The 80's Gets Condensed by Disney : Flight of the Navigator

Flight of the Navigator is Disney's answer to the children-flying-spaceships phenomenon, and condensed almost every trend into the film, covering aliens, robots, time travel, transforming and sleek vehicles, and even featured some early CGI effects. Throughout the 80's, special effects leap forward tremendously: every new movie is practically a new decade! 

KATE SAYS two things I like about this movie: first, the premise. I've always been fascinated by identity motifs like amnesia or long-last relations. David's return after eight years is handled in a believable fashion. His parents don't question his identity and are willing to do everything they can to protect him despite their bewilderment while his brother easily adjusts. I found the latter characterization pretty insightful. Although the brother knows, technically, that David is younger than he, his memory of  David is of a ten-year-old boy. In some ways, he is less disconcerted by David being ten than if David had aged!

I also like how the suspense is carefully orchestrated (except in the middle when things just get slow). I don't much like the ending (more on this later), but it is properly set up! The movie is reasonably well-written and things happen, albeit slowly, in an intelligible a+b+c fashion.

Two things I don't like: the boy is very whiny. It is extremely difficult to watch a film with a single child hero that you kind of want to smack. I'd much rather the boy lost his temper and yelled at his parents for being unfair than *sigh* and *whine* about it. By the middle of the film, I didn't care if the kid got burnt up on re-entry, just so he stopped wondering, "Whaaat iiis happeeeening to meeee?"

And I also didn't much care for the ending. As stated above, this doesn't mean the movie's ending was poorly written. It is adequately prepared for. I'm just not a big fan for rewriting the past (Quantum Leap naturally being a huge exception). I much prefer movies like The Kid where the main character (Bruce Willis) doesn't go back and start over; his younger self gets that chance, but the Bruce Willis character has to start moving forward from where he is.

As mentioned above, I thought David still being a boy after eight years was totally fascinating. Regarding that problem, I totally wanted to know, "What will happen next?"

MIKE SAYS Flight of the Navigator was a family favorite when I was a kid and was watched until every line was engrained into our little minds, and Paul Rubens (the immortal and occasionally creepy Pee Wee Herman, who was the voice of Max) had became a mortal enemy of my parents.

Despite this, I was still surprised when I re-watched the film with my son, Benji.  Despite remembering the entire first half of the movie, what I didn't remember was the pacing.  What I remembered spanning 20-30 minutes actually comprised the first hour of the movie!  Even funnier: the adventures of Max and David take up only 45 minutes of the film, much longer than my memory indicates.

What this says about the movie, I'm not really sure. Despite the years since I've seen it last, I'm not impartial when it comes to the film:  I still got a kick out of it, as did Benji, though I think we both enjoyed the last 45 minutes the most.

There are a lot of things that impress me about the film, the first being the special effects; the film ages pretty well, especially the practical shots of the ship and cockpit. The shots of the flying ship are pretty impressive as well, as they stay fairly simple. One thing I loved about the ship as a kid was the "fast mode," where the ship morphs into an intergalactic sports car--let's face it, things that transform are still cool.

Many elements of the plot are fairly surprising.  David's shift into the future is barely hinted at or set up.  I remember being pretty frightened by the aged parents when I was a kid; as an adult, I still see it as a scary situation but for very different reasons. The pacing of the film may be the most surprising element, especially for a Disney film. The cute and funny characters don't even appear until the second half of the film, and Max doesn't become silly and crazy until the final 30 minutes. If anything, I'm impressed; modern movies do automatically what we did as kids, fast forward through the setup and get right to the fun stuff.

I have to agree with Kate though. As a kid, I found the ending very comforting. David got to return to his safe home from what he may have seen as some sort of post-apocalyptic future... at least regarding his family. As an adult, the end seems overly easy.  But, admittedly, there aren't many positive ways to finish the story.

The film is enjoyable, despite being a summary of almost every 80's trend, motif, and fad. Disney seemed determined to have the movie be a success, and hedged their bet by covering as much territory as they could.  The funny thing is that as a result, the film is almost a time capsule of 80's pop culture. The fun of the film endures, however, and it was fun to watch Benji chuckle at Max, even if he'll never have any idea of who Pee Wee Herman is.