Hahaha, I loved this movie as a child ...
... and now that I am entering middle age I bought it out of nostalgia, and hated it. Argh, it was spot simple minded ... what was I thinking. It will just be a DVD that sits on the shelf forever.
shareMan... Sorry to hear that. Maybe I still love it because I am entering my second childhood... No. I guess I just always loved it because some part of me is still about age thirteen. Also, being older, I encountered it right out of the '60s, and the model of Mars depicted in the film, while actually contradicted by data, was tenable in the recent past. I remember planetarium shows which asserted that the Martian changes of color visible on telescopes was probable evidence of seasonal vegetation. Robinson Crusoe on Mars derives from a tradition of almost desperate optimism in science fiction. In the late 19th century a bit of misunderstanding as the Italian term Canali to describe the apparent (but actually optical illusions) lines connecting darker "spots" or regions of Mars, as canals, led to a long and dying hope that there was not only a significant Martian biosphere, but also intelligent life. Over time this idea persisted, despite photographs not showing what the human eye discerned. Over time our view of mars grew less Earthlike as the atmosphere was shown to be thinner and thinner, and finally devoid of O2. Now there is, once again, much talk of water on Mars and everybody is getting used to a Mars that, while fascinating, is not a whole lot more hospitable than Luna.
I still love the older visions of the solar system, now relegated to a sort of retro-future SF, just a step removed from careless (but often wonderfully entertaining) space fantasy like E.R.Burroughs.
If you hate Robinson Crusoe on Mars I would suggest you not read "No Man Friday" AKA "First on Mars" (1956)by Rex Gordon and do not view "Planeta Bur" (1962), the Russian SF film about a Venus expedition.