Flight of the Navigator
FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATORÂ (U)
D: Randal Kleiser
Buena Vista/Disney (Robby Wald & Dimitri
Villard)
USA 🇺🇸 1986
90 mins
Science Fiction/Adventure/Comedy
W: Michael Burton & Matt MacManus [based on a
story by Mark H. Baker]Â
DP: James Glennon
Ed: Jeff Gourson
Mus: Alan Silvestri
PD: William J. Creber
Joey Kramer (David Freeman), Veronica Cartwright
(Helen Freeman), Cliff DeYoung (Bill Freeman), Sarah Jessica Parker (Carolyn McAdams), Paul Reubens (voice of Max)
A 1980's children's adventure movie which, despite a
good premise, has dated incredibly badly due to its execution.
One dark night, a 12-year-old goes searching for his
brother in the woods and falls into a ditch, knocking himself out. He awakens and walks home, only to be greeted with his confusing realisation that he has been missing and presumed dead
for eight years, yet he hasn't aged a day. The rest of the film can't live up to this promising opening when it sinks into "Disneyfied" territory when it unfolds that he spent these
missing years as the commander of a spaceship, journeying the galaxy with a ship whose central computer talks like Pee-Wee Herman.
It's a huge shame that the filmmakers resorted to this
comedy gimmick when the rest of the plot had enough to carry the film and make it a modest 80's classic. It's a film which possibly could be served well by a remake, if the right approach
was taken with the material.
6/10
