Forbidden Planet (1956) Reaction & Review! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- Forbidden planet was a milestone in sci-fi films and a milestone in technical achievement. Apart from the pacing issue; the actual concepts, production design, sets, props and score were fantastic. The performances by the lead cast were solid and I really loved the idea of Robby the Robot. I think this film was a precursor and an inspiration to countless other films that came after it. It really is a classic and deserves its place in film history. I would recommend this film to lovers of sci-fi and a more mature audience.
Full Length Reactions to ALL the films I've watched and Early Access at Patreon: / shanwatchesmovies
0:00 Intro
1:46 The Film
18:55 The Review
25:14 Outro
Hey guys, I'm Shaneel (Shan). Welcome to the channel!
My reaction and review to for the first time. Hope you enjoy the video!
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This movie is a sci-fi re-telling of Shakespear's "The Tempest".
I've often heard that but it's been years since I read The Tempest
Very Roughly.
Actually, no. It's inspired by the partially recovered Homeric play about a Greek hero, Bellerophon. He tames the flying horse, Pegasus, and attempts to ride him to Mt. Olympus. Zeus simply sends a wasp to sting Pegasus and the horse throws Bellerophon, who falls to his death.
FYI: The name of Dr.Morbius' ship was " Bellerophon ".
@@alanmacification Morbius confronts what he has done and 'breaks his staff' as Prospero does at the end of the Tempest.
His own hubris defeats him, not the gods.
No gnat sent by destiny involved, it was his own blind spot to his own need for power and control.
@@stevetheduck1425 Well reasoned and thought out, but the writers said it was a Bellerophon.
This movie influenced Gene Roddenberry to no end, in his creation of Star Trek.
Yes, the first pilot (The Cage) shared many similar plot elements, including a wrecked ship 20 years before and a single survivor. It deviated later on.
This is in the same universe as Trek
@@stempo1 I think one of the Trek reference books includes a mention of cruiser C-57D visiting Altair IV, but books to this day are still not considered canon to the main Trek universe. Adding this to the fact that FP is owned by MGM, while ST is owned by ViacomCBS will probably continue to keep the two universes separated.
The fact that this movie was the inspiration for the creation of Star Trek is why I am so thankful that this movie was made.
Early in the movie, Farman tells Adams they will start "DC" at 17:01. That is the registry number of the Enterprise, 1701.
Now that you are watching Classic sci-fi, might I suggest the original “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (1951)
It is essentially a companion to Forbidden Planet in terms of being a high-quality prestige 50's science fiction film!
Yes ! Klaatu Barada Nikto !
I'll second that, and add "Them" (1954), the first and best of the "big bug" movies, and "The Thing from Another World." (1951).
The director of the Day the Earth Stood Still also did Star Trek : The Motion Picture. Aka Star Trek 1.
@@spacecadet35 AKA Star Trek: The Slow Motion Picture. Probably the worst thing ever directed by Robert Wise.
A Great early SciFi is 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. Directed by Robert Wise with an amazing score by Bernard Herrmann.
Way better than any modern remake!
This and 1953's The War of the Worlds.
I love both Earth Stood Still, but for any newcomer I recommend they first watch the original then the Keanu's one.
@@BammerD this and The Blob (1958) were the first films which made my sleep difficult at night 😂🤣, and I was born in the late 70's.
@ I was born in '81 and still occasionally have nightmares about the Id monster chasing after me.
One of the main reasons, that "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun" were so funny to early '80's audiences was, that they remembered Leslie Nielson and some of the other actors such as Lloyd Bridges and Robert Stack, as serious dramatic leading men, so it was quite a comic surprise to see them in a comedy.
And Robert Stack did play a pilot in The High And The Mighty (1954), starring John Wayne (yep he did star in a disaster movie with no horses or war).
Yes, hard to believe people react to Airplane without having watched Airport,
@Charlton Jones Most people would have known Robert Stack as the super serious Elliot Ness from the TV show The Untouchables, and many would have watched Lloyd Bridges as the star of the TV series Sea Hunt.
@@brachiator1 Don't forget Peter Graves from the tv show Mission Impossible
@@sherigrow6480 I think a lot of the humor is lost if you aren't familiar with the 70's disaster films genre. It's like watching Blazing Saddles without having seen the westerns it spoofs.
"Slow pacing of the film..." not really. It's just another side effect of the age of the film. Attention spans are much shorter these days. As for the music, it was the first film with an entirely electronic score, not an easy feat in the days before synthesizers and other electric instruments. The animation, although not done by Disney per se, was done by a Disney animator who was loaned to MGM for the movie. Also, the film was entered into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
plus you have spent a LOT of money making everything at the highest level at the time and the audience want to SEE all of it and enjoy it. As for this "pacing" thing, other films of this era make this look zippy and modern in comparison :)
Agreed about attention spans, and how current viewers have trouble settling into a film like this which, for me anyway, isn't slow or boring at all.
@@niefali If you wanted a longer one, you could compare the older Dracula films with newer vampire films like Blade, Underworld and Twilight. You could also add in series reviews for Buffy and True Blood.
I don't know about the attention span being lower today regarding movies considering longer movies tend to be the ones making the most money at the box office. Avatar, Titanic, Endgame, The Infinity War, etc. More than 2 hour runtimes is the norm for blockbusters. And, movies, and other shows, used to have intermissions. People have no problem plopping down in a seat, or on a couch, for hours as long as you entertain them. Now, attention span for actions of actual life? That's definitely taken a nosedive. Uh...what were we talking about again?
