When the Moon (Pilot) hits your eye with the big Disney pie, that's entertainment., 15 September 2008
*** This comment may contain spoilers *** The Eagle has Landed.
Back in the good ol' days of Disney Live action films (before the 1980's) Disney produced quite a few wholesome, if not entertaining family films. Back then you didn't have to worry about dad sleeping with his kids tutor, or some wacky comic villain, hero, or sidekick getting hit in the nuts. There were hardly any poop jokes for kids to wet their paints laughing so hard to. Sadly some smoked cigarettes, which is the greatest evil known to mankind next to the destruction of polar bears in the arctic due to global warming. Some even drank beer and perhaps ate some sweets like cookies. Sesame Street realized this evil and transformed Cookie Monster into the Vegetable Monster (I think).This brings us to my review of Disney's 1962 comedic Sci-Fi family friendly film "Moon Pilot” based on Robert Buckner's 1960 novel ‘Starfire'. It chronicles the space program’s efforts to send a man into orbit around the moon. The space program has a few kinks in it, such as the current mode of space flight that caused the experimental monkey’s brain to become scrambled. The man they pick for this mission happens to be the stereotypical goofy character you would expect in a Disney comedy.
This bumbling astronaut played by Tom Tryon causes the typical Disney army general to yell at him a lot for being a goofball. You all know Tom Tryon from, you know, those films he was in. Like 'I Married a Monster from Outer Space’ (1958). He got tired of acting in 1969 and become a pretty successful author with such books as ’The Other’ (1971). There is also a security chief yelling at him a lot plus lots of inept FBI, NASA, and CIA agents. When the film was released the FBI complained about the portal of the FBI guy for being portrayed as too silly and goofy.
This plight of flight has attracted the attention of some friendly aliens who have sent an alien chick named Lyrae from an alien planet to come and help out the pilot so his brain doesn't become scrambled like the chimp’s. Disney had a lot of chimps and chumps in this film, and this monkey does a great acting job if a monkey ever did.
Lyrae (French actress Dany Saval) helps Capt. Richmond Talbot (Tom Tryon) with space flight and he in turn teaches the chick from outer space how earthlings exchange affection. She is so fascinated by this she just has to try it again and again. You see in her culture they bite each other on the ear as opposed to the way we do it here on earth. Also in her culture when they predict the future they can bring a living thought into reality for just a moment. Her prediction of the future provides a future for her and her hunky moon pilot.
This is a fun entertaining little comedy with some lite sci-fi touches. Disney Mavericks Brian Keith and Tommy Kirk are on board as well as Sally Field in her debut film. Overall there is nothing particularly memorable about the film. Nonetheless it could be fun for the kids and the Disney die hard fan. 'The Cat from Outer Space', is a better Disney Sci-Fi comedy and is worth seeking out before letting the Moon Pilot orbit your DVD player. There are also plenty of other great family comedies out there to see in general. I Wouldn’t recommend having it land in your family library but it might be worth a rental.
X-A luna bot/X-A luna lot/There are seven moons/Of Beta Lyrae/Seven moons/All made for love/ X-A luna bot/X-A luna lot/Seven moons above/Seven kinds of love/There are seven moons of Beta Lyrae/Seven moons that shine above/Seven times the shine/For a girl and boy/Seven moons above/Seven times the love/From the deep blue sea/To the galaxy/Seven moons above/Seven times the love. -Lyrae: [singing the "Beta Lyrae" song]
The Eagle is now lifting off.
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