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Fantastic Voyage [VHS]

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Fans of 60's science fiction will appreciation the deluxe terrific reissue of "Fantastic Voyage" put out by Fox. While very much a product of the mid-60's, "Fantastic Voyage" holds up surprisingly well in just about every area. I doubt that fans need a recap of the plot but I have one at the end of this review if you're interested.

First up we get a brand new marvelous looking transfer for the film. It isn't perfect but it couldn't be because of the source material. Some shots appear soft and a bit blurry due to the process photography/visual effects added to shots but that's unavoidable and fairly typical of films from this time before digital video. Colors are bold and as bright as I remember them.

Unlike the previous release we get some really good extras as well. The featurette on visual effects has Richard Edlund ("Close Encounters", "Blade Runner") discussing the difficulty of shooting a visual effects film like "Fantastic Voyage" in 1965 (it was releasedin 1966). Like "Forbidden Planet", "Fantastic Voyage" pushed the barrier of visual effects for its times something NOT appreciated by a lot of viewers. Edlund points out that building the Proetus both in full size and miniature allowed director Richard Flesicher opportunities that most directors wouldn't have in being flexible in his shooting. Also, the Proetus full scale exterior had an interior set mimicing the set for the inside of the ship which allowed them to shoot through the windows and not worry about having to do mattes as often creating a convincing environment.

We also get an isolated music score with a commentary track as well featuring Nick Redman, Jon Burlingame and Jeff Bond discussing Leonard Rosenman's marvelous music score. They are quiet about 40 minutes in when Rosenman's score kicks in but the first 40 minutes these music/film historians focus on everything from the casting, to bits of trivia about the shooting of the film. We also get storyboard to film comparison of the whirlpool scene as well as a deleted scene from the script with storyboard illustrations. The electronic press booklet includes the original press booklet. My only complaint is its a bit too small to read at times even on a big screen TV but otherwise looks quite good. We also get some of the movie-tie-in's including a mention of Isaac Asimov's novel adapted from the script (where he fixed some of the holes in the script and science gaffs). We get lobby cards, posters, radio and TV ads as well as the original theatrical trailer. The interactive portion of the gallery also allows us a 360 view of the 5 foot model of the Proetus as well as its smaller (just a couple of inches)version used for long shots and designed for visual effects mattes.

Fox has done a very nice job on this 40th Anniversary Edition (even if it is a year late)of this classic Science Fiction film. Sure, the dialogue is occasionally awkward but it's a film very much of its time and holds up remarkably well with strong performances by Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasance (in one of his first roles as a villain), Arthur Kennedy, Raquel Welch and others.

***
Plot: Set during the Cold War, Grant (Stephen Boyd) is called in to escort Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) a man with information vital to the safety and security of the United States. When their motorcade is attacked, Benes is injured and goes into a coma. Grant is again recruited this time to accompany a team of a surgeon (Arthur Kennedy), government doctor (Donald Pleasance), nurse (Raquel Welch) and Navy pilot (William Redfield) on a journey of tiny proportions. They are going to be miniaturized be injected into Benes and travel in a state-of-the-art sub called the Proteus to destroy the blood clot threatening Benes life. Complications arise, however, when it appears they may have a saboteur in their midst.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE has always puzzled me a bit. Well, not the movie itself, but the seeming lack of critical or popular accolades it has been given. Growing up in the seventies, I recall it was a staple of "All Nite Movies" on the only channel we received that stayed on all night. And the film was just a marvel to my young eyes: A team of scientists, including the incomparable Raquel Welch, is miniaturized and injected into the bloodstream of a comatose patient. What follows is a colorful and thrill-packed journey inside the human body. The crew of the Proteus encounters the body's natural defense systems, nearly gets smashed by the awesome force of the beating heart, and has to repair damaged blood vessels in the brain.

Doesn't that sound great?

It is, but like I said, for some reason the film is rarely talked about, even among hardcore classic science fiction fans. Be that as it may, 20th Century Fox is finally giving this often-overlooked film the deluxe treatment. Previously availabe in a double-feature disc with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - Global Warming Edition--which is also getting a bonus-filled overhaul to coincide with this release--Fantastic Voyage can now be enjoyed and appreciated with a wealth of supplemental materials.

