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It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is a Disney plot that they repeated many times during the 1970's in their string of fun but generic comedies. Once again, Keenan Wynn a miserly businessman (here a banker) who wants to get his hands on a dilapidated hotel for his own greedy reasons, secretary Mary Wickes seemingly knowing why. New York accountant Dean Jones ("The Love Bug") has discovered that he is the heir to a presumably luxurious, profit making establishment, only to find out that it is in the middle of nowhere infested with bats and raccoons. Grizzled Harry Morgan moves in as a handyman while Disney regular Michael McGreevey takes an interest in Jones' daughter Kathleen Cody and offers to teach skiing lessons. The only issue is getting the money to re-build the hotel to its full potential, and Wynn won't give him a loan. But when Jones becomes determined to turn it into a ski lodge, Wynn changes his mind, certain it will fail and that he'll be able to foreclose on the hotel. An upcoming snowmobile race just might help Jones gain the money he needs to pay back Wynn after an unfortunate accident destroys part of the hotel, and ultimately, Wynn's motives are revealed with a nice twist delivered by the feisty Ms. Wickes.This is a by-the-numbers comedy that Disney kept repeating over and over again, and while the situations are amusing, you know exactly how this is going to turn out. McGreevey, often cast as Kurt Russell's sidekick in the series of "college comedies" that dominated Disney's 70's output, gets the young romantic lead here, a nice young man whose innocent claims that he knows how to ski leads Jones into all sorts of trouble. The snowy photography is beautiful and the slapstick is funny, but it's really nothing original. It was frustrating for me to see Mary Wickes, my favorite character actress, lingering around doing nothing, but near the final, she lets it out loose but is lacking the wisecracks of her many other wonderful characters that she played in her long career. Nancy Olson tries her best as Jones' long-suffering wife but is overshadowed in a thankless role, but Johnny Whitaker gets some great moments as the young son. George Lindsey ("The Andy Griffith Show") is also present as the unfortunate victim of Wynn's, blackmailed by him into doing his dirty deeds.Jones is amusing as the accident ridden hero, getting good revenge on his nasty boss Dick Van Patten in the opening scene, but ending up in several snow-related gags that after a while seem to be repeating themselves. There's the large cowardly dog (hysterically seeming to be a bear in a shadowy night scene), a funny looking train like contraption which pulls skiers up the hill and an underground mine thrown in for visual comedy. It's all pleasant family fun, but the type where afterwards, the only thing you can think of to say is "What next?".

There really isn't much to this early 70s Disney flick featuring Dean Jones and his family moving to Colorado to operate a hotel they have just inherited. Poor Dean Jones! I certainly hope the folks at Disney kept him well paid and provided every amenity he desired in his trailer at this and every shoot. Always asked to play the same character for the same audience, one would think he would have been very tired of it by then. He does play a likable character though.Though filled with some good skiing and snowmobile stunts, you don't have to look hard to spot the stunt doubles. The close shots are just the actors in a studio with a snowy backdrop behind them as they act like they are skiing down a mountain or about to fall off a snowmobile. This makes the film look VERY dated, as does the opening sequence in an office building. There are some decent other actors in this film. Keenan Wynn gives as good a performance as his character deserves, and Harry Morgan lets a shaggy beard do the acting in his pre-MASH days. Johnny Whitaker has a couple funny lines and good moments in his pre-crack pipe days, too.The plot deals mostly with the family inheriting the hotel and then trying to fight off the attempts of a shady banker (Wynn) from stealing the rights to it from them. It may not be a great film, but something about it made me look it up after all these years. Maybe it was that cool hybrid snowmobile that Jones uses in the race? Hard to say. 5 of 10 stars.The Hound.

Most of the movie is very fun, entertaining and humorous, not really anything outstanding, but quite good. I've enjoyed it a lot. It's a nice little adventure of a family starting a business. It often gets me imagining what will happen next, and what would've happened if some things had gone differently.There are however a few things that I don't like about it. Note that this contains a spoiler. The main thing I don't like is the way that the big snowmobile race ends. It's quite a race, and is one of those races that you expect them to win. And they almost do, but unlike most movies like this, they don't quite win, in fact they never cross the finish line at all. It's easy to know why they did it this way, because if they had the prize money at the end, they never would've found out all that they owned. But there definitely could've been better ways of doing it. One possibility could've been to have them win, and find out afterwards that the prize money won't arrive until it's too late to use it. I think having the money stolen from them, or even getting disqualified would've been better than loosing the race entirely. I also don't like it that John's wife threatens to leave him if he does the race.But despite a few things that could've been better, it really is a good movie, with a happy ending.

About 75 dopey comedies later, Dean Jones must have been wondering just how badly typecast he really was. He certainly doesn't look too enthused as a office drone who inherits a run-down ski motel in Disney's Snowball Express (1972). There's about five minutes of actual story in this hundred minute flick, with an additional eleven minutes hacked out for broadcast on the Hallmark Movie Channel. You'll never, ever notice.What's bad about Snowball Express is that it just reeks of I-don't-care; even the title is a non-sequitur, having nothing to do with the story. The plot is stale, the performances are bland, and there's maybe two good laughs for anyone above twelve.My suggestion is to stick with one of the Computer Wore Tennis Shoes or Love Bugs. At least they're cute and funny.And Dean Jones doesn't look like he's got a gut ache.