The Veldt

This is one of the most famous of the Bradbury stories. It involves something that he was interested in: the house that runs itself, which causes a human disconnect. In such a house is a holographic "nursery." Two children, Peter and Wendy (do those names sound familiar, think Neverland) live with their parents in such a house and have everything handed to them but have almost no human connection. They even call their parents by their first names. It become apparent that an African setting in the nursery is more than that. It is real with real lions and elephants and a fixation on the life and death struggles between the hunters and the hunted. The adults try to fix things, but they are much too late to forge a relationship with their children. The children have developed a nearly sociopathic being with no regard for life. This is very disturbing over sixty years after the story was initially written. Much of the technology portrayed is here and the connection with our children is waning. Try this one on for size.

The Veldt is much a better story when it is read and not watched. If you consider the time when this first aired, then you might have a better opinion of this. As a fan of the writer, I can say this does a good job capturing the feel of the original source material. In that aspect, the episode succeeds remaining faithful to the short story.

My review title pretty much says it all: One of Bradbury's Best Stories - But a Lousy Production of it.

To see this story play out in much, much better fashion see it as portrayed in one of three Bradbury short stories in the 1969 movie "The Illustrated Man" (also by Ray Bradbury). Rod Steiger plays the father perfectly and it is a much more believable screenplay adaptation of one of Bradbury's best.

This movie is one of Ray Bradbury many stories. I would highly recommend this story but not the movie. It hits the key points of the story and for the time its not to bad of a set but for the actors. They where definitely not the best.