like The Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly and the Avengers and now unfortunately best known for some other things as well Third thing you may not have known the script is based on a novel by the author of Walkabout So the script is based on a novel titled the Lost Ones by Ian Cameron But Ian Cameron is one of several pseudonyms of the English author Donald Gordon Payne and under a different pseudonym James Vance Marshall Payne wrote the novel Walkabout, which was the basis for the 1971 movie starting Jenny agator on whom Like many boys my age. I had a serious crush back in my Callow youth Fourth thing you may not have known the director of this movie also directed Mary Poppins and King Solomon's Mines So the directors Robert Stevenson No relation to Robert Louis Stevenson as far as I know Who directed a number of properties for Disney? But the one that was best known of those is Mary Poppins But he also directed the original 1937 British version of King Solomon's Mines a Movie with which this movie has certain things in common. Yeah, you know visiting a Lost civilization You know those those lost civilization stories that Haggard Wrote that were the inspiration for all the lost civilization stories that people like Ed Grisbrough's wrote and so on Fifth thing you may not have known the lead actor of the movie is better known as a journalist so lead actor here at least one of the Lead actors debate who's the lead actor is anyway, one of the main characters is that my David Hartman Who is best known as the host of Good Morning America, which I guess counts as journalism From 1975 to 1987 That's you know, he may not be familiar to younger viewers, but You know to the old fogies like me remember David Hartman primarily as a journalist, but he spent the decade previous to that in acting and I I Haven't seen many things. He was an actor in I've seen a couple of other ones, but this is the one that sticks in my mind Sixth thing you may not have known about the island at the top of the world. The music is by the incomparable Morty Schar Now I was always a fan of the music for this movie. Oh Yeah, since I was a kid I had a I had an album wasn't a soundtrack album. It wasn't just the music But I had an album that You know a story album, but included some of the music In it. I was also a fan from an early age of the music of Marie Shaw who did you know he did The music for soundtracks of many movies, but perhaps best known for ones like the doctor Chicago Lawrence of Arabia and later on Shogun And I was also one of those in fact the You know from pretty early age the soundtrack album for Dr. Shavago was and today still is one of my favorite pieces of music just the soundtrack album for Dr. Shavago is just You know, I'm gonna listen to the whole thing as a kind of symphony. It is so amazingly good I don't think any of us of the work, you know, quite to the same level as Shavago, but it's all good But the time that I saw first saw the movie out into the top of the world all the bad time. I'm Pretty sure that I had heard the soundtrack for Dr. Shavago by that point Not absolutely certain they had but I'm pretty certain they had Maybe Lawrence as well though. I'm less sure of that. It would have been pre Shogun, but And the time I saw that I saw it I didn't realize I mean, they didn't see the name on the screen At least I don't recall seeing it on the screen. I didn't realize that this was also by Marie Char Now when I listen to the music now It's obvious to me. That's Marie Char. It's yeah, it's just it It's like listening to John Williams or someone I mean, there's just there's these obvious signature features of it In particular, I can now see in in hindsight That a lot of what he was doing in this 1974 score Was prefiguring what he was later on going to be doing in The soundtrack for the 1980 miniseries Shogun starring Richard Chamberlain Based on James Covell's novel Which I will not play a clip from here because I don't want to bring the Disney IP Hawks down upon me, but there's a There is a nice clip of the opening theme of the movie Of Of this movie in I on YouTube that I'll put in the description so you can Check out that link But anyway, so that as I mentioned that was one of the three things that That Endear this movie to me The cool airship and And the The Arctic landscapes and And the soundtrack A seventh thing seventh thing that you may not have known about island at the top of the world So several of the characters names or in some cases their titles are nods to the Icelandic edits and sagas Now this was certainly not Not particularly on my radar As a kid although I had read you know, I had read some Norse mythology Obviously I was a fan of Norse mythology and Greek mythology those two in particular But there's some things I didn't get to pick up on So two of the characters are named Seagrid or you know Seagrid or I guess would be in the Old Norse Seagrid and Gunnar who of course are also Those are also the names of the friends who are turned enemies or antagonists in the saga of the Volsungs Which is the Icelandic counterpart of the nibbling and leave the lay of the nibbling's Where they're called seek region gunter And seagrid and and gunnar also show up in the edd is as part of that same Story, that's the whole the whole legend about the About the horde of the nibbling's and a fofner and brunhilde and and all that good stuff Which we can follow there later on Rather freely adapted for his own purposes but also The in the movie there are Characters Who known just by their titles the go thee and the law speaker And those are titles that are going to be that are familiar as parts of the Icelandic legal system From you know, if you were if you've read the Icelandic family sagas or as they're called In Iceland the sagas of Icelanders Which is not the same thing as Icelandic sagas. It's a subset of Icelandic sagas Also be familiar to readers of David Friedman or Jesse Bayek Now you shouldn't assume that the role of the rules of the go thee Or the law speaker in this movie are fanatically faithful to the historical role in Iceland You know, you might be sadly disappointed there, but still it's clearly a reference, you know, someone had obviously Uh glanced at at least glanced at history, uh there and then probably You know Just as the money python skits about neural saga it borrows its title from The Icelandic now saga And also there's a reference, you know, there are a couple other references in there like reference to kettle trout The character often shows up in in The Icelandic sagas genealogies In addition in this movie. There's also a character named Freya who was uh and as guardian goddess and She also obviously is someone who shows up in the eddus And finally see I told you this was going to be a Uh a short video Finally the eighth thing you might not have known about The island of the top of the world was there was supposed to be a disney lion ride Based on this movie They had planned when they were making the movie they also planned to tie it in with a ride As a number of disney movies have been tied in with rides or sometimes Sometimes the ride is inspired by the movies and there's the movies inspired by the ride Uh, anyway, they've made plans for it, but the movie was a flop. I mean Uh, it was a it was a hit with 10 year old me, but it was a flop with the general public You know, not a complete flop and I believe it made more money than it cost So that's that's something but still it wasn't successful enough that they wanted to uh base a uh Uh base a ride on it and so that was Uh a planned foregone However at disneyland paris. I understand that in the video up video video opalus Videopolis complex There's a replica of the airship hyperion from this movie and there's also a restaurant Named after that airship. Uh, I've never been to disneyland paris um You know during my all-too-brief visits to paris it really didn't seem like a a priority I love disneyland and I love paris, but uh, never been quite sure that uh That mixing them together would be my uh Yeah, it's like I like, um Uh, I like chocolate cake and I like uh mustard sauce, but I haven't necessarily mixed the two Now if I were to stay a long time in paris, uh, I would uh Oh idea I would um I'll probably get over to disneyland paris eventually, but you know, it's never been a top priority For the same reason that I've never I've never been in two milk downloads in europe Despite there being all over the place. I have a mild curiosity about it But the and if I were to stay for a long time in europe, I'd certainly try it out To see the little differences as Tarantino calls them, but the opportunity cost given my short visits always seemed too great um But anyway, there is some kind of uh Memorial to this movie at disneyland paris of videopolis um, which is apparently a complex is devoted to um the the history of very science-fictional things Uh, you know honoring for example, uh jules verne So anyway, uh as I As I said, um, that's all I got so peace out