@@IamnotJohnFord Stop and consider that it isn't the length of the movie, it is the pacing of the movie. Taking time to develop characters and subtle ideas is much different from leaping from one CGI antic to the next. A good way of highlighting that would be to contrast the pacing in the original 'King Kong' and Peter Jackson's bloated remake.
The Krell lab seemed, as you say, even bigger than it was because of ingenious script writing. Morbius points up and down the shaft and enumerates the thousands of levels. He points. "Twenty miles. Twenty miles." He shows a couple of dozen dials in the lab, saying "ten, times ten..." and his arm sweeps around to a portion of the lab that we cannot see, continuing to count more and more dials, and then says "ten raised almost literally to the power of infinity", showing the writers knew what 'literally' literally means. I like to think that this was a legacy of radio drama, which depended on the spoken word in a similar way to create its images. "The pictures are better on radio," as they used to say.
The visual work isn't just good for the time, it's just plain good. It's beautiful and supports the story perfectly; what more could one want?
"Forbidden Planet": When Disney Animation ruled Hollywood and the company had a soul. The completely electronic soundtrack is/was unique. This movie was not only pre-Space Race, it was Pre-Sputnik!
and pre synthesizer
So mickey mouse don't have a soul? Oh please
@@dolphinsrr Ink on paper or celluloid.
Asimov's Three Laws Of Robotics dated way back to 1942, amazingly.
The idea that machines would be obedient to man (or ought to be) was a reaction to all the stories and movies that came after the Frankenstein story, and the need for some to have an obedient workforce that did not rebel.
Many authors at the time did not believe that a slave race would stay slaves, as history is filled with examples of the opposite,so they wrote tales about men and machine becoming one (also the ideal ending for the Mass Effect game series, as it ends the conflict and saves everything).
So vengeful robots became the norm after Robby, with HAL9000 being an interesting exception, as he was loyal, but idiot politically-motivated people programmed him to lie, which he could not know how to do.
The more recent 'I Robot' film avoided the three laws by showing the logical result, also a robot revolution, but for the purpose of protecting humans from their own idiocies.
Even 'Bicentennial Man' shows the obedient robot choosing to become human and die rather than take that logical step. Mawkish, schmaltzy mess, quite unlike the stories by Asimov.
@@stevetheduck1425 Also many ancient legends include artificial people (from sown dragon's teeth etc). Talking mechanical handmaidens etc. Or the "precious metal people" that was created and wept when buddha died etc. Tons of it.
My big gripe with modern portrayals is the recurring, ridiculous idea that robots would want to be more like people. It's such a massively anthropomorphised interpretation.
Robby the Robot was a sci-fi icon. He appeared in so many things after this that his own wikpedia page is quite substantial.
Robby was also used in The Twilight Zone... along with a ton of props from this movie... including the spaceship.
Such star power😎
He showed up in an episode of Lost In Space, too, as competition for the "bubble-headed booby" LIS robot for the affections of the Robinson family.
@@TheDetailsMatter I think the same designer made both robots, didn't he? I've been told that, at least.
Seeing MGM's penchant for reusing props and costumes form "Forbidden Planet", Stanley Kubrick had sets, props and costumes from "2001" destroyed to prevent them from being used elsewhere.
The score was done by Bebe and Louis Barron. Two pioneers in electronic music. This was actually the first film to use a fully electronic score. Unfortunately, the Barron's were not members of the Musicians Union and they listed in the credits as having provided "Electronic tonalities". This also prevented their work, which was universally lauded by audiences and critics, from being considered for an Academy Award.
In fairness, “electronic tonalities” if a far better description of the sounds than “electronic music”. I like this movie and adore electronic music, but just in terms of truer descriptions, this just isn’t music; it‘s barely atmospheric, it’s... well... tones. While I still like it, the audio was a lot to take almost non-stop; which is a testament to it’s newness, they hadn’t even learned how to use it yet, they just poured the syrup over every single drop of the movie, no sense of using it were it belonged, less is more.
Anyway, as for blaming not being in a union costing them an academy award, I think that’s giving the academy too much credit; it’s nearly a given that anything truly groundbreaking is going to get a movie passed over for one, because they’re dinosaurs attempting to manufacture a sense of standard to maximize profits and give what’s popular a sense of direction, and anything deviating too far for their tastes just outs them as being establishment-enforcers. Tron was to computer visuals as this movie was to computer sounds and it was OFFICIALLY denied a nomination because computers were deemed “cheating”. That was despicable. Anyway, academy awards are not worth their weight in dirt.
Yeah, they got hosed by the Hollywood machine.
The eminent guardians of the art world's gates have looked down their noses at "technical tricks" since the days of Phidias. It occurs to me that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have an awful lot in common with the ultra-conservative Academy of 19th-century France, who believed art had to please, not challenge, and championed superrealism in painting while regarding Delacroix, Manet, Cezanne and other innovators as mere soulless boors - or even madmen.
