Howard Thompson of "The New York Times" wrote, "It's neither funny nor new and the picture is recommended, with reservations, only for the very, very young and for television fans who think Mr. Van Dyke can do no wrong." "Variety" called the film "one of Walt Disney's slighter entries. Intended as a wacky modern-day simulation of the Daniel Defoe classic, it might have borne up in reduced running-time but in its present far-overlength 115 minutes misses as sustained entertainment." Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that "sophisticated parents might want to stay away," but Dick Van Dyke was "both ingratiating and funny" in the title role. Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" called it a "cheerfully foolish comedy" and concluded, "For sheer comic ease ... Van Dyke is without peer and if 'Robin Crusoe' is no world shaker, it still has Van Dyke."