Forbidden Planet

[John Holland]

Watched my new copy of the 50th anniversary edition of" Forbidden Planet ". Great transfer colour is beautiful the effects wonderful its a bit dated acting wise but a great Sci-fi movie and amazing that it was made in 1956 , must have cost a fortune them . anyone else seen this version ?

[Guest Stephen Murphy]

Watched my new copy of the 50th anniversary edition of" Forbidden Planet ". Great transfer colour is beautiful the effects wonderful its a bit dated acting wise but a great Sci-fi movie and amazing that it was made in 1956 , must have cost a fortune them . anyone else seen this version ?

 

John,

i bought the hddvd a while back and was equally amazed at how rich and clean it looked. still love the film

[chuck colburn]

Yeah I love that movie. I saw it in the theater when it came out, it blew my little seven your old mind.

That and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" are two of the greatest Sci Fi films of all time.

[K Borowski]

Everyone calls Star Trek innovative, but it stole rather freely from this gem. Transporters, phasers, interstellar travel, pretty much all have their birth in this film, as do the intercoms. Lost in Space also rather obviously "lifted" the robot from this film. Even the first production show of Star Trek has a "Professor Crater" who is quite similar to Forbidden Planet's Professor Morbius. Brilliant film, brilliant special effects. The acting may be dated, but those effects are honestly still top-notch. I can't think of one of them that looks stale, save for maybe the painted backdrop of the graveyard that is only used very briefly, and the slightly noticeable effects of the in-camera matting that was used in certain shots. I honestly don't think CGI could do any better though. What's even more amazing is that this is when Eastmancolor negative film was brand new, so a lot of this stuff had never been done before with color neg film! Only thing unoriginal is the story-line itself which is, I believe, lifted from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". I've never read this work, but that's what I remember Robert Osbourne saying when they were playing the film on TCM.

 

John, do you have a copy of this film in HD now?

~KB

[A. Whitehouse]

There's an episode of Lost in Space where they encounter the Forbidden Planet Robot on board a Prison space station. From memory the two robots wrestle but I could be imagining that...

[Tom Lowe]

Very awesome film, and I'd love to see an HD copy.

[John Holland]

Hi Karl no its not HD i am not investing in HD over here for as far as i can see for a good few years .

[Leo Anthony Vale]

Everyone calls Star Trek innovative, but it stole rather freely from this gem. Transporters, phasers, interstellar travel, pretty much all have their birth in this film, as do the intercoms.

 

Lost in Space also rather obviously "lifted" the robot from this film.

 

Both robots were designed by Robert Kinoshita, who was also the art director on the series 'Men into Space'

 

Don't forget 'This Island Earth'.

 

I can't think of one of them that looks stale, save for maybe the painted backdrop of the graveyard that is only used very briefly, and the slightly noticeable effects of the in-camera matting that was used in certain shots. I honestly don't think CGI could do any better though. What's even more amazing is that this is when Eastmancolor negative film was brand new, so a lot of this stuff had never been done before with color neg film!

 

This was on Kodak's second Eastman color neg, & only a couple of years from the third.

 

What about 'The Ten Commandments'?

 

The effect shots look quite dupey in a 35mm print.

 

A favorite film.