Elijah Wood brilliantly portrays the lead, bringing to life one of history's most beloved characters and clearly transmitting all the earthy playfulness, confidence, determination, independence, and warmth Twain's Huck Finn possessed, made even more delightful by his rare combination of uncommon Baroque-style beauty and modern puppyish cuteness. Courtney Vance is jovial and friendly as the spirited Jim, and Robbie Coltrane and Jason Robards are comically devious as the scheming 'Duke' and 'King'. The scenery, plantation houses, river boats and banks, busy docks, and woods are all picturesque, visually authentic sights to behold.

The movie does differ from the book in that Tom Sawyer is completely cut from the story, only making perhaps a brief appearance as one of the boys cheering the opening scene fight between Huck and another lad. Therefore, the whole sequence with Tom at the end isn't performed. Also, the 'N-word', which was used liberally throughout the book, has been omitted to conform with current times, replaced always by the address of 'slave'. And, of course,(LOL)in the book Jim and Huck do most of their traveling together in the nude, and we sure as heck can't have THAT going on in a Disney film or in ANY film containing a minor for that matter!