Forbidden Planet, that is.

What a great sci-fi flick. The effects are top-notch for the time, Leslie Nielsen hadn't gone grey, good story, Leslie Nielsen in a serious role with no slapstick in sight. Talky, but not in a TMP kinda way. Not a V-2 in sight.

Right up there with Day the Earth Stood Still in my book.

The only annoying bit was Altaira swooning over the Captain and calling him "Darling" only a day after meeting him. Heck, they hadn't even been on a date...

So slapstick, eh? Tell that to Earl Holliman's charcter who got a magnet up the bum...

Wow...I envy someone seeing Forbidden Planet for the first time. It was a big inspiration for Star Trek.

So slapstick, eh? Tell that to Earl Holliman's charcter who got a magnet up the bum...
Okay, my bad :) I actually meant Leslie Nielsen wasn't playing slapstick.
But Cookie, yeah he wasn't quite all there...

Wow...I envy someone seeing Forbidden Planet for the first time. It was a big inspiration for Star Trek.
I'd wondered about that...
- the character interaction, especially between captain and doctor (also seen years later in Master and Commander);
- the matter-of-factness of it all, people just going about their jobs like landing on alien planets is just another day at the office;
- "United Planets";

- and the captain gets the girl :D

Leslie Nielsen in a serious role with no slapstick in sight. Talky, but not in a TMP kinda way.Glad you finally got around to seeing this all-time classic. For SF fans and modelers, it's a mitzvah!

In fact, Leslie Nielsen spent an entire career doing serious and action-adventure roles, often playing military officers or other authority figures, before he re-invented himself as a comic actor in Airplane! And yes, Forbidden Planet may be "talky," but the dialogue is intelligent and literate. After all, it was based (loosely) on a Shakespeare play.
The only annoying bit was Altaira swooning over the Captain and calling him "Darling" only a day after meeting him. Heck, they hadn't even been on a date...Hey, she'd never seen a man before, other than her father, and she was eighteen and horny!

I like the old "talky"movies like Forbidden Planet, The Thing from Another World, King Kong 33, etc. It seemed odd,that Adams and crew were in a flying saucer, when flying saucers were for aliens. But to this day, I really don't like the music. Sure it helps the atmosphere of the movie, but it would give me a headache just listening to the soundtrack.
It is a shame, that a series never came out of the movie, before ST.

If they remained faithful to the movie, there would be some serious problems as a series. One thing I like about the movie is how they emphasize just how vast space is and how difficult interstellar travel is. It takes them over a year to get to Altair. They only check up on colonies every twenty years or so. If they want to contact Earth, they have to tear the engine apart and build a transmitter from scratch.

And when 25% of your crew is killed on one mission, you might want a bigger ship.

I think STAR TREK is about as close as you can get to FP and still work as a weekly series.

It was a big inspiration for Star Trek.

AND... Lost in Space. It always amuses me to watch Forbidden Planet and note which elements clearly inspired ST and which LIS.

- GJS

AND... Lost in Space. It always amuses me to watch Forbidden Planet and note which elements clearly inspired ST and which LIS.Well, we all know the LIS Robot was designed by Robert Kinoshita, the same guy who designed Robby -- only on probably about a tenth the budget. There's certainly a passing resemblance between the two, although ol' B9 looks like Robby's poor relation. And the bubble-topped astrogator on the Jupiter 2 is obviously a much-simplified version of the elaborate three-dimensional nav/helm station on the C57D. I've always wondered how many motors, shafts, gears, and other mechanical bits it took to make that thing work!

Wow, you've just now seen this classic? Love this film—even the soundtrack :)

I'll never forget seeing a beautiful print screened at Wonderfest in 2001 and introduced by Anne Baxter. What a night.

I wonder if that was the same print used to make the DVD version - it's much better than the VHS or normal TV broadcast.

One of my most prized possessions is a pressed-tin Robby that was made by a Japanese company as a "Planet Robot" (to get around paying royalties). It was my dad's when he was a kid, he gave it to me when I was a kid, and everything still works. :)

There is a new 2-disc special edition DVD and hi-def release of FP this year that I'm looking forward to. This has always been one of my favorite films. I'm pleased to see that new viewers to the film still find it entertaining and that it holds up.