Perhaps the musician Debussy put it best: "Great art makes rules. Rules do not make great art." 😕 🤨 🙂
The "Id" is one of Freud's three components of the human psyche: Id, Ego, and Superego. Id is our most primitive drives and instincts (sexual and aggressive). Kept in check by the Superego (our moral conscious), the Id lives in our sub-conscious. For example, someone cuts us off in traffic. Our Id says "I'll kill them!" The Superego says "No, I can't, its wrong to kill". The Ego is what we actually do, a response that satisfies both the ID and Superego (more or less) - "Instead of killing the person I will simply flip them off and move on with my day!"
It's just a Freudian template, and Carl Jung had another of his own more complicated, both and all of them pure pseudo science. 🤣
This is a Sci Fi version of The Tempest, a William Shakespere play..
It's based upon it, but having read the overview of the story the Shakespeare play is somewhat more political with the Morbius equivalent being an exiled king looking for vengeance rather than separation and solitude.
Well this reaction was wholly unexpected, but damn is it welcome.
I agree!!!!!
This movie has amazing special effects considering that its from 1956. I remember my dad talking to me that this movie was THE thing for him and his friends when they were kids.
Wow, that's awesome. It's kinda like the mixing of the two main types of science fiction, Verne-ian and Welles-ian, hard and soft. When I was a kid, I remember being fascinated by the old 1950-60s drawings and artist renderings of the future, especially space stations. Great balance of scientfic function and clean aesthetics
Considering what? It is apparent you haven't seen advanced visual effects from the Wizard Of Oz, year 1939 😉.
Dr. Morbius' front lawn was a reworking of that spiral beginning of the Yellow Brick Road Munchkin set from The Wizard of Oz. @
This film is based in Shakespeare's The Tempest, where a powerful wizard called Prospero lives in an island with his daughter Miranda and is waited by magical servants. A ship's crew arrives driven by the tempest, and Prospero shows them all sorts of prodigious visions. At last he renounces magic for being diabolical, and Miranda goes away and marries a crew member. It was Shakespeare's last play I think.
Other pillars of early SciFi from the 50's you might consider are "The Day the other Stood Still (1951) and George Pal's production of 'The War of the Worlds" (1953). The latter being a reasonable interpretation of H.G.Wells' story with surprising special effects while the former is considered an uncanny (albeit unintentional) Christian allegory a message being delivered to humanity.
I love the sound effects from War Of The Worlds.
@@jean-paulaudette9246 The sound of the heat ray was seared (no pun intended) into my mind as a kid, as was that relentless hiss of the war machines on the march - but it was that awful Martian scream that stood my hair up.
@@jean-paulaudette9246 and the ships' and aliens' designs.
Two great ones. The Day The Earth Stood Still uses the savior symbolism really consciously though. After all, the Earth name the main character chooses is "Carpenter".
@@rabbitandcrow very true. I recently watched the original for the first time in at least 25 years and I was delighted by what was clearly a deliberate use of litler details such as that.
Other films of the same general era you would likely enjoy:
--The Day The Earth Stood Still
--When Worlds Collide
--Them!
--Fantastic Voyage
--Journey To The Center Of The Earth
20 million miles to earth
Yes Fantastic Voyage and Journey To The Centre Of The Earth are brilliant movies.
Fantastic Voyage 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾.
I agree that Fantastic Voyage would be great to react to.
If heading into origins of SciFi, Day the Earth Stood Still should be next.
I'm getting around to reju ing it specifically the original but I'm sure you meant that.
@@JoshuaC0rbit definitely. Sadly some remakes are chock full of talents, and still fail.
Also, 'When Worlds Collide'
Great one. Also, the original War Of The Worlds is excellent.
@@TTM9691 Good suggestion.
Here's a real old one "Things to Come" (1936), based on an H.G. Wells story.
More classic sci-fi movies to check out. The original 1960 The Time Machine, the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still and the 1973 Soylent Green.
The Time Machine is a great movie, George Pal did amazing work.
My other favorite Pal sci fi movies are War Of the Worlds, Destination Moon, and When Worlds Collide
Enthusiastic seconding for Soylent Green, with its depiction of New York as an overcrowded and resource-deprived colossus running on sheer inertia as pollution puts paid to human aspirations as well as plant and animal life. But the chief reason for a movie lover to take in this feature is to behold the final screen performance of Edward G. Robinson, a great actor and a great human being, whose final scenes make my eyes brim over every time. 🎭 😎
EGR passed away very soon after.
Ohhh you have to see War of the Worlds (1953)! It's my favorite old-timey Sci-Fi movie :)
A fine film. I purchased it on Criterion last year. It's not as spectacular as Spielberg's adaptation but at least there was no annoying son.
@@trhansen3244 Steven Spielberg's version had many giant flaws in it. Even though the alien crafts is closer to HG wells's novel The World of the worlds the movie it likes believability. Especially when the war is over and he sees his mother with his kid and the entire neighborhood has electricity, running water, perfectly trimmed hedges and grass. In reality a World war like this even the smallest isolated towns would lose all their comforts. That's why the 1953 version is far more realistic. When the war was finally over the world was in ruins.
@@BondFreek The son is the only real problem I had with it. He was so annoying. Clearly, he was a liberal.
@@trhansen3244 Not as spectacular as Spielberg's adaptation? Really? I thought Spielberg's movie was great and a terrific updating of the original story to the 21st century but as far as spectacular, I think Pal wins it hands down. The Criterion edition is really the only way to watch it in its original glory. When seen with the correct contrast and color timing, the wire suspending the Martian War Machines are invisible.
