Flight of the Navigator (1986) Limited Edition 4K Blu-Ray Review
Flight of the Navigator (1986) Limited Edition 4K Blu-Ray Review
Prepare for take-off as Flight of the Navigator, the action-packed classic 80s adventure, gets a brand new 4K scan and restoration and makes its arrival on Limited Edition Blu-ray thanks to Second Sight Films on 26 August 2019.
Take a journey back in time to re-live this family sci-fi like never before, as the film has been painstakingly restored to its very best under the supervision of its director Randal Kleiser (Grease, The Blue Lagoon). It arrives on Blu-ray complete with a host of fascinating special features including brand new interviews plus a reversible sleeve featuring new and original artwork. The Limited Edition is presented in a rigid slipcase with new artwork by Rich Davies, a 100-page soft cover book with Kleiser’s complete original storyboard and a new essay by Kevin Lyons, original production notes and behind the scenes photos.
The year is 1978 and 12-year-old David Freeman (Joey Cramer) is knocked unconscious while playing. He wakes up and discovers it’s now 1986 and he’s been missing for eight years. NASA believes he’s been abducted by aliens and want to use him for their research. But with the guidance of a strange unseen entity he discovers a hidden spaceship and with the help of MAX the computer sets off on an incredible mission to get back to the past where he belongs.
By the time Flight of the Navigator received a cinema release I had turned eighteen years-of-age and had chosen to move on from kid flicks (although now in my advanced years I find I that yearn for them). I had sat through the aptly entitled The Never Ending Story, wished that Number Five wasn’t alive in Short Circuit and I definitely wasn’t in the mood for a Disney live-action flick looking to tap into the sci-fi goodwill afforded the genre by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial a few years prior.
By the mid-Eighties the Disney brand was all but dead in the water. There was little interest in their latest animated offerings such as Basil The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and The Black Cauldron (1985), and their live action flicks – such as Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985), released under Disney’s Touchstone company – were underwhelming at best. So when director Randal (Grease, The Blue Lagoon) Kleiser’s Flight of the Navigator dropped into my local cinema I decided to give the film a miss, figuring it would not be worth a watch.
Over the subsequent years I would catch the odd moment from the film as I flicked through the channels on TV but have never really fully seen it until now. And now I’ve seen it I can’t say that I dislike it, it’s kind of warm and fuzzy feeling, but I wouldn’t say that I understand the fondness others have for it either. I felt that the story wasn’t fully formed, there were too many inconsistencies for me – for example, everyone stops to gape in awe at a zeppelin flying above but, later in the film, not one car brakes or swerves on San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge as a UFO whistles by. And as for why the boy was taken in the first place, then returned home eight years later (why so long?) by an unmanned vessel that just seems to collect specimens for no real reason from around the universe, well, I just gave up thinking about what I was watching in the end.
Since 2009 there has been talk of a remake but as at the time of writing this review there is still no firm news other than Jim Henson Company is involved, so do keep your eyes peeled for any further developments. Flight of the Navigator was a modest hit at the box-office on its theatrical release but went on to connect with a larger audience with its subsequent video release and TV showings, developing a cult following. This is a feel-good film that works despite having much in the way of filling, it’s wholesome but devoid of any depth, layers or real meaning – it’s just ‘there.’
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Brand New Second Sight 4K Scan and Restoration supervised by Director Randal Kleiser
- Directing the Navigator – New Interview with Randal Kleiser
- Playing the Navigator – New Interview with Joey Cramer
- Mother of the Navigator – New Interview with Veronica Cartwright
- Brother of the Navigator – New Interview with Matt Adler
- Art of the Navigator – New Interviews with Jeff Kleiser, Randal Kleiser and Edward Eyth
- Audio Commentary with Randal Kleiser and Producer Jonathan Sanger
- Reversible sleeve with new and original artwork
- Optional English subtitles for the hard of hearing
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Rich Davies
- 100-page soft cover book with Randal Kleiser’s complete original storyboard, new essay by Kevin Lyons, original production notes, behind the scenes photos
- Reversible poster with new and original artwork
