On one level, "Gold Diggers" would like to be a "Tom Sawyer"-style contemporary adventure, replacing the usual boy "buddy" characters with girls.
But this is 1995, and for some reason filmmakers today feel the need to inject some kind of modern social ill into movies aimed at children.
This was most evident three years ago with the wrong-headed "Radio Flyer," a kindergarten fantasy about, of all things, child abuse.
Who would want to see that?
As it happened, nobody. "Radio Flyer" deservedly died a quick box-office death.
But that doesn't seem to matter to the makers of "Gold Diggers," subtitled "The Secret of Bear Mountain." With that title and television ads that are aimed squarely at kids, the film pretends to be a lighthearted adventure for small fry.
And the movie itself starts out that way, gradually working its way into a horrifying subtext about a troubled young girl and her alcoholic mother who are physically abused by the mother's boyfriend. There's even a moment when the mother is found near death after having been beaten with a rifle butt.
Hey, kids — welcome to the '90s.
The only saving grace here is the cast, led by two of our best child actors of the moment, Christina Ricci (the "Addams Family" movies, "Casper") and Anna Chlumsky (the "My Girl" movies).
Ricci plays Beth, a city girl who finds herself reluctantly transplanted to a small mountain town in upper Washington state.
Chlumsky is Jody, a troubled tomboy who is ostracized by the other kids in town because she makes up stories and is something of a petty thief (if stealing a TV from school is petty).
Though Beth is urged to stay away from Jody, the two girls quickly become friends and are soon on a treasure hunt together, looking for hidden gold in nearby Bear Mountain. It's a dangerous place, however, and during their first sojourn, Beth finds herself trapped under a rock just as a rainstorm floods the cavern and she nearly drowns. ("Indiana Beth and the Temple of Bears," perhaps?)
After she is rescued, Beth tries to tell her mother and the sheriff that Jody is being abused by her mother's boyfriend, but they don't believe it. And eventually, the abuser gets drunk, beats up Mom and takes Jody into Bear Mountain to find the gold. It's up to Beth to save her.
If this sounds like pretty silly stuff, it is. And the film could simply be written off as innocuous if it were not for that irresponsible abuse subplot.
Maybe you should just let your kids watch one of those Disney tapes again before you consider this one.
"Gold Diggers" is rated PG for some horrifying violence.