Explorers - A fantastic adventure
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Explorers - A fantastic adventure |
| Original title | Explorers |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1985 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joe Dante |
| script | Eric Luke |
| production |
David Bombyk Edward S. Feldmann |
| music | Jerry Goldsmith |
| camera | John Hora |
| cut | Tina Hirsch |
| occupation | |
| |
Explorers - A Fantastic Adventure (Original Title: Explorers ) is an American science fiction fairy tale for young audiences from 1985. Directed by Gremlins director Joe Dante . The film was released in German cinemas on June 19, 1986.
action
Suburban boy Ben is passionate about space travel. Together with his bizarre friend Wolfgang, the young scientist's prototype, he dreams of traveling through space. One day Ben appears in a dream with the circuit diagram for a computer circuit that Wolfgang knows how to recreate with his extensive computer knowledge. In a first test run, the circuit generates a strong force field. The two soon got the idea of using it as a kind of diving bell for space travel. With the help of their buddy Darren, the boys use scrap metal to build a small spaceship which, surrounded by the force field, can supply them with oxygen and the computer that generates the force field with electricity. You get from an alien intelligence - which also caused the dream - signals the way to an alien spaceship. After landing in the hangar, they meet two peaceful aliens, Wak and Neek. They may be able to speak the earthly language through television received from earth, but they consider television fiction to be real life and are strongly influenced by all sorts of clichés. Soon the round is disturbed by the arrival of another spaceship, on whose board a giant alien who turns out to be the father of the other two. So the three friends learn that the two little aliens are "only" children. The three friends are hastily adopted. Ben receives a crystal amulet as a souvenir. The little spaceship brings the boys back to earth, a crash landing is the end of the excursion into space.
backgrounds
The film was never shot to its actual script end, but published as an unfinished version. Gremlins hit director Joe Dante was supposed to give Paramount one of the then popular films with teenage leading roles (such as " ET ", " Manhattan Project - The Atomic Nightmare ") and had largely a free hand, the rough outline of the storyboard by Eric Luke to film. This also worked quite well in the first two thirds. But the rather ridiculous depiction of the aliens failed and did not arrive even before the test audience, so Paramount pulled the financial emergency brake and stopped production. When the rival studio Universal released " Back to the Future ", Paramount tried to compete with the now poorly cut project. Explorers had a very unsatisfactory box office at just $ 9 million, while Back To The Future grossed $ 200 million.
This was particularly devastating for Dante because “Explorers” was supposed to be something special. Apparently, the studio had medium-sized expectations for the film, and the young actors in the leading roles saw the film appealing as the start of a good career. But the flick also flopped despite good acting performances and a good soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. For River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke, however, the film actually meant the start of a film career.
Trivia
- The film includes elements of George Pal's version of " Clash of the Worlds ".
- In the film, the boys in the drive- in theater see a film about a hero named "Starkiller". In the original Star Wars scripts , "Starkiller" was the last name of the Skywalker family .
- Screenwriter Eric Luke makes a cameo as a teacher.
- Although Robert Picardo was named as the actor for the role of the father alien, Frank Welker spoke this role in the original.
- Ben, Wolfgang and Darren attend "Charles M Jones Junior High School " in the film . This is the full name of Chuck Jones , a well-known American animator. Dante refers to the classic Warner Bros. cartoons in many of his films.
- The theme of the film was also used for the first episode of the series Sliders - The Gateway to an Alien Dimension .
- The sound effects of the space flight come from the Atari 2600 game Yars' Revenge .
- The character of Starkiller was the inspiration for the naming of the comic Starkiller - The Scourge of the Galaxy .
- The German video film company CIC, under whose label Explorers was also released, used an excerpt from this film for their company intro for a long time.
Awards
Awards 1986
- Young Artist Award - Outstanding achievement by a young actor: River Phoenix
Nominations 1986
- Saturn Award - Best Mask: Rob Bottin
- Saturn Award - Best Special Effects Bruce Nicholson , Ralph Winter
- Young Artist Award - Best Family Film
- Young Artist Award - Best Leading Role by a Young Actor: Ethan Hawke
- Young Artist Award - Best Leading Role by a Young Actress: Amanda Peterson
Reviews
- Christoph Huber at 25Frames.org: "Idiosyncratic SF by Joe Dante: between 80s children's adventures and pop satire."
- Lexicon of international film : "Entertaining science fiction film with perfect trick technique, which on the one hand wants to overcome aggressive enemy images and criticize the non-culture of television and the entertainment industry, but at the same time undermines the development of children's imaginations with its technological future world ..."
Web links
- Explorers - A fantastic adventure in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Comparison of the cut versions DVD - VHS version by Explorers - A fantastic adventure at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ 25Frames.org 25Frames.org ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Explorers - A Fantastic Adventure in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed April 14, 2012