Except for the theatrical trailer, all the extras included on this disc were created especially for this release. There's a documentary on the film's production, audio commentary track, isolated music track, and a cool feature (comprised of both video and still picture segments) on the film's props.

Whether, like me, you're revisiting some great childhood memories, or just discovering this intelligent and exciting film for the first time, this is one VOYAGE worth taking.

After his successful direction of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", Richard Fleisher tried his hand with a new kind of submarine... His "Fantastic Voyage" ventured upon the unfamiliar seas of the human bloodstream, and carried the magic of miniaturization to its logical limits-the shrinking of four men and a woman to microbe size, making the voyage entirely rough and hazardous...

The plot follows a team of three scientists: a surgeon (Arthur Kennedy); his technical assistant (Raquel Welch); the chief of the mission (Donald Pleasance), plus the skipper of the ship William Redfield and a security agent Stephen Boyd for a possible "surgical assassination"...

The interesting submarine ("The Proteus") is miniaturized by a secret branch called CMDF (Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces) and injected into the bloodstream of a defecting Russian scientist who has suffered brain injury and a coma from an assassination attempt... The crew must navigate to the scientist's brain and destroy the point of damage with a laser blast within a 60-minute time period...

Although the plot is a tedious matter of implausible sabotage, "Fantastic Voyage" is a film of authentic wonder: The fascinating environment of tissues and organs of the human body through which the actors move are life-sized sets exquisitely reconstructed in great detail with amazing artistry...

The plot creates a constant era of suspense... The ship and its crew are continually threatened by the system's natural defenses... Leonard Rosenman's futuristic score nicely complements the bizarre on screen happenings: the strange sound of the human blood rushing through arteries; the rhythmical muscular movements of the heart where 'every beat separates the human being from eternity.'

With two Oscar Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction, 'Fatastic Voyage' is certainly the most unusual journey into the human body, the first film to portray the vast world of inner space...

What was my favorite movie from when I was a child? I would have guessed "Mary Poppins", because of how much I wanted to see and re-see it. Others that would compete with it include "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear", "The Jungle Book", "Batman", "The Aristocats", "Never A Dull Moment", "Yellow Submarine", "That Darn Cat", and from watching it countless times on TV, of course, "The Wizard Of Oz". But when I think about it, my favorite would be more of a mature movie I saw with my dad when it first came out: "Fantastic Voyage."

Why did this become my favorite childhood movie? Because it actually mirrored the tastes I would grow into. For example, this movie was an adventure, with plenty of suspense. Second, it was a mystery, with a few clues thrown here and there. Third, it was science fiction, which prompted my creativity.

Another thing is that this movie is decent enough to see with your children. There are a couple of mild hints of our modern viewpoint, such as Grant's comment that CMDF (Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces) could stand for "Consolidated Mobilization of Delinquent Females", or showing Raquel Welch slip out of her outfit into a form fitting aquatic suit. But this film proves you can have a suspenseful adventure and entertaining movie without sex, language, and gore.

This movie is great at atmosphere, as well as special effects. It took five minutes into the movie before you heard the first word. There are a lot of sequences prior to the main action that there is no spoken dialog. This effectively keeps the viewer in the dark about what will happen next.


Consider this review complete if you have not seen it, because I'm about to spoil a surprise. Ready? One more thing that distinguishes this picture is a positive view of people of faith. There is a discussion between a person who believes in a creator and an athiestic evolutionist. Nowadays, the villain would undoubtedly be the former, but not so in this picture.

Let me respond to a couple of the not-as-enthusiastic reviews. One mentions we never know if the operation was successful, but that is an asumption that can be made, when we see how happy everyone is when they came out. Another jokes about the cold war mentality and shows the intolerance many evolutionists have to a discussion on the issue (the movie merely debates whether there was a Creator, and it did not answer the question). But there is no reference to Russia in the picture: merely a vague "the other side". Some people are naive to think we'll enter a world of perfect peace without war, short of a Creator that many don't want around.

