The Last Flight of Noah's Ark

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark is a 1980 American family adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions starring Elliott Gould, Geneviève Bujold and Ricky Schroder.

He is offered a job flying a cargo of animals to a remote South Pacific island aboard a B-29 bomber, a large plane well past its prime.

As the aircraft prepares to taxi for takeoff, Bobby is concerned about Dugan's treatment of the animals, and decides to stow away aboard the bomber so that he can make sure they are properly cared for.

She learns that one of them is named "Cleveland", after the American city by his mother, who had spent time in America before the war and taught him English, allowing the two groups to communicate.

After many days at sea with no civilization in sight, Bernie, inspired by the story of Noah's ark and the dove which returned with an olive branch, suggests sending a duck with message attached, telling of their need for rescue.

Eventually, they are rescued by United States Coast Guard Cutter Mellon, which has the duck aboard, and the Ark is towed to Oahu.

Location photography included scenes at a desert airfield near Victorville, California, Kauai and Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, with interiors shot at the Disney Studios sound stages.

Among the reactions from critics, Roger Ebert's 1.5-star review was particularly harsh: "Walt Disney's 'The Last Flight of Noah's Ark' is a dreadful movie, bankrupt of creative imagination—an Identi-kit film, assembled from familiar pieces but with no identity of its own.

It's so depressingly predictable that in the last half hour we're sitting there thinking: Let's see…the raft has put out to sea, so there has to be at least one shark attack and one bad storm before they're rescued.

"[15] Variety derisively wrote that the film teaches "fundamental values, mainly that every human being should be willing to risk their life for an animal, or even a chicken if the chance arises", and "stresses a subsidiary hint for the little ones: If you don't get your way, whine and cry a lot and maybe the old folks will give in.

"[17] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "A low-octane adventure fable, 'Last Flight' keeps sputtering out on the stodgy, overprotective mechanics typical of Disney juvenile entertainment.

P2B-1S, Bureau Number 84029 , Fertile Myrtle ' s forward fuselage now on display at Fantasy of Flight , Florida