Le dirigeable fantastique

An old professor has an idea for an airship. He has all the diagrams and documents with plans to achieve his project. However, when he falls asleep, imps come in and mess things up. In his dream when he tries to realize his plan, everything falls apart; as a matter of fact, it explodes. One big problem is all the unrelated junk that occurs just to show it off.

After Professor Crazybrains (an early, comic version of the venerable 'mad scientist' character) falls asleep amidst the drawings of his new dirigible, he is visited by fairies and cavorting imps (possibly the same Folies Bergères acrobats that appear in a number of Méliès' films). The laboratory walls slowly disappear, leaving the inventor thrashing in his bed as his airship, driven by giant propellers flies in the background, accompanied by more fairies. Suddenly a heavenly fireball strikes the craft, destroying it. More imps appear as the professor awakens, finds himself back in his lab, and promptly destroys his designs. There are some effective substitution-splices, set changes, and a nice dissolve as the laboratory disappears and the ill-fated aeronef takes center stage. The comedy may be a bit broad for modern tastes (the name 'Crazybrains' sets the tone), but the beautifully colorised version I watched on-line is fun and imaginative.

I have a fondness for old-school airships. Maybe it's the Miyazaki lover in me, who knows? At any rate, this is a minor Melies work but it's still charming and funny regardless. As far as hand-tinted movies go, this one is especially striking. The explosion at the finale is particularly stunning in how its presented.

Le dirigeable fantastique (1906)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship

More style than actual substance is what this Georges Melies film actually is. In the film Melies plays the title character who goes to bed and dreams that his airship actually takes flight. There's really not too much that happens in the three-minute running time, although I will admit that we get a pretty fun ending that includes some great fire effects, which are used perfectly with the red tinting used to show them off. Many of Melies films would have various objects taking off flying and we'd go on an adventure with them but that doesn't happen here. The airship takes off and that's pretty much it as it really never goes anywhere and we don't get to see any real action until the end of the picture. One thing that I did like were the actual effects that are taking place behind where Crazybones is sleeping. The way that they play out gives the film a 3-D like effect and I thought they were quite good.