ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

Bud, I'm assuming when you write that you didn't find anything to like about it, that is regarding the writing?

The legendary Derek Medding (and his team) designed & created fabulous miniatures. The film was nominated for Best Special Effects at the time.

I was also most impressed with the lavish looking sets throughout the movie. The mission control room, interrogation room, security area where crucial data is stored, office, and so forth.

The film is terrific eye-candy! The weakness is the story.

[Bud Brewster]

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Well, I hate to admit it, but I've never been a fan of the Anderson's miniatures in the things they did.

Harryhausen's method of moving the saucers in EvsFS, and the rocket in 20 Million Miles to Earth, is much more to my liking.

Randy Everette sent me a DVD-R box set of UFO. I've never managed to get through it.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

Back when this picture was made, I thought the miniatures were amazingly realistic. I still think they look pretty good.

[Bud Brewster]

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You're right, Scot. Those look awesome!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Thanks Scotpens for those marvelous photos of Derek Meddings (and his team) miniature work.

I also liked Ray's stop-motion animation for the alien flying saucers. It leant them an eerie, otherworldly kind of movement. And, indeed, they did hail from a different galaxy.

On the other hand, Ray's stop-motion animation for the earth spaceship returning from Venus was odd to me. We know what our rockets look like in reality when they fly through the air. Seeing this human made spaceship sail through the sky via stop-motion gave it a peculiarity to me that did not mesh well with the actual newsreel footage of rockets from that era. The rocket ship should have moved in a more believable and relatable manner, like the one seen in When Worlds Collide.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

No doubt, the When World's Collide was not perfectly executed given the visual effects technology available in that era, but it looked more normal to me than a human constructed rocket ship returning to earth with its very stylized stop-motion animation. Our rockets simply do not move like that even if the stop-motion is nicely done, as it always was by Ray.

[Bud Brewster]

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I made a revision in this post today which clarifies my thoughts a bit on this subject.
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I understand, Mike.

To be fair, I agree that real rockets don't look like stop motion — but they don't look like miniature rockets either.

So, as I said, it's just a matter of tastes, and you know I respect your opinion

In the interest of finding common ground, I LOVE the shot of the WWC rocket zooming down from the clouds before it hits the snow! It's visually similar to the one in 20 Million Miles to Earth when the rocket first appeared, but not done with stop motion, of course.

But I'm also more impressed with the shots of the ship after it landed in 20 Millon Miles to Earth than the ones in When World's Collide. They thrilled me to core when I saw them at the drive-in with my family in 1957!

Here's what I mean.











But they're both great movies with magnificent special effects!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)