Thirteen-year old Teddy Eccles is a devotee of Thoreau, as most everybody else was in 1969. Eccles decides to spend a one-year sabbatical in the Canadian woods. His immediate companion is his pet raccoon; his spiritual companion is idealistic librarian Chris Wiggins, who supplies Eccles with books on survival. Reality intrudes when another of Eccles' kindred spirits, a falcon, is killed by insensitive hunters. But the boy survives this disillusionment with the help of Wiggins and wandering-troubadour Theodore Bikel. My Side of the Mountain is a refreshingly non-condescending adaptation of the novel by Jean Craighead George.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide