Le vol du navigateur

David Freeman (Joey Cramer) was a regular 12-year-old boy living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida until he fell into a ditch and was knocked unconscious. When he awoke things had drastically changed. For him it was merely four hours later but for everyone else it was eight years later. He discovered this massive time shift when his house was occupied by new people.

At this same time NASA got a hold of a UFO with no discernible way of entering it until they became aware of David. David would eventually be drawn to the spaceship--which spoke--and the two of them went on a high speed adventure.

Along with giving us Paul Reubens aka Pee-Wee Herman as a voice for the ship we got some other 1980's specific nuggets. Carolyn McAdams (Sarah Jessica Parker) reminded us that from 1978 to 1986 music videos were created, rock groups had weird names like Twisted Sister, computers and robotics were on the uptick, and coke had at least four types (New Coke, Classic Coke, Cherry Coke, and Caffeine Free Coke). This movie should've been put in a time capsule.

The movie was really about David and the ship's adventure. The ship was standard robot speak for a bit until it began to sound more like Pee-Wee Herman. This was a fun mildly exciting movie that is perfectly suited for kids.

Flight of the Navigator is one of those terrific adventure films for kids, even after all these years. It also falls into a long line of fun 80s sci-fi/adventure family movies.

Davey (Joey Cramer) goes into the woods looking for his little brother one evening in 1978. When he wakes up after a brief period of unconsciousness, he turns into a scientific marvel. Nothing is as Davey remembers it, but he can't figure out why because he only fell asleep for a brief period.

Davey is told that his parents reported the young boy missing in 1978, the evening that he went searching in the woods for his younger brother, referring to the incident in the past tense because it is 1985. Only Davey is still exactly the same age and everything he was from 1978, while time has passed for everyone else. His little brother is now his big brother (Matt Adler). His parents are old. Everyone is confused and the scientific world find the situation fascinating.

The scientists turn Davey into their personal guinea pig, running tests and probing him and all that junk. And soon they discover, that Davey was abducted. Davey, understandably a confused little kid, can't figure out what's going on and he sure doesn't want to be locked up in some lab where people prod at him all day long and tell him very little. So, he breaks lose, and hops aboard the spaceship that took him through time before. While it is an escape from the scientists and their security (briefly), it also holds the answers to what happened to him. It is also an opportunity for Davey to learn everything from this spaceship. And a kid's movie isn't complete without personifying inanimate objects. The spaceship is essentially controlled by Max, which is like it's CPU, a CPU with a cool sense of humor who likewise tries to learn about human emotions and condition from his passenger, Davey.

Filmed around Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, it is still a cool movie for kids...teenagers...whatever, having a little bit of something for everyone. Great humor, cool special effects, and the like.

This movie is an entertaining fantasy, but there's quite a bit more to it just beneath the surface. The protagonist is a 12-y/o kid raised, as most are in Western culture, to be incompetent, overly dependent on adults, and untrusting of his own judgment. When he finds himself aboard an alien spacecraft, he naturally first attempts to transfer that dependency to the robotic pilot Max, which, all-seeing eye and all, represents the omniscient grown-up. As time goes on, though, David begins to realize that: 1) his own interests do not in fact always coincide with Max's, 2)that therefore he must advocate for himself to achieve a favorable outcome, and 3) that he's the one who has to decide just what outcome will best meet his needs. Much unlike most "kid movies," this character shows real growth, and in the end confronts a real moral and personal dilemma. Whether you agree with his choice or not, you have to respect him for what he has become.

I had seen this movie on VHS back in the 80's and I now have children and just watched this movie with them on DVD. The film still has presence and the special effects are still quite good even considering they are now near 20 years old. Very impressive and my children are now complete fans of the movie.

If you have never seen this film, I would recommend it whole-heartedly for the entire family. If it has been sometime since you watched this film I would say check it out, well worth a return visit.

One thing I have to mention is the joy I was receiving just watching my children (ages 4 through 8) experience this movie for the first time. Even after all of the Hi-tech movies they have seen in recent years this movie was still able to capture their attention, hold it and entertain just as well as anything in recent memory (such as Spiderman, Hulk or even Spy Kids).

My children wanted to re-watch it immediately after it ended, it was that good in their (short attention span) minds.

5 out of 5 stars from me and mine.

**Although regarding the DVD transfer, it could have used some extra's, even a trailer from the original film, however there were none, simple menu access and set-up options only, enjoyable none-the-less.

You know the drill: 12 year old David falls into a ravine in the woods and discovers when he wakes up that he's been missing for eight years. He also discovers that he's hearing voices that seem to come from a mysterious craft housed in a NASA hangar.

My two cents worth: In a time when all the live action Disney movies seem to be a variant on "I was normal but just discovered I am/have just been mistaken for royalty/merperson/rock star/leprechaun/etc., this movie from the 1980's is a real breath of fresh air.

The scenario, waking up and discovering that everything except you has changed, and knowing you'll be somebody's idea of a guinea pig for the rest of your life, is instantly relatable and creepy, whether you're a kid or an adult. The kid fainting, the change in the two brother's relationship due to the age flop, parents trying to protect their son, government trying to exploit the kid's knowledge, everyone's reactions to the situation are all logical and believable.

And who hasn't wanted a chance to fly a saucer? Having Max, the ship's pilot, be a robot was another stroke of brilliance. So many movies have the aliens flying all the way here to come visit us face to face. But if we send machines to other planets because it's cheaper than going ourselves, why wouldn't they? And having him learn about Earth courtesy of a 12-year-old's TV polluted brain was hysterical.

The movie seems a little dated today; but it's forgivable because, like Back to the Future, it's set so specifically in a certain frame of time (you expect it to look and sound like 1986 because, hey, they keep telling you that's when it is.)

Recommendations: Back to the Future and Big are the two I can think of that are most along these lines.