To put it mildly, 1984 was a rough year for The Walt Disney Company. Its finances were in
shambles, its film studio was in eighth place among the eight major studios in terms of box
office receipts, Disneyland park employees staged their longest and most publicized labor strike to
date, and several questionable business decisions had many forecasters predicting an untimely
death--or at least a corporate buyout--within the next few years. After a hard battle with
billionaire Saul Steinberg in which the company was almost the victim of a hostile takeover,
the Disney board of directors voted unanimously to oust the president and CEO, Ron Miller, later
replacing him with Paramount's Michael Eisner as CEO and Warner Brothers' Frank Wells as president.
In late September, Eisner announced that Jeffrey Katzenberg--who had served under
him as Paramount's head of production--would take the job as Disney's president of motion
pictures and television. Then, less than a month later, they announced the first distribution
deal under the trio's new stewardship: a film entitled "Flight of the Navigator."
On what is supposed to be July 4th, 1978, David Freeman returns home only to discover that his
family is gone and that he has actually been missing for eight years. Trapped in 1986, David
is taken in by NASA scientists, who are intent on unlocking the secrets buried in David's head and
how they relate to the strange alien spacecraft that crashed on Earth that same night.
However, wanting nothing more than to get back to his family, David makes a daring escape and
enters the spacecraft, where he meets Max, an artificial intelligence that needs David's
brain to complete its mission. Can these two learn to trust one another and work together,
or will they both be doomed to live in a world that is not their own?
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Thank you in advance. With that out of the way, let's get back to the subject at hand.
Though the film's producers initially approached Disney to both distribute and produce Flight of
the Navigator, the financial difficulties of the studio prevented them from agreeing to produce it.
However, the company did pass it on to Producers Sales Organization,
which secured a two-to-one funding deal with the Norwegian company Viking Film
to finance the movie, with Disney still agreeing to distribute.
The first director they approached was John G. Avildsen, the Oscar-winning director of
Rocky, who passed on the script. Other directors were then considered, including Brian DePalma,
before it ultimately went to Randal Kleiser, director of Grease and The Blue Lagoon.
Over 300 boys auditioned for the lead role of David Freeman, including Joaquin Phoenix and
Chris O'Donnell, before it was given to Joey Cramer, a young Canadian wünderkind who had
previously appeared in Michael Crichton's Runaway. Cramer's career didn't last, and later in life,
he would descend into drug addiction, fraud, and even bank robbery. For more information
on that roller coaster of a story, check out the documentary about him, Life After the Navigator.
"Butt-face!"
"Scuzz-bucket!"
"You'll never see your ninth birthday, I promise!"
The alien computer, Max, is voiced by Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens,
who chose to be credited under the cheeky pseudonym Paul Mall.
It's doubtful very many people familiar with Pee-Wee Herman were fooled by it, though.
"Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat! Huhhah!"
Other notable actors include Veronica Cartwright and Cliff DeYoung as David's parents, Dr. Johnny
Fever, a.k.a. Howard Hesseman, as Dr. Faraday, and a 20-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker as Carolyn.
"How about a Big Mac, large fries, and a Coke?"
"Well now, that all depends. Do you want New Coke,
Classic Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet Coke, or Caffeine-Free Coke?"
"Huh?"
Filming began in December of 1986, mostly in and around Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
with the film's production headquartered out of a houseboat. Some shooting was also done a short
distance away in Miami, both on location and on soundstages at Limelite Studios,
and Burt Reynolds' horse ranch in Jupiter, Florida doubled for Al's Alligator Farm.
"Al's Gator City. This must be Florida, Max!"
"And that must be Big Al. Huhhah!"
In late February,
production moved out to Norway for an additional three weeks of location shooting.
The music was done by Alan Silvestri and is notable for being performed
entirely on an early digital multi-track recorder called a Synclavier. While fully
electronic scores had been around since at least Forbidden Planet in 1956, this is one
of the earliest attempts to make a relatively traditional-sounding score with a synthesizer.
