The Universe According to Universal

I watched this featurette on the DVD for It Came From Outer Space. It focuses primarily on that film, with a little bit of before and after history. The 'before' is a few minutes of discussion about Universal's toe-dipping into science fiction in the 1930s, with films like Frankenstein and Invisible Ray. It also discusses the state of the world at the time of the sci-fi boom of the '50s, with talk of the red scare, atomic weaponry, and UFO sightings. The 'after' portion discusses classic films like Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Incredible Shrinking Man. The before and after parts collectively amount to maybe ten minutes. The bulk of the featurette is about It Came From Outer Space and it's pretty cool for fans. They cover pretty much everything in detail from the 3D effects to the Ray Bradbury script to leading man Richard Carlson. There's also deserved focus on legendary sci-fi director Jack Arnold. It's really a good short documentary with many faces familiar to fans of Universal horror films. Men like Rudy Behlmer and Paul M. Jensen appeared on several of those DVD featurettes as well. Universal certainly put some effort into their early DVD releases. If you're a fan of classic sci-fi and It Came From Outer Space in particular, you should definitely give it a shot.

This featurette is located on the DVD of It Came From Outer Space. As you can probably guess, that film is the main focus of it... however, it gets into a bunch of topics, about the overall genre of the time and why it was popular, in addition to covering the movie's 3D, the lead, the monster and the score. We get a list of other flicks with clips(from this same company, Universal, of course). This consists of footage from the picture itself(and the others, as well as trailers), interviews with experts on different aspects of production(creature design, the concepts, the music), narration and still photographs and the like. Everyone has interesting stuff to say, and they explain it all quite well. There are a couple of points where they seem to get cut off just as they're really getting into sharing their knowledge. Odd. The editing is mostly good, though, if there are also a few places where something is awkwardly shoehorned in. It's all quite informational. There is nothing offensive in this, other than the mild violence here and there. I recommend this to anyone who wants to find out more about the subject. 7/10

Universe According to Universal, The (2002)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another highly entertaining documentary from David J. Skal and Universal. This one here was originally released on the DVD of IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and not only covers that film but other gems from Universal's sci-fi period. Rudy Behlmer narrates the documentary as we learn about why the film went into production, the decision to film in it 3D and the initial reaction. I think the best thing about the documentary is getting to hear from people who saw the film when it was originally released in 3D. Bob Burns, Paul M. Jensen and Bob Furmanek are just a few of the people who share their memories and I must admit that I was really, really wanting to check the 3D version out after hearing their memories. Of course, the Universal DVD only features the 2D version. The documentary also covers other films including CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (and its sequels) as well as TARANTULA, THE DEADLY MANTIS and of course THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. Some more interesting moments comes from Burns who discussing the monster from IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and explains how it was a tad bit different in the 3D version. Fans of the film or Universal's sci-fi period are really going to love hearing all these stories and if you're not familiar with the films then you've got some great recommendations coming to you.