DVD: Buy Forbidden Planet Online

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Forbidden Planet, was MGM's high-budget, risky venture at making the one of the finest Color Sci-Fi classics in the 50's. Unlike many of the low budget movies of the genre, FP remains to this day a very entertaining and captivating film. I have to say, that it changed my life as a kid, because it gave me the desire to explore more books about Sci-Fi. Now, I am a Software Engineer with thousands of video tapes. Monster movies are my favorites, and speaking of monsters, the one in FP is on the top of my list of BEST MONSTERS (those you really don't want to ever meet in a dark...even a well lit alley).

The story: Based on a screenplay by Irving Block and Allen Adler (Fatal Planet), it takes its inspiration from Shakespears's THE TEMPEST. In a nutshell, Spacemen come to rescue a lost group of colonists, only to find that most have died long ago. Only Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) remain. They tell Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen) that 20 years ago, when they first landed, some invisible power killed everyone but Dr.Morbius and his wife (now deceased from natural causes). Soon, we find that the good Doctor has discovered that the KRELL, a once powerful race of aliens, lived below the surface of Altair-4 (where they are) and they created a machine that is 20x20x20 miles square (thats 8000 cubic miles of Klystrons and Relays...and they never stop self repairing themselves!). Well, before you know it, the Monster is back...and people are dying...and well, the big, bad disintigrator beams from the ship's main weapons are NOT stopping it!

I must mention that this was the first movie with ROBBY THE ROBOT. ROBBY was based on Asimov's Robots Rules of order, and for the most part was just a big lovable teady-bear. He could never hurt anyone, but watch how Morbius proves this by having Robby point a "BLASTER" at the Commander! The way Nielsen clinches his fists was so telling!.

The sets were beautiful, the saucer flys perfectly (notice the shadows and the dust when it lands). So much here that you simply must watch very closely to the detail, it really is worth it. Speaking of detail, the Monster was pretty easy...because it was MOSTLY invisible. Joshua Meador (on loan from Disney Studios) made the animation of the monster. It is Crude by comparison to the new Computer Generated Animation (CGA), but for its time it was AWESOME! The monster, by the way, is powered by 2700 thermo-nuclear reactors, and can recreate itself, microsecond after microsecond! NO! IT CANNOT BE DESTROYED! (You thought ALIENS were tough! HAH!) Well, there is a little love story going on with the Commander and Altaira, and Daddy doesn't like it. Go Figure! Anyway, I won't give it all away, just GET IT AND ENJOY!

For a SNEAK PREVIEW, Surf the Web and go to http://www.planetario.it/fbhome.htm , this is an unofficial Forbidden Planet webpage and will give you some more details that I can give here. END

It's been over 30 years since I barely caught the tail end of this movie on a black and white tv set in Philadelphia, and it's still the best movie I've ever seen! And it's one of only 3 movies I love to watch again and again!

Here are the basics: the producers and creative team took Shakespeare's "The Tempest," moved the story to the year 2200 A.D., created a soundtrack called "electronic tonalities," cast Walter Pidgeon--a veteran of over 100 movies-- and turned him into a mad scientist, gave Leslie Neilsen a chance to show what a terrific, well rounded leading man he is, made Anne Francis a fabulous scientist's daughter, and threw in super character actors Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly ("Maverick"), Richard Anderson ("The Six Million Dollar Man"), and Earl Holliman ("Police Woman"), and invented the most eloquent, talented, and likable robot ever to grace the screen, and mixed science fiction, a love story, and a murder mystery on a planet light years away from Earth!

Walter Pidgeon is Morbius, the sole survivor of an Earth expedition years before, a philologist who is living alone on Altair 4 with Altaira (Anne Francis), his young sexy daughter, and a robot, Robby, who speaks "187 languages and a variety of subtongues," when Commander J.J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and his crew arrive from Earth in the C-57D, a flying saucer.

The saucer lands, and Nielsen and his crew soon learn that Pidgeon's colleagues were all murdered, as he tells them, "torn literally limb from limb by soem mysterious force that never once showed itself." Leslie Nielsen plays his role very much like Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, tough but fair, a ladies man, and carefully adding up the clues to gradually find the killer.

"Forbidden Planet" is a beautiful movie, a textbook on how a movie should be made: have actors who look the part and who have good voices, write a great script, and use terrific music, props, and special effects. And throw in the old "Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl theme!"

(And it's obvious that Gene Roddenberry spent a LOT of time watching this movie because "Star Trek" is an obvious "Forbidden Planet" ripoff! )

"Forbidden Planet" is better than "Star Wars" because it's more mature, better than "Gone With the Wind" because it deals with the future, not the past, and better than "Titanic" because Leslie Nielsen is a leading man both in Romance and in Action--you just know he's going to find a way to win his leading lady, and not lose her forever, like Leonardo DiCaprio did in "Titanic!"

But the best way to describe "Forbidden Planet" is to quote Leslie Nielsen's final line in the movie, "It will remind us... after all...that we are not God..."

Chari Krishnan Tango2200@Hotmail.Com

WHAT A CAST!!! WHAT A SCREENPLAY!!! WHAT FANTASTIC MUSIC!!! WHAT A ROBOT!!! WHAT A MOVIE!!! The producers of FORBIDDEN PLANET took Shakespeare's "The Tempest," teleported the play to the year 2200 in outer space, threw in the United Planets flying saucer C 57 D, a rugged, handsome space commander, a mad scientist and his beautiful daughter, a long dead race called the Krel, an invisible Monster from the Id, the best robot ever to appear on a movie screen--Robby--and a terrific cast with LEADING MAN OF ACTION Leslie Nielsen, beautiful Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Earl Holliman, and character actor Richard Anderson, plus:Freudian Psychology, a murder mystery, and a classic boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl love story with a white hot finish, and it's nothing less than the best science fiction movie ever made!!!

Or as Leslie Nielsen says in FORBIDDEN PLANET's final scene, "It will remind us...after all...that we are not God..."

Chari Krishnan RESEARCHKING