Davy Crockett and the River Pirates is a 1956 American Western film produced by Walt Disney Productions. A prequel to Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, it was thought of as a means to salvage revenue from the blunder of Disney killing off the Davy Crockett character too soon within the three program arc ending in the Alamo massacre, greatly diminishing the value that could have been derived from what surprisingly had exploded into a worldwide phenomenon. The feature film is an edited, repurposed and recut compilation of the last two episodes of the Davy Crockett television miniseries. Episodes from the miniseries with footage from the film include: Davy Crockett's Keelboat Race and Davy Crockett and the River Pirates. The film stars Fess Parker as Davy Crockett and Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's amiable sidekick.