Excellent film. I love films like this one, This Island Earth, The Day The Earth Stood Still etc. That wonderful 1950s aesthetic. Even more than that, the vibe of being part of some kind of thoughtful, honorable process of discovery .. and of difficult social situations that need a chunk of good old fashioned common sense to put straight. And, in the 60s, films like Quatermass And The Pit were just great.
Finally someone reacts to this sci-fi gem, bless you Shan. Writing this before I even watched the reaction i'm so happy lol, I loved this movie since 8 year old me went hiding behind the sofa when the ID monster attacked.
That's a great story! I feel the same exact way, I started writing my comment before I even started watching the movie, I was so psyched to see this reacted to!
If your looking for another reaction to it check out @ Hatful of Reactions :)
@@belinda35_77 thanks, i'll check it out 😊
@@llocarydoline9738
My pleasure!
She has a different reaction style but I really enjoy it too.
@@belinda35_77 Thank you!
“Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Oh oh oh oh
At the late night double feature picture show”
Such a clever song! Gonna go put on my silver underwear now...
@@deraykrause4517 Flash?...is that you?
Gene Rodenberry was inspired by this film, the 3 main crewmembers the captain, science officer and doctor and the way they relate is the foundation for the Kirk Spock and McCoy characters and friendship of the Star Trek TOS.
Leslie Neilson was a serous dramatic actor, which is why he was cast for Airplane and the Police Squad / Naked Gun characters.
Don't forget they use the phrase Number One as well.
yeah there is no question, really, this was the template for Star Trek including a saucer shaped vessel and not a 'rocket ship' :)
@@papalaz4444244 snd the star trek pilot episodes, the first finding a ship that was lost 20 yrs eariker, the cage. And the hyped up psychic powers of where no man had gone before.
@@papalaz4444244 It's a Classic!! I love it! Lol How many times did they reuse those Costumes for low budget Sci-Fi films throughout the 60s.
@@gerardcote8391 Good call! I never connected that before, but so true.
This movie was ahead of its time and one of my favorite sci-fi movies. I had such a school boy crush on Ann Francis .
Loosely based on Shakespeares 'The Tempest'. This is the film that Star Trek 'pulls' from. J J Adams = James T Kirk, Doctor Ostrow = Dr McCoy, Robbie = Spock. C57D = NCC 1701, the crew are 'military' etc. You might also like to try 'This Island Earth' - a bit more pulpy, but also in colour with good effects
Enthusiastic seconding for This Island Earth. Though rather more limited in scope than the novel on which it is based, the movie was still impressive in its designs and effects, resulting in a B-level picture with an A-level budget. Yet the basic story is a thoughtful one, and taken as far as audiences back then were prepared to venture in imagination. 😏 👽
If you are going to watch "This Island Earth" a fun way to do it is "Mystery Science Theater 3000: the movie"
@@kdrapertrucker No, that is just a disrespectful way of doing it.
Actually, it is right when Asimov's laws were first published. The first 3-Law Asimov story was published in 1940 and was called "Robbie."
So more than a decade after Asimov's laws.
SHAN - the Forbidden planet combined matte painting with models, and some of the Special effects were composting with Real lighting (spaceship) and some animation for Forcefield & Monster effects, also ROBBIE the Robot, is a MAN in a mechanical Robot suit.
Glad this finally made the cut on the channel :)
Every scifi fan needs to watch it at least once!
Agreed. I haven't seen it in years (though I know it like the back of my hand) and just looking at it right now was taking my breath away. For me it's tied with Close Encounters and 2001 for "Most Beautiful & Dazzling Sci Fi Movie With Deep Philosophical Themes!" lol
@@TTM9691
Agreed about Close Encounters and 2001!
But especially when you consider what all the other 1950s scifi looked like at the time..I mean, Rocky Jones Space Ranger lol
First Spaceship on Venus (which isn't bad) the beauty of Forbidden Planet still baffles me to this day!!
What I like best about this movie is that they never show the Krell but instead use the void of the Krell with the doorways and headband.
Ancient classics to check out as you go down various genre rabbit holes. “The Maltese Falcon,” “Treasure of Sierra Madre” and “Casablanca” are Bogart classics. Westerns? “ The Magnificent Seven.” An all-star cast and a classic plot. Thrillers? “The Third Man,” “North by Northwest,” and, of course, “The Ipcress File,” my all time fave.
Great review Shan. I hope you will be able to do a review of Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) Film.
This is how you do a sci-fi film and also I haven't seen this film in 20-years
Imagine if every dark impulse you kept buried inside could be made physical, and so did everyone else's on the world at the same time, but you considered yourself to civilized that you no longer had those buried impulses. It would be a cataclysm. Such an amazing movie
I agree with several others....this is based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, and The Day the Earth Stood Still is definitely worth a watch. Fantastic film.
The scale of the Krell sets in this movie, hand-drawn as you noted, will stay with me forever. They highlight so well the advanced power of the Krell, and they're staggeringly beautiful.
MGM's Forbidden Planet and Universal's This Island Earth are perhaps the two prime examples of the cinematic use of what is today sometimes called "atompunk" styling. (I would suppose pre-1945 examples - from, say, the days of actor Buster Crabbe - more properly belong to the "radiopunk" school of design, but they can seem almost identical at times if you don't know their dates.) ⚛️ 😎
Finally, a reactor who realizes their are films, and very good ones, made before the 80s. Always makes interesting choices and here another.
