Flight of the Navigator (1986)

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Flack
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Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Post by Flack »

When my kids think of Disney movies, they think of The Little Mermaid, Monsters Inc, and Mulan. They didn't grow up with scary Disney. We had our share of fun stuff too, but we also had Escape from Witch Mountain, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the Watcher in the Woods, a movie that still freaks me out.

Flight of the Navigator isn't quite that dark, but is does start out with a twelve-year-old kid getting abducted by a UFO. Although David Freeman thinks he's only been away from home for a few hours, on earth, eight years have passed. Local police are baffled when they discover David is wearing the same clothes and looks identical to the missing flyers that were hung up eight years prior, and after returning home, David is baffled to discover his family has aged (his younger brother is now his older brother).

David is eventually whisked away by NASA scientists who want to see what he remembers, and while David can't remember much, his subconscious knowledge blasts their systems with star maps and messages from aliens. The alien craft also calls to David, and once the two are reunited, David discovers that he needs the alien craft -- and, it needs him.

It's hard to imagine that kids didn't leave theaters scarred back in 1986 after watching this film. The ending is happy enough, but it takes a while to get there, and man is Joey Cramer good at pumping out tears. The tone of this film is all over the place -- one minute David is locked inside a NASA facility and five minutes later he's yukking it up with the UFO's system (voiced by Pee-Wee Herman) -- but just like all those other scary Disney movies, a few scary bumps in the road made us the kids we were back then.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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AArdvark
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Re: Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Post by AArdvark »

This is one movie I missed, don't know why. Funny, I never even heard of it until a couple years ago. Disney has never been big on my list of go-to movies. I've always thought that they turn art into commercials.

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Flack
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Re: Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Post by Flack »

The funny thing is I could have sworn I saw this movie as a kid, but the movie I was was The Boy Who Could Fly, which I seem to have confused with this one.

I don't mind some Disney movies. The cartoon films follow a pretty consistent formula, but a lot of the movies were fun, especially that 70s era. Some nights I'm in the mood for Ninja Massacre 3 and some nights it's Herbie or the Apple Dumpling Gang.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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