FILM MEMORIES | FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR

I spent the weekend catching up with old friends and inevitably chatting about our exploits growing up and all the weird and wonderful things that made up our 90's childhood. I've had a recent hankering to watch a film that I absolutely LOVED as a child and haven't seen since I was about 10. This film, like many of the PG cert late 80's and early 90's was fun sci-fi/tech based cinema that both scared and completely intrigued me, and obviously stayed with me into adulthood...

Anybody remember Flight of the Navigator? Ok, it was actually released in 1986 (the year I was born) but it sustained to reach my demographic because it was repeatedly shown on the TV (the power of Disney). Growing up I  must have seen it about 20 times and loved it more and more every time. Far more low budget and simple than Spielberg's sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind and it was Disney's introduction to a the powerful Sci-fi genre that was dominant at that time. It captured (on an admittedly less advanced level) the awe and wonder that was inspired by the idea of alien encounters and successfully presented it to a Disney audience. Like Batteries not Included or Short Circuit, this film filled wide young eyes with exciting images of technology and science, and embodied it's potential to take you into intrepid new territory; exploring humanity, showcased against new alien experiences.

Yes that's SJP

The Flight of the Navigator's plot is pretty bonkers and it's a fun, totally farfetched and touching film because it shows how the young spirit can span old ideas, conquer fear, embrace adventures, then simply return home unscathed. I  will never forget the scene when David first discovers the spaceship in the woods and sometimes wonder what it would be like to go out one night and drive a space ship then return home and simply go to bed. What a ride! What a film!