Le Voyage fantastique

This film was originally introduced to me at about 8 or 9 years of age on a Saturday afternoon and it quickly became a favorite of mine. This film tells the story of a brilliant scientist who is injured on his way to offer the U.S. military some much needed info for miniaturizing people and objects and allowing them to stay in the miniature state beyond the now 60 minute time limit the military is faced with. With a top-notch cast that includes; Stephen Boyd, Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence and Raquel Welch as the medical Dr.'s and scientists that are miniaturized and injected into the scientists body in an effort to repair a wound that can't be fixed through the usual means. The effects in this film are truly amazing and make for a lot of fun as the sub/crew journey through the body and face problems along the way, especially as they are attacked as foreign bodies by the scientist's own natural defense system. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing this little gem, by all means find it and rent it and if it's been a while, why not revisit this film, I'm amazed at how well it stands up, even after almost 40 years since it's release.

This is not only a great science fiction film, it is also a great thriller as well. I especially loved the fact that this was supposedly done in "real time" and that the characters and that it was not only a mission to save the scientist life, but a race against time before the miniaturization wore off. Also, even though the effects are dated, they still were pretty good for the era they were produced in.

The premise of "Fantastic Voyage" seemed very unlikely in 1966, however in 2002 I'm not so sure.

The story concerns a top secret miniaturization program being developed by the Americans and concurrently by "the other side". A scientist from the other side has the secret of counteracting the situation where the miniaturization effects wear off after one hour. Unfortunately, the scientist receives a brain injury in an assassination attempt. This results in General Carter (Edmond O'Brien), the commanding officer of the project deciding to "send in" a team of experts miniaturized, to the injured man's brain to repair the damage.

The team consists of Drs. Duval (Arthur Kennedy) and Michaels (Donald Pleasance), Pilot Capt. Owens (William Redfield) and the romantic leads, Grant (Stephen Boyd) and the ever lovely Raquel Welch as Duval's assistant. Assisting O'Brien as a medical expert is Arthur O'Connell as Col. Reid. Of course, as in most film's of this type there is the inevitable fifth columnist aboard. The acting is good, particluarly the performances of veterans Kennedy, Pleasance, O'Brien and O'Connell.

The real star of the "Fantastic Voyage" are its amazing special effects. Filmed long before today's computerized digital effects, this film still makes believable, the illusion of a team of people being injected into a person's bloodstream. To fully appreciate the effects the viewer should see it in its widescreen format.

Watch for James Brolin in a small role as one of the lab technicians. And if you get bored, there's always (snort, pant, drool) Raquel in her form fitting diving suit.

To answer everyone's question about how did Issac Asimov resolve the Proteus issue at the end of the movie; in his novelization of the film (which is a very good sci-fi book on its own), the sub comes out with everyone else in the teardrop along with "a very surprised white blood cell." The scene with Donald Pleasance gave me chills when I saw it as a child and having recently seen it again, it still is creepy. I think this is due to Pleasance's performance more than anything else. I do have to say that seeing Stephen Boyd being driven around the LA Sports Center (subbing for the top secret research center; they had to have everything removed by 5:30 in the afternoon the week they filmed there because sporting events were going on at night) in a golf cart seemed a bit silly but I guess that showed how important he was. With these kinds of films, one has to ignore all certain types of questions about how come this did or didn't happen when the scientists did this and just relax and enjoy it.

An important diplomat is dying, Scientists hatch a plan to miniaturise a submarine team, and send them inside to attempt to carry out a life saving procedure.

I had all but forgotten about this film, and haven't seen it for years, as I watch it, it's almost sixty years old, it truly was original, ambitious, and way ahead of so many films at the time, and many more that followed.

There is plenty of wonderful, incomprehensible gobbledegook throughout, all of it is said with absolute sincerity, equally crazy and zany are the wonderfully trippy special effects.

It's still an impressive looking film, and I don't just mean the special effects, but the sets and costumes are all quite elaborate, credit to the production team for being so bold and creative.

Fans of Raquel Welch will enjoy seeing her here I'm sure, I came here because of Donald Pleasance, one of those actors I could watch in anything.

Definitely worth a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

8/10.