How old are fans? [please post]

I'm 39 but like most people here I saw it when it first came out and loved it! I was around 12 years old and watched it several times in the cinema by myself. After that it was Star Wars and then Grease that I watched over and over again...

I'm 33: (I was 3 when 'Candleshoe' was originally released, and 12 when I first watched it, one Christmas). My fondness stemmed largely from Jodie Foster's confident, self-assured performance as Casey; who at that time in the late 70s was best known for portraying butch teenagers (in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Freaky Friday particularly!), or otherwise survivors: eitherway, her unconventional, sexually ambiguous screenroles have always struck a chord.

What's interesting about the film is it's first appearing to be a near departure for Disney: Casey's early scenes in New York/LA have a mildly gritty, realist look about them (although filmed on a studio set), as though we were watching an episode of a late 70s cop show. (Made the same year, Return from Witch Mountain was set in a similar locale). Plus, there is a hint that Casey has possibly been abused regulary by her adopted parents (symptoms of post-Vietnam Disney?). However, on repairing to England the film soon takes on the more traditional narrative expectations of an Enid Blyton novel, when the mystery of the lost treasure is introduced, thus returning to a more familiar Disney territory: (Mary Poppins, Bedknobs & Broomsticks etc).

Further pleasure for me is enhanced by the casting of accomplished seasoned scenestealer, Vivien Pickles - as Grimsworthy, who during the final battle sequence at the end is forever being pushed into the fireplace; and juvenile support, Veronica Quilligan, (who'd just appeared onstage in London as Juliet, as well as a Ken Russell film, Lisztomania), who is rightly suspicious of Casey throughout, and whose fiestiness is a perfect match for Casey's.

The antiquated tone of the film (even in the late 70s it appeared "quaint") doubtlessly adds to its charm; and is clearly an American's vision of a British idyll, a land of villages, with mentions of Green Sleeves, Thomas Grey, hidden treasure in country mansions, genteel dowagers, missing eiresses, and bumbling, cockney villains. Of course it was made during the summer of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations, a time when Britain's patriotism was especially high, glimpses of which make their way into the film, possibly hence the film's tone of Britain as a "land of hope and glory" for Casey! UK innercity life is never once touched upon. Nevertheless, occasionally glimpsing life through Disney-coloured spectacles can be quite diverting, even secretly now, at 33, and I don't apologise for admitting to a fondness for this undervalued film.
Finally I understand that the butler's role taken by David Niven was originally intended for Bruce Forsyth, whose one-man Broadway show at the time (1977) was a legendary flop of epic proportions.....