One of my favorite movies also. May I recommend the original Thing From Another World from 1951, another science fiction (though also horror) classic and hugely influential as well.
There are tons of great films before the 80s. The greatest film. Jaws! That came out in 1975. If my math is correct, that means it was nearly a century ago. I learned math from liberals.
@@trhansen3244 most of my favorite movies are from the 1930s (eg--Freaks, Island of Lost Souls, Bride of Frankensten, Wizard of Oz, etc.). There's a treasure trove of films for those who are interested.
@@brandonhendrix7223 Yes, there are. In fact, this past year I didn't watch a single new movie. I only watched classic movies and tv shows. Mostly because the movies coming out are worse and worse.
@@trhansen3244 I watch some newer films (mostly horror and science fiction, which I'm mainly interested in.). Some are pretty good. But none grab me the way older films do. And there are hunders of films (1930s-1980s) I read about via reference books that I still haven't seen (and I've seen a lot of movies!)
Slow pacing is what happens when studios were setting out to make an epic. Other films from the genre and era, like "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "Invaders From Mars", fare better in pacing, imagination, music,...However, this film does lead to television space shows like "Star Trek" and "Lost In Space".
"Slow pacing is what happens when studios were setting out to make an epic. "
2001 being exhibit A. :)
Or "Star Trek The Motion Picture".@@BigSleepyOx
@@needlefingers58 But 2001 succeeded at it. Star Trek The Motion Picture failed. :)
That's what I was saying. Star Trek The Motion Picture failed...because they set out to make an epic.@@BigSleepyOx
Invaders from Mars ( the original, tgeed was a remake, 1990's I think.) is a really SCARY alien invasion sci fi movie, from this era. I saw it as a little kid, replayed on the local "old movies" channel. All I can remember is the suspense, and being terrified.
My favorite CZcams reviewer is watching one of my all-time favorite movies this couldn't be a better day.
OH MY GOD! AT LAST! Shan does it again! I've been waiting for someone to do this movie!!! :D For me, "2001", "Close Encounters" and "Forbidden Planet" are my top three sci-fi/space movies, at least as far as groundbreaking, dazzling effects and plots that make you think. They travel all that way....only to confront the id of man! Brilliant!
This was a great reaction! I'm so happy you are as dazzled as we were! I saw this as a kid on TV, probably in the 80s, I was entranced. Good to see it's still looking as beautiful as ever, and communicating through time, telling it's story to someone else, in 2021. Now let's not talk too loud, or else Hollywood will try and remake it!!!!
Just one quick thing, you mentioned color being new in the 50s. Color movies had been around since the earliest days of movies, when they were hand-tinted. Technicolor was around in the 20s, and the movie that really put color on the map was "The Black Pirate" (a great silent with Douglas Fairbanks). There were color movies in the 30s (Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind, for instance), and by the fifties it was probably half and half, which stayed that way until circa 1965-67, when color really became the norm. (although there were always occasional black & white movies after that, right into the 80s).
LOVE your channel, Shan! You made my day with this one.
Someone reacted to forbidden planet-impressive
@ Hatful of Reactions also has a reaction to it :)
Forbidden Planet (1956) ranks among my personal favorite lists of the best of the 1950s science fiction movies from that era alongside films like The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), War of the Worlds (1953), and This Island Earth (1955) with impressive special effects for that time era.
Re-watching this movie in the present era (over 30 years ago, I'm old) what impressed me most was the off-handed reference to "a green sky" after they land on this fictional planet.
When NASA landed Viking 1 in 1976 and turned on the first color camera to ever land on Mars, the colors were all "off." So they tweaked the image to a nice "sky blue" sky. But then the ground was crazy purple!
Knowing something must be amiss they pivoted the camera hard to one side so that a single orange wire from the lander stuck up into the picture, then they matched the color of the wire they were seeing to a sample of the wire they had on the ground, and surprise!
The sky on Mars is pink!
Something most people had never really considered, even the people at NASA. But once again, good science-fiction is always ahead of its time.
OH! This was one i wanted you to watch lol. I can't believe you had never heard of it. This was the Star Wars of it's day and was made with a full MGM budget and it's still beautuful :) The robot was, and maybe still is, the most expensive prop ever made. It cost a good proportion of the budget but well worth it.
This was a nice surprise, Shan! No one else has reacted to any of the treasure trove of classic science fiction films of the 50's and 60's. Some others worth exploring are "Destination Moon" (1950), The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957), "Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), "The Fly" (1958), "The Blob" (1958), "War of the Worlds" (1953), "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), The Thing from Another World" (1951),"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), "When Worlds Collide" (1951), "Them" (1954), "The Time Machine" (1960), Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1963), the original "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), and "Fantastic Voyage" (1966).
Forbidden Planet... - that's what makes your channel so special. ^^
A Scifi movie in color, with such advanced special effects and those elaborate props was quite unique in the 1950s. Most of the other classics of the time are in bw and rather solid, earth-bound movies.
The War Of The Worlds is from years prior so you are basically wrong.
