I'm trying to remember the name of a movie that I remember seeing around the same time as Flight of the Navigator.

It had the usual bunch of annoying kids, the usual kid's love interest -- kid doesn't realise girl fancies him until the end of the film -- you know the score.

Anyway, some aliens were channelling dreams into the kid's head, giving him instructions on how to build a spaceship. He then proceeds to build it out of old washing machine parts.

When they get to the alien spaceship, they discover that one of the aliens talks in adverts (based on limited exposure to Earth TV).

Eventually, it turns out that the aliens are just some kids having a lark with their dad's spaceship, and that he's really annoyed. Our heroes make their exit shortly before "dad" turns up, and make it safely back to earth, where our hero and his girlfriend share their first kiss.

Any ideas?

That was a funny movie! I used to like it a lot

And no, ehm... I can't remember its title, I'm sorry ... But I'm working on it

The Explorers?

Explorers



DAMN! always too slow!

The Explorers.

Grrrr..... That was a lot of responses at once!

I remember that movie! Flight of the Navigator was the best, too. God I love that movie. I just rented it again a couple months ago.

I had no idea Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix were in that movie. Wow was that a long time ago...

The aliens were pretty damn funny. Great movie :-)

"Explorers", produced by Spielberg, special FX by ILM. If you want to read the Cinefex article on the film, go to the Cinefex site and search for the online article. Same team eventually went on to produce "Batteries Not Included". I have the ILM effects book describing the making of the movie if you are interested.

If any of you have an interest in any particular special effects film, I have Cinefex mags dating back (patchily) to 1988. Ask for them at the Amersfoort meet.

Say... if you're so interested in the visual effects industry that you have Cinefex mags that old, and would be interested in relocating to Los Angeles to work in the biz, nows the time to give it a try -- every major studio is hurting for people.

I have two ILM books -- "The Art of Special Effects", and "Into the Digital Realm". Expensive books that I never look at any more. They look nice on my shelf, though.

These are the two I have - truly excellent books.

You surprise me about effects houses. I know they got hit a while ago - but the problem is, they were (when I last looked) looking more for experienced artists rather than software engineers to write code. Maybe I'm wrong? Any good contact pointers?