Forbidden Planet [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

ISBN 10: 0792835719 ISBN 13: 9780792835714

Publisher: MGM/Ua Studios

Forbidden Planet is the granddaddy of tomorrow, a pioneering work whose ideas and style would be reverse-engineered into many cinematic space voyages to come. Leslie Nielsen plays the commander who brings his spacecruiser crew to Planet Altair-4, home to Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), his daughter (Anne Francis), a dutiful robot named Robby...and to a mysterious terror. Featuring sets of extraordinary scale and the first all-electronic musical soundscape in film history, Forbidden Planet is in a movie orbit all its own.

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From Amazon.co.uk

Ahead of its time in many, many ways, Forbidden Planet has been cemented in its role as a science fiction classic over the past few decades, to the point where its 50th birthday is being marked with this special DVD release.

What’s more, the iconic film has never looked better. The print of Forbidden Planet has been buffed up to a terrific standard, and while it’s a clich� to report that it’s never looked better, we challenge anyone to disagree.

The film too is just as compelling. Set in the 23rd century, on a far and distant star Professor Morbius, his daughter and Robby the Robot are seemingly alone, until a space craft from Earth arrives. This sets events in motion that bring a real human core to a genre where such a factor, right to this day, is often lacking.

But it’s not just that which makes Forbidden Planet continually worthy of attention. The special effects, for instance, are astounding given the era in which the film was made, while the ideas and ambition that underpin the production are equally of merit. At heart, though, it was and is an utterly compelling movie, which has had a long and profound influence on the genre as a whole.

This 50th anniversary edition also comes armed with extra features, notably several documentaries. But after all these years, it’s still the film that’s the star, and you simply wouldn’t wager against it enduring for another 50 years after this. --Jon Foster

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