Cool link!--thanks :)
I liked the rune-decoding in Journey to the Center of the Earth, too. I also liked the idea there could be lost animals/civilizations underground. Edgar Rice Burroughs and A. Merritt (The Moon Pool) also did some cool stuff with that concept. On Robinson Crusoe, I guess I liked following the progress of his technological advancement and how that replicated the history of technological progress; maybe I was focused on that and ignored the self-indulgent philosophical meandering :)
Here's the In Search of the Castaways movie I'm thinking of:
In Search of the Castaways (1962)
If you scroll down the linked page, one reviewer mentions, "I'm not entirely sure, but based on a footnote in the Verne novel THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, I believe the book this is based on is actually titled "CAPTAIN GRANT'S CHILDREN". (Anyone who knows better, please let me know!)"
It's listed on the page I mentioned...so maybe it HAS been around. Possibly it has several titles? May also be one of those books that ended up with a different title in different countries.