After all these years, it's sad to see what science fiction has become. There was a time when sci-fi movies had a modicum of "sci" in them, not to mention intelligent storylines and suspenseful situations that rose directly out of the premise.The science in FV is sound--the makers of the film did their sophomore biology homework, as well as their basic physics homework.I show this to my grade-school students, as an example of 'good science fiction', and as an entertaining part of learning about various body systems.The visual effects are breathtaking and still convincing, even in this era of CGI.Lots of fun!

I saw Fantastic Voyage for the first time when I was still a kid on the TV. I liked it a lot and went on to read Asimov's novelization of the movie 's screenplay. I liked both of them. It should be told that the movie was not based on the book but rather the other way around. The acting was okay, the special effects great for the time the movie was made, and Raquel Welch in the eye of the boy was the best. I hope one day to have a copy of this video for my movie library just because. And it would be the perfect story for a remake in the next century, if someone like George Lucas were to produce it and Steven Spielberg directed it.

"Fantastic Voyage" is certainly worthy of its name, with imaginativeness, creativity and beauty (From Raquel Welch in particular). It also has a rather simple plot, which I shall outline for you. An eastern bloc scientist, who holds the knowledge to perfecting miniaturization warfare, is defecting to the Americans. However, an attempted assignation leaves him with brain damage. The only way to save the scientist's life is to miniaturize a team of surgeons and send them into the body. But they have only one hour to complete the mission and have to face threats such as the body's natural defenses and sabotage from within.

If there are complaints with "Fantastic Voyage", it is in some plot holes (Smart Alecs, in my opinion, should stay away and look elsewhere). Firstly, although it's extremely obvious who the saboteur is (He tries constantly to get the mission aborted and is always frantic), no one on board really seems to suspect him. The ending was also somewhat empty and unsatisfying (We never learn what happens to the scientist). Some will also love pointing out the plot clichés (The people in the control room always seem to know what the Proteus crew is thinking, even with no radio, and the sub crew always finds a way out of a problem). Many will also find scientific inaccuracies (My dad pointed out how well lit the human body was depicted) Then there is the impossibility of shrinking matter and placing it in other matter. Also, in terms of ideals, this film shows age. People in the 1960's believed that the future would be like it was in here and Kubrick's "2001". They thought one-day that humans would have established bases in space and would be able to miniaturize. How could they have known that computers and the World Wide Web would be the tools and thoughts of the future?

Some reviewers have suggested that "Fantastic Voyage" should be remade. I think that is a lousy idea. Sure the special effects and set design would be better. But a new version would be colder, darker, more violent and full of foul language. The heart and joy of the original would be gone. Also, notice that despite being the only woman onboard, Raquel Welch never seems to have interest with anyone else on the sub (Most of them are past her age, anyway). While she may not give the best performance, at least she is professional and knows her priorities. Would that stay the same in a remake?

So, while not without some problems, I wouldn't mind owning this movie. But I would especially love to see a widescreen edition (DVD preferably) released sometime soon.

This is one of the most imaginative science fiction films ever. No Martians or UFOs in this one, just a medical crew traveling through the body of a dying man in a miniaturized submarine in a race to save the man's life. Now who's going to tell me director Richard Fleischer doesn't have an imagination for movies? When a very important diplomat is nearly assassinated, a medical crew is shrunk down to microscopic size and is sent to embark on a journey to save him from a deadly blood clot. Once entering the body, they must make their way through gallons of plasma, bloodied canals, and vital organs and do it before they return to normal size. What a climax! Raquel Welch appears as one of the medical crew and if the imagery doesn't impress you, perhaps that will. There is nothing like seeing a beautiful woman with intelligence to compare (or so says Roger), not to mention the fact that she is wearing a mini skirt and at one point covered in goo. Now that might be something for some of you to behold (Roger coughs). Here's a movie that will entertain you, and at the same time, you might even learn a few things about the human anatomy. Oh, and did I mention this film won Oscars for art direction and special affects? Of course, you might find some of the effects laughable compared to what we can do today with technology, but at the time this movie was something to rave about.

An entertaining film by versatile director Richard Fleischer. The 2.35:1 picture is enhanced for widescreen displays and is of decent clarity.

I bought this movie to show my 6th graders since we are studying human body systems. I explained to them ahead of time that the special effects then were very different from today. They still seemed to enjoy the movie and even wrote comparison papers about it versus more modern movies. It is a great movie to show for the purpose intended.