''Treehouse Hostage'' is a 1999 family film directed by Sean McNamara and starring

Jim Varney James Albert Varney Jr. (June 15, 1949 – February 10, 2000) was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his broadly comedic role as Ernest P. Worrell, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award, as well as appearing in films and ...

and

Joey Zimmerman Joseph Paul Zimmerman (born June 10, 1986) is an American actor known for his role as Dylan Piper in '' Halloweentown'' franchise. Early life Zimmerman was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Kat and Harry Zimmerman, a Los Alamos-based actor. Hi ...

. It was one of Varney's final on-screen roles; he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer during production of the film.

Plot summary

Carl Banks (

) is a dangerous counterfeiter and escapes from jail. Meanwhile, 11-year-old Timmy Taylor (

) has a current project due on Monday and if he shows up empty handed he is going to summer school, simply because of his participation in class, and that his teacher and Principal Ott (

Richard Kline Richard Kline (born April 29, 1944) is an American actor and television director. His roles include Larry Dallas on the sitcom ''Three's Company'', Richie in the later seasons of ''It's a Living'' and Jeff Beznick in '' Noah Knows Best''. Early ...

) hate him. Carl Banks tries to print some more money and finds one of the

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

plates but can't print any money when his crooked ex-boss and his cops, who are counterfeiters as well, catch him at his base. He runs into Timmy Taylor's backyard and ends up in his treehouse. Timmy and his two best friends keep him hostage in Timmy's treehouse so that Timmy can take him to school on Monday to ace Current Events. However, keeping a major criminal hostage is more of a handful than they expected, due to the huge wedgies that Carl delivers. Until Timmy figures out that Carl is in the middle of a major counterfeit ring, Timmy & his friends help get revenge on the men who treated Carl badly (surprisingly, Timmy's principal is Carl's ex-boss who turned him in to the authorities), in exchange for counterfeit money, of course. Timmy and his friends persuade his neighbor and rival Janie Paulson and her friend Angela to help them create a fake cash plate in order to lay a trap and Carl captured Ott and his men. The evil principal gets away, Carl is set free as the kids tape recorded them running into the counterfeit gang and it proves Carl's innocence. Carl is offered witness protection if he cooperates and he does. At school on Monday, Timmy's teacher doesn't believe his story until the police show up with Carl and arrest the principal for being the counterfeit gang's leader. As the school applauds Timmy and celebrates Ott's defeat, Janie kisses Timmy on the cheek. Timmy also gets a reward check for his actions which his dog buries in the backyard later that night.

Cast

as Carl Banks *

as Timmy Taylor * Kristopher Kachurak as Buddy *

Todd Bosley Todd Bosley (born July 29, 1984) is an American actor. Bosley lives in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for playing the role of Howie in the sitcom ''Scrubs''. He began his acting career as a child, having notable roles in ''Treehouse H ...

as Stevie *

Mark Moses Mark W. Moses (born February 24, 1958) is an American actor, best known for his roles as Paul Young in the ABC comedy-drama ''Desperate Housewives'' (2004–2011) and as Herman "Duck" Phillips in the AMC period drama ''Mad Men'' (2007–2014). ...

as Mr. Taylor *

Debby Boone Deborah Anne Boone (born September 22, 1956) is an American singer, author, and actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life (song), You Light Up My Life", which spent ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboar ...

as Mrs. Taylor *

as Principal Ott * Jack McGee as Nick *

Christopher Doyle Christopher Doyle, also known as Dù Kěfēng (Mandarin) or Dou Ho-Fung (Cantonese) () (born 2 May 1952) is an Australian-Hong Kong cinematographer. He has worked on over fifty Chinese-language films, being best known for his collaborations ...

as Scalise *

Aria Noelle Curzon Aria Noelle Curzon (born December 8, 1987) is an American actress. Her most famous voice roles are Ducky in The Land Before Time (franchise), ''The Land Before Time'' video series, Teresa ("The Cornchip Girl") in ''Recess (TV series), Recess'', ...

as Janie Paulson * Cliff "Fatty" Emmich as Detective Nelson *

Louan Gideon Louan Gideon (November 12, 1955 – February 3, 2014) was an American actress best known for her role as antagonist Danielle Atron on Nickelodeon's ''The Secret World of Alex Mack''. She was also the last actress to play Liza Walton Sentell on th ...

as Mrs. Stevens *

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor. He began his career in the 1960s, and holds over 860 film, television, and video game credits as of 2022, making him one of the most prolific voice actors of all time. With ...

as Kato (voice) *

Vincent Schiavelli Vincent Andrew Schiavelli (; November 11, 1948 – December 26, 2005) was an American character actor noted for his work on stage, screen, and television. Described as an "instantly recognizable sad-faced actor", he was diagnosed with Marfan s ...

as Gardener (uncredited)

Release

''Treehouse Hostage'' was released direct to video in June 1999.

Reception

Critical reception for the film has been mixed.

The AV Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

described ''Treehouse Hostage'' as a "rather dismal Disney Channel movie". ''Video Business'' was more favorable, as they felt "Harmless enough summer-vacation video fare, ''Hostage'' is bright and clever without relying on Varney's wom-out Ernest persona for laughs." ''The Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' also rated the film favorably.

References

External links

* * {{Sean McNamara 1999 films 1990s adventure comedy films Films directed by Sean McNamara 1990s children's comedy films Trimark Pictures films American children's comedy films 1999 comedy films Counterfeit money in film 1990s English-language films 1990s American films