The results, I have to say, are pretty memorable, and the magical, almost EPCOT-themed style fits
the tone of family-friendly sci-fi adventure that defines the movie.
The visual effects, specifically the CGI, were put together by Omnibus Computer Animation with
Randal Kleiser's brother, Jeffrey Kleiser, serving as the digital effects supervisor.
The sleek and reflective design of the spacecraft was well-suited to CG technology at the time,
and there are even a couple of instances of early "morphing" techniques
as it reshapes itself for more advanced maneuvers.
"My God, it changed shape!"
Two physical, full-scale models of the ship were also built, one with a full aluminum interior that
weighed close to fifteen hundred pounds, and a hollow version of half the weight for sequences
where the ship is seen hovering in mid-air. I have to give a lot of credit to the camerawork here,
because even though there are a ton of mirrored surfaces around and inside the craft,
it's surprisingly rare to catch glimpses of the filmmakers in the reflections.
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If all else fails, though, you can always check out my website at emagill.com,
where you'll find written reviews of plenty more sci-fi classics in both film and literature.
Now then, with all that shameless self-promotion out of the way, let's move on.
Flight of the Navigator debuted in August of 1986 to
pretty good reviews. Unfortunately, due to a crowded summer blockbuster season,
it only made a box office gross of about eighteen and a half million dollars,
which may or may not have been a profit, depending on which of the film's wildly variable budgeting
reports you choose to believe. In spite of this, though, the film developed a positive
reputation and has remained a favorite for many kids who grew up in the eighties, myself included.
For Disney, regardless of its financial success (or lack thereof), the film was a hit, proof that,
under its new stewards, the Walt Disney Company was still capable of great things. Indeed,
by the end of the decade, Disney would surge from last place among the big eight
studios to first place. A few years later, the team of Eisner, Wells,
and Katzenberg would collapse spectacularly, but that's a story for another time.
Talk of a remake for Flight of the Navigator has been making the rounds for a few years now,
and at the time of recording this video, one is supposedly in the works with Bryce Dallas
Howard sitting in the director's chair. It is said to feature a female protagonist and
to release on Disney+, which is fitting, as Disney's streaming platform appears
to be at least partially responsible for the movie's recent revival in popularity.
It's always been a personal favorite of mine, too, one that never fails to make me feel like
a kid again. It evokes childlike wonder and adventure in a big way, and it's one of the few
movies seemingly made to cash in on the success of Spielberg's E.T. that actually manages to come
close to capturing that magic. I mean, it's no Mac and Me, but there can be only one Mac and Me.
While I will happily nitpick some of the plot--like the painfully overused 10% of the brain
myth or the unexplained but awfully convenient dangers of time travel
that David overcomes on luck alone--I really love this movie, even as a more cynical adult.
It has a lot of heart, and it has a lot of fun exploring the neat premise of a boy taken out of
his own time and shot forward to a time where his little brother is now his older brother.
It also taps into that early pubescent sense of isolation and persecution, especially
for a kid who doesn't understand what's going on in his own head.
"Everything's changed except me!"
I can't speak for all twelve-year-old boys, but I certainly felt that way and would have loved to be
whisked away on an adventure with a time-traveling alien robot. Still, the story ends the way it
should, teaching kids like me that we should embrace our present moment, love our families,
and relish in our youth. For these reasons, Flight of the Navigator is absolutely a sci-fi classic.
And that's all for today, my fellow Earthlings. What's a sci-fi movie that really spoke to you
when you were a kid? Let me know in the comments, and while you're there, don't forget to like and
subscribe if you haven't already. Thank you for watching, and until next time--when we'll learn
why you should never kidnap a pair of twins from a strange island--this is The Unapologetic Geek--
"Geek?"
--telling you to never be ashamed of what you love, as long as you're not hurting anybody.
"See you later, Alligator. Huhhah!"