Episode #162: Reflections on Rewatching Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Today, we’re talking about the 1986 film, Flight of the Navigator. I recently rewatched it start to finish for the first time in probably a few decades,a at least to me, the decades in between did not to diminish its enjoyment. The many scenes where David (the Navigator) and the ship he is controlling are flying above the clouds, the design of the spaceship, and the overall idea of a child, not an adult, holding the key to unlock a great mystery were all ideas that influenced the writing of The Thirteenth Hour as well as some of the illustrations contained within the book.
Click on the poster below to find a copy of the film:
The face of the alien ship, which the main character names Max. I was both delighted but not surprised to find that the voice of the ship was done none other then by Paul Rubens, a.k.a. PeeWee Herman!
A young Sarah Jessica Parker also has a small role in this film as a NASA intern that befriends our protagonist. There are a number of funny interchanges between them which highlight 80s culture.
• Carolyn: “All right, listen, um, I gotta go, um, is there anything else you want when I come back?”
• David: “How about a Big Mac, large fries, and a Coke? They’re still around, I hope.”
• Carolyn: “Well, now, that all depends, Do you want New Coke, Classic Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet Coke, or Caffeine-Free Coke?”
• David: “Huh?”
• Carolyn: “Nothing, forget it.”
During one of those scenes, David is introduced to music videos. They happened to pick one of the weirdest movie music videos that I’ve ever seen in my life to highlight MTV/new wave. It’s actually a really great song done by British synthpop duo, Blancmange, though the music video is something else. It rivals the video for “True Faith” by New Order.
Enjoy a little collection of animated gifs from the film:
This little guy loses his home planet to a comet, and David ends up (on purpose or accidentally) bringing him back to 1978 with him.
The podcast now has a page on Facebook, so head over there and to Instagram to check out some scenes from the film.
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hourplaylist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
As always, thanks for listening!
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