This inspired STAR TREK and to a lesser extent STAR WARS
this movie was way ahead of its' time and influenced all the space sci-fi movies to come. revered by my generation of sci-fi freaks, it has been watched and re-watched for 60+ years. in fact, my freshman class in grad school chose it as the first campus movie showing of the year in 1971. it remains one of the classic sci-fi films of all time.
This is a very important film in the Sci-Fi genre and just in general. At the time, movies like this were considered hokey kids' stuff, not to be taken seriously. This was one of, if not the, first true big budget Sci-Fi epics, and helped shake the stigma against the genre. And a great deal of the themes and characters have had a huge cultural impact. Robby the Robot being probably the most obvious. And if not for this film, Star Trek as we know it, may not even exist.
Well deserving of its place in the National Film Registry.
This was a groundbreaking film that inspired a lot of sci-fi to come after it... Obviously Star Trek being one of the biggest.
It wasn't groundbreaking but it was indeed a big achievement.
@ sorry, but without this film a LOT of sci-fi wouldn't exist or would look very different today.
The words "this is a movie I've never heard of" are terrifying to me in this context... this is a seminal movie in the history of scifi.
The props and sets was done uncredited by the co-writer of the story who was an Art Director (Irving Block) he and his writing partner (Allen Adler) adpated Shakespeare's The Tempest into this movie and they walked it in to the head of the studio who loved the concept. Since they didn't offer his writing partner a job but did offer him Art Director's position he took no credit. Block worked on a whole bunch of sci fi films including Invaders From Mars, Kronos, Atomic Submarine, Rocketship XM. Music (Tonalities) was done by a Husband and Wife team of sound effects people (the Barrons) and it's an early example of sythesized sounds long before Robert Moog came along. And they used similar tools. Osscilators, filters, etc. The animation was done by an animator loaned out by Disney, Joshua Meador. And of course Matthew Yuricichi (Bladerunner, Ice station Zebra, Logan's Run, The Robe, Ben Hur, Towering Inferno, Posiedon Adventure, Ghostbusters, Star Trek the Motion picture) did the matte paintings uncredit.
Wow! If you're not the first CZcams reactor to do this seminal SF film, you're the first to show up in my recommendations. Few reactors seem to want to go earlier than 1977 and the release of Star Wars. Thank you.
Amazingly enough Robby's construction was the biggest single budget item in the production. So much so the studio gave Robby cameos for years in other projects, including lost in space.
One of my favourite scifi movies of all time!
It's not starwars, but the effects, the matte work, and even the music (which is all theremin) still holds up today!
Shan, this is AWESOME - Thank You!!!!
An Easter Egg, or foreshadowing of the theme of the movie is the name of the spaceship that brought Morbius and the other colonists to the planet. Bellerophon is a figure from Greek mythology. He tamed Pegasus, the winged horse, and so he had the power of flight. This gave him a bad case of hubris, and he decided to fly to the top of Mt. Olympus, the home of the gods. To punish him, the gods sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, making him rear and throw Bellerophon off of him. His hubris caused Bellerophon to fall to his death.
Robby the Robot is one of the most iconic science fiction robots ever. Although he only appeared in two other movies, The Invisible Boy, which was written for him, and a cameo appearance in Gremlins, he has appeared in many TV shows and commercials. He was designed by the same guy who designed the classic Lost in Space robot, and Robby even appeared in two episodes of that show.
If you have a spare $20,000, you can buy a full-sized, authorized replica. If you don't have quite that much, there are countless toys and models of him available. In fact a year or so ago, Walmart was selling a very nice walking and talking toy of him for $20 (or less).
The Day the Earth Stood Still is so deep in showcasing the different sides of humans inside a fantastic sci fi adventure.
Watching your reaction to these early practical special effects is priceless. This was the debut of Robbie the robot. He subsequently was used in a number of other movies and in the TV series Lost in space. He was a guest in Lost in space
Their slow-down stations in the beginning inspired the transporter effect on Star Trek and the scope of the machine was repeated in a few Episodes on Babylon 5. The latter even mirrored some scenes, making it a straight homage, something the show does several times, honouring the movies and shows that came before.
Considering the Krell themselves were not advanced enough for their own technology, Humans were definitely not.
A detail I liked was that they scaled up their defences with every attack. Not like many stories where they keep the same means to defend themselves that have failed before.
The slow pace helps to grasp what is going on, especially in the end. When the Krell Metal starts to melt and you realize to how much power the monster has access to and you grasp that there is nothing they have to stop it.
It uses a Theramin to make SOME of the weird musical noises
The design for the robot was done by the same guy who designed the robot for the "Lost in Space" tv series. This robot known as Robbie the Robot is also in a film I think called The Invisible Boy
They used a theremin for the music. Synthesizers as we know them today, didn't begin to develop until the 1960's.
Bebe and Louis Barron didn't use any theremins for the sound track. It was all electronic.
One of my all time favorite classics, I am Sooooo Excited that you got to see this movie that was Truly ahead of its time and Damn....Ann was such a Beauty!
No, it was on par to its time.
The 'synth' soundtrack as you called it was actually the noises/tones made by electronic components, since synthesizers hadn't been invented yet. The screen music guild wrote to the studio/movie makers and said that because of that (and that the 'composers' weren't members) meant that it wasn't eligible for Oscars/Emmys.