They've been promising a FP SE DVD set for years. I'll believe it when I buy it. :drunk:

jimncc1701a, in a way im envious... its not every day that one has an experience like that. forbidden planet wasnt on the local tv stations lists, so i didnt get to see it till i was about 16 at a convention... wow!

i had heard that irwen allen wanted robby for LIS, but that mgm didnt want to sell, so b9 was created. i suspect that story is bogus.

one of these days ive got to finish my kit sculpt of the id monster. (actually the sculpt is finished, i just have to get around to seaming the only casting and re-making the teeth.)

I found myself quoting the movie yesterday at work. a customer had noticed my co-worker's blue tiger eye and said, "nice star sapphire". My so-worker mentioned certain things about his ring and I chimed in with my FP quote:

"Star sapphires take a week to crystallize properly..."

No one got it. I had to explain it.

I say, does that make me a geek or a nerd?

Like Alan Shore said on Boston Legal a week or so ago, "You never forget your first time". :) Its great that folks are still enjoying this movie. Let's hope the special edition DVD is finally released this year too.

Huzz

"Star sapphires take a week to crystallize properly..."

No one got it. I had to explain it.

I say, does that make me a geek or a nerd?Definitely a geek. An old geek.

Getting off-topic here, but that reminds me of a young woman I worked with whose friend had just had a baby. My co-worker kept singing repeatedly, "It's a boy, Mrs. Walker, it's a boy. . ." Finally I said, "Well, I just hope the kid's not deaf, dumb and blind!" She was surprised that I got the Tommy reference. I don't know why — the original album came out before she was born!

EDIT: Just checked Babaganoosh's user profile and found out he's nearly twenty years younger than I am! So, just a geek, then.

But to this day, I really don't like the music. Sure it helps the atmosphere of the movie, but it would give me a headache just listening to the soundtrack.


Don't like the theremin, eh? BTW, the way you feel about the FP soundtrack is the way I feel about Philip Glass music.


Roy

Not old...I'm 33. Yes, just a geek.

Don't like the theremin, eh? BTW, the way you feel about the FP soundtrack is the way I feel about Philip Glass music.


Roy

Careful now, FP doesn't have a 'music score.' It is all 'electronic tonalities,' remember? I like Glass stuff, but not enough to buy, only in movies.

Come to think of it, is the theremin even part of what those composer folks the Barrons used on FP? It doesn't sound like theremin as I recall it in SPELLBOUND or DAY THE EARTH, that's for sure.

The Barrons’ score was given the screen credit of "electronic tonalities" rather than "music" because of a dispute with the musicians’ union.

From an Amazon.com review of the soundtrack album:

"No theremin used here folks., July 30, 2005
Reviewer: J. C. Ray "Filmbuff"
. . . It is clearly stated in the album's liner notes that no theremin was used in the creation of this landmark score and with good reason. The artists actually created by hand specialty circuits (in keeping with the basis of cybernetics) to create either individual sounds or sometimes even a huge long circuit board for a complete musical piece. It took them almost a year to do the entire score."

Isn't "Theremin" something you buy at the drugstore?

The Cinescape web site had an article last year, where it reported that there was a conventional music score composed for "Forbidden Planet". But it was dropped after the producer went to a concert by the Barrons. It is a lost score, although the article said that parts of the score were used on a record made by the composer. I don't remember the name of the composer, or the record.

David.

The IMDb entry (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049223/trivia) has some information on the score. According to that, the "electronic tonalities" were created in only three months, not almost a year. David Rose was the original composer.

I know Rose from BONANZA and I think THE STRIPPER. I'm guessing his score would have dated the picture badly, like the quasi-disco Bond score Hamlisch did for SPY WHO LOVED ME, but without the somewhat guilty pleasure I associate with that one.

The Barrons’ score was given the screen credit of "electronic tonalities" rather than "music" because of a dispute with the musicians’ union.

From an Amazon.com review of the soundtrack album:

"No theremin used here folks., July 30, 2005
Reviewer: J. C. Ray "Filmbuff"
. . . It is clearly stated in the album's liner notes that no theremin was used in the creation of this landmark score and with good reason. The artists actually created by hand specialty circuits (in keeping with the basis of cybernetics) to create either individual sounds or sometimes even a huge long circuit board for a complete musical piece. It took them almost a year to do the entire score."

Isn't "Theremin" something you buy at the drugstore?

Oops. Me so misinformed. :confused:

Wow...I envy someone seeing Forbidden Planet for the first time. It was a big inspiration for Star Trek.
i have never seen it, in fact 2 months ago it was on tv late one night and i decided to tape it while i was sleeping and i still haven't gotten around to watching it, so i guess i have something to look forward too.