Mikael Salomon, the cinematographer on The Abyss and Far and Away, directs his first feature (for Disney), and it’s a creditable job–an effective adventure story about two recently orphaned teenagers (Reese Witherspoon and Ethan Randall) fleeing from the ivory poachers who killed their parents and crossing the Kalahari Desert with the help of a young bushman (Sarel Bok). Adapted by Robert Caswell, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Sally Robinson from two books by Laurens van der Post, the film has a nice feeling for the terrain (shooting was done in Zimbabwe) as well as for the (mainly unstereotypical) characters. With Jack Thompson and Maximilian Schell. On the same program, a formulaic and predictably hysterical Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman cartoon, Trail Mix-Up. (Lincoln Village, Water Tower, Ford City, Evanston, Norridge, Webster Place)