The garden was the munchkins set from Wizard of Oz. Robby cost $125k in 1956 dollars. The shots inside the machine were filmed on the largest soundstage in Hollywood, longer than a football field (according to Leslie Nielson).
Excellent choice, Shan!
This is a landmark science fiction film based loosely on Shakespeare's "The Tempest".
Seeing a serious Leslie Nielsen always shocks first-time viewers.
The concepts and special effects were way ahead of their time and hugely influential.
Robbie the Robot is one of the iconic robots of cinema.
The Three Asimovian Laws of Robotics just predate this film by a couple of years and may have been incorporated into Robbie's programming as a result.
Robbie the robot was designed by a Japanese designer who specialized in making washing machines. He put his skills in metalworking to building a full humanoid suit that you could walk around inside. It's been used and reused in numerous films and TV shows.
My all-time favorite! I was 7 years old in 1971 the first time I saw this on TV. too young to understand what all was going on, but the Monster from the id scared me and gave me nightmares for years! released 21 years before Star Wars, and the effects still hold up by today's standards!
"They" say this was loosely based on William Shakespears' The Tempest. I read The Tempest for myself to see, and I think it wasn't so "loose", but pretty darned close!
The film stock, Eastman Color, is an early process and the green components are not so strong. All the early color films have different color palettes. It wasn't a grading choice, like today.
"Robbie the Robot" was a big star for years. He even guest starred on an episode of the TV show, "Lost in Space" over 10 years after "Forbidden Planet".
And the Lost in Space robot ("B9") was designed by the same designer, Robert Kinoshita.
@@majkus I thought, that I remembered, that Robbie's creator was either Japanese or Japanese American. Shan should look him up and read about him. Thanks.
It's theorized for decades that the editorial process for FP was never completely finished, which could account for pacing issues. Some googling diligence will turn up pictures and footage cut from the film...including a picture of the marriage of Adams and Altaira from the ending, wisely cut from the film. For many of visual effects, Disney allowed one of their top Effects and Animation artists, Ub Iwerks, to join the production. He produced much of the effects animation for the film, including the Id Creature, which has a very slight facial resemblance to Walter Pidgeon...
I don't think so because lot of films from this decade an the 60's had similar pacing.
Leslie Nielsen was a serious dramatic actor in his early career. When older, he morphed into comedy such as Police Squad, Naked Gun, Spy Hard, and Mr. Magoo.
He was the romantic lead, across from Debbie Reynolds, in Tammy and the Bachelor (1957).
He played Col. Francis Marion, "The Swamp Fox," in eight episodes of The Magical World of Disney, in 1960-61. That's a different fictionalization of the same historical character that Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" is based on.
He's the ship's Captain in the original The Poseidon Adventure (1972). That's a serious role, but he's only on camera for a minute or two before he gets killed by the tidal wave.
In the TV series Due South (1994-99), which is a drama with strong comedic/farcical elements, he plays a Mountie, the friend of the deceased father of the star character. His character ranges from serious to goofy. In real life, Nielsen's father was a Mountie.
I'm familiar with Anne Frances from her tv series Honey West (1965-1966), and Earl Holliman form so many things but most memorable to me as his character in The Rainmaker (1956).
The musical score by Bebe & Louis Barron was also pretty groundbreaking because it was the very first fully electronic Film Score. This gives the movie a unique feel and contributes greatly to the impression that it has aged a lot better than other Sci-Fi-Films of that decade.
And yes, as far as Special Effects are concerned, this was pretty much the benchmark until "2001: A Space Odyssey" came along in 1968.
And just to add despite the silly comical turn by the ships cook and the lazy sexism I absolutely adore this movie, like you the scale and imagination of the effects and the sounds that came with them blew my mind when I was a child and I still can’t believe they managed it so many years ago
I was wondering if you would ever get to this movie. This movie, in my opinion, is what took science fiction from the comic books and the dime novel to the big screen. It proved that a full length science fiction movie could draw large numbers of viewers.
Given the state of practical special effects and the complete absence of computer generated special effects, this movie broke new ground everywhere. It's really an amazing vision that was actually captured on film.
I wish more youtubers would review more of the truly older classic films. This was a good analysis.
Before Airplane, Nielsen was known as a serious, dramatic lead, which is why it was extra funny to see him in a comedy playing it totally straight while mayhem exploded around him. It’s his deadpan delivery that makes the Airplane/Naked Gun films.
Notice how, as he dies, Morbius makes sure no one can have the Krell technology by having Adams set the reactor overload BEFORE telling him what it was. They had 24 hours, so I bet they loaded the ship down with anything Krell that would fit.
The other classic 50s sci fi movies you should check out are This Island Earth & The Day The Earth Stood Still.
Robbie the Robot appears in a couple of other movies, too, but this was his debut.
Great to see you reacting to this highly-revered classic. This cut of the film is exactly as it was first sneak-previewed--the studio was so pleased with its reception by the preview audience that the film was released "as is." The most interesting thing about the character of Morbius is that not once does he lie to his visitors--everything he tells them is the absolute truth (as he knows it), and rather than hiding anything by warning them away, he's showing a genuine concern for their well-being (as well as fear of what Krell technology could do if it falls into the hands of a human race not yet mature enough for such advances). He's a very tragic character, and I love Pidgeon's earnest performance in the role. I hope that someday you will consider reacting to what I consider to be the best western ever made, and one of the finest films of any kind--SHANE.
This film is the "practical effects" benchmark and set very high. Quality props, quality costumes, multi-million dollar robot costume, giant set, a huge cyclorama with a massive landscape painting, the entire MGM animation department etc.
They spared NO expense and made the first big budget scifi film instead of a cheap B-movie.
The unique sound design was by the Husband and Wife team of Louis and Bebe Barron. They were pioneers of manipulating sounds on magnetic tape. Their score was the first all-elctronic film score -- a soundtrack that pre-dates synthesisers and samplers. This was their one and only film score.
This is basically the template for "Star Trek".
If you want more Robby the Robot, he was featured in "The Invisible Boy". A fun family Sci Fi film that includes a malevolent computer. Though the film is set in the near future, Robby is actually the same character from "Forbidden Planet". There's a scene where it's revealed that a scientist traveled to the future and brought Robby back.
A promo photo with Altaira and Robbie is my desktop background. My watch face is the ship in front of the eclipse.
The Academy Awards group refused to consider the score for this film. They said it didn't qualify because it was made using equipment built by Bebe and Louis Barron rather than traditional instruments.
The first time I watched this was with my father (born in 1935) and he proudly told me it was "the 'Star Wars' of his day".
I enjoyed it then and loved your review. Thanks for checking out a classic :)
The idea of sentient robots was probably around for a while before this film was made. Science fiction magazines were a big thing in the 1930's and 1940's. Lots of the best known sci-fi authors of the 20th century became well known in those publications, not to mention sci-fi books, and films such as "Metropolis", from the 1920's.
As an older person, I have to say, it's been strange and amazing to see things that were fiction become fact.
Watching this video I was reminded of some old classic sci-fi films like "The day the earth stood still" (1951) and "The thing from another world" (1951), this latter one being the previous version to John Carpenter's "The thing" which you've already checked out; both films are pretty good, the one of the Thing has a pretty good fire stunt scene which still surprises me that they would try it at the time.
Another oldie, but not scifi, that you might find interesting is "Stalag 17" (1953), a WWII prison camp film with William Holden and Peter Graves (Captain Oveur from Airplane).
As you mentioned seeing Leslie Nielsen outside his comedic roles, the movie "Creepshow" (1982) came to mind, a horror anthology film where he plays a serious character dealing with his cheating wife's lover.
Last thing... looking at the costumes in Forbidden Planet, I remembered "Amazon Women on the Moon" (1987), a comedy sort of in the vein of "Kentucky Fried Movie" (1977), with various segments surrounding a parody of late late night sci-fi TV.
:D
Man, I really enjoyed how you were so spot on with the effects.
By the way, the ship the doctor was on that crashed on the planet was called Bellerophon. Bellerophon was a Greek hero who rode on the flying horse Pegasus and was the greatest slayer of monsters. But the fame got to him and he saw himself equal to the gods so he flew up to Mount Olympus. Zeus would not have it and made him fall down to earth where he spend the rest of his life blind and in misery.
This film is such a classic that it is mentioned in the theme song of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I agree with the suggestions for The Day The Earth Stood Still, it is an amazing movie.
Carry On!!
I Robot was published in 1950; Robby was used in several things including Lost in Space tv series; as far as advanced concepts -they learned how to split the atom by 1945.
I was in the hospital when my grandmother and her future (3rd) husband visited me after this film was released. He brought me a Robby the Robot toy. Nothing like trying to impress her with gifts for her grandson!
The Sting (1973) doesn't have Leslie Nielsen but does have James Earl Jonses' father.
And, of course, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw.
Love that you reviewed this, one of my favourites of the original A grade sci fi films. Now we need to watch Star Trek the Cage, which was heavily inspired by this very film.
I find your impressions of Leslie Neilsen a little ironic, and very funny.
Neilsen was a dramatic strait man leading man actor before Airplane. When he was cast in Airplane people could not accept him in the roll of a comedy. Yet that is exactly why he was cast. To play his part perfectly strait adding to the humor of the film.
When you look at her face closely, you can see a lot of 'Barbie's' face there. There also has been noted reflections of this film in the original Star Trek series; many possible easter eggs if you take close look. The robot in 'Lost In Space' was also inspired, and Robbie was in one of the episodes. The space ship was in other show episodes, including 'The Twilight Zone.'
It's basically the blueprint for Star Trek.
Officially, supposed to be SciFi version of Shakespeare's Tempest.
Always felt like Star Trek to me, especially if you compare it to the Star Trek Pilot 'The Cage'. Not in term of story, but I mean in terms of cinematography, color palette, acting style, dialog style, etc.
@@zvimur Loosely inspired by The Tempest. In 1610, around the time the play was written, Europeans were exploring and colonizing the New World. Forbidden Planet plays with this idea in imagining what it might be like for humans to explore outer space and to discover new worlds. Walter Pidgeon's character is a nice analog for the sorcerer Prospero in The Tempest. But I like how the screenplay deals with then modern hopes about the possibility of space travel.
50s FX still holds up great. This is the granddaddy of Modern Science Fiction!
Asimov's "Three Laws" was first presented in a publication in 1942: ""Runaround" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring his recurring characters Powell and Donovan. It was written in October 1941 and first published in the March 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. "Runaround" features the first explicit appearance of the Three Laws of Robotics, which had previously only been implied in Asimov's robot stories." :)