Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different movie from the Nerd-o-sphere.  This week, Patrick and Dave jump into the way-back machine and review the Disney cult classic kids’ movie Flight of the Navigator

• The Flick:  Flight of the Navigator
• What’s it About: In 1978, 12 year old David Freeman is sent by his parents to pick up his younger brother from a neighbor’s house.  Walking in a nearby wood along the way home, David accidentally falls into a small valley, hits his head and loses consciousness.  When David awakens, he finds himself in the year 1986, although he hasn’t aged a day and feels like he has been gone only a few hours.  Meanwhile, NASA has discovers a strange space ship that has crashed on the outskirts of David’s hometown.  As doctor’s try to determine what happened to David, they stumble upon a strange connection between David and the ship.  This connection holds the key to the mystery surrounding David’s disappearance.
• Metacritic Score: 64

The Nerds’ Take on Flight of the Navigator (1986):

Dave:  Recently, Disney announced plans to remake Flight of The Navigator. It was an announcement that had one Patrick O’Dowd very excited. I, on the other hand, came to realize that much to my shame I had never seen the movie. I had certainly heard about it enough but, for one reason or another, had never seen it. This week seemed like a perfect time to rectify this problem.

Flight of the Navigator is a Sci-Fi based Family movie that really captures the essence of the 80’s very well. In 1978, 12-year-old David Freeman has ventured into the woods to find his younger brother Jeff. Jeff scares David and takes off running. David hears something and decides to investigate. He comes upon a small ravine and as he looks over the edge he falls. The fall knocks him out. He comes to and heads home. It is here that things get very interesting though as there are different people living in David’s former home. He is picked up by the police who soon discover that David has been missing for eight years and was presumed dead. Although he was gone for eight years, David has not aged a day. He is reunited with his family, but they have aged normally. Naturally, this time paradox grabs the attention of NASA, who is already on high alert because they have recovered an alien craft that crashed into some power lines.

David is taken to a NASA holding facility where numerous tests are run upon him. They soon discover that his mind is filled with a staggering amount of information that a 12-year-old boy has no earthly business knowing. We then discover that David was not so much abducted as he was borrowed by Trimaxion, the controller of the alien ship, who soon becomes known as Max for short. Max explains to David that he frequently borrows creatures from across the cosmos for a variety of purposes but always travels back in time to return these other creatures to the exact moment in time when they were taken. Max could not do this with David due to the dangers that time-travel would present to the human body. Max also explains that because humans only use 10% of their brains, he and the other denizens of the planet Phaelon filled the rest of David’s brain with all sorts of information. Max now has to retrieve that information to fulfil his mission. During this mind transfer, Max acquires some of David’s more human characteristics and ends up being a quite funny companion. David, meanwhile, just wants to go home. Once he gets home though, he realizes he will forever be pursued by NASA as a guinea pig and he says goodbye to his family to leave for Phaelon with Max. En route though, Max tells David he has to time-travel to return the other creatures on the ship to their proper timeline. David makes the choice to take a chance that he will survive time-travel so he can be returned to 1978. David survives the journey and rejoins his family in 1978, a lot wiser and more appreciative of the life he nearly lost.

It is all enormous amounts of fun and heart with just enough Sci-Fi to really keep you interested. There are some loosely based physics principals in play here, along with a nod to the Theory of Relativity. But it never comes close to overwhelming the plot. This is, after all, primarily a kid’s movie. David’s story is enormously endearing and it is so very easy to empathize with his plight here. What would any of us do if the world around us had aged 8 years, but we had not? It is a fascinating paradox and Flight of the Navigator handled the conundrum excellently. The relationship between David and Max, and how it evolves, is very enjoyable. The best part for me was seeing David’s relationship with his younger brother Jeff and how that all comes full circle. Before his “abduction” David and Jeff despise each other. After David’s disappearance and return though, he and Jeff become as tight as brothers can be and it is Jeff who helps David find his way, in more ways than one, by the end of everything. There are so many places in this movie where you just feel warm and fuzzy inside, which is exactly how it was meant to make you feel.

Now, not everything is great. Max is voiced by Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman. When Max acquires some of David’s more human characteristics, the Pee Wee Herman comes out in force and is a bit too prevalent. I never liked Pee Wee Herman so maybe that’s just a me thing. The creatures and puppetry involved will likely not blow you away either but was fine, all things considered. Overall, the special effects are good but not great, although it should be noted that this was one of the first movies to use CGI. The cast is also quite good. Joey Cramer is fantastic as David and delivers a truly memorable performance. Howard Hesseman is also very good as Dr. Louis Faraday. We also get an appearance from a very young Sarah Jessica Parker as Carolyn, who takes a liking to David and, inadvertently, helps him escape. Except for Reubens, the rest of the cast is not nearly as well-known but they deliver a very good performance across the board.

After the bad taste left in my mouth after watching Malignant last week, Flight of the Navigator was a joy to watch. It is enormously fun, tremendously heart-warming, has just enough Sci-Fi to make it really interesting, and is buoyed by some excellent performances, especially from Joey Cramer. I am very glad I finally got around to seeing this. It is not perfect, but it’s quasi cult-classic status is very well deserved. I will absolutely be watching the reboot when it comes out. This is one I can absolutely recommend.

Dave’s Rating:  4.0/5.0

Patrick:  I have a brief story for you, noble reader.  I couldn’t make this past week’s recording of “Bandwagon Nerds.”  So, as I listened this week, like many of you I hope, I was stunned when the conversation turned to Flight of the Navigator and that of the four Nerds present, only PC Tunney had seen the movie.  This was an outrage I could not allow to stand, and thus, at least the lawyer Dave Ungar will have seen this classic 80’s kids film.  PC Tunney talked on the show about how he forced his parents to pay all of the late fees at Blockbuster for this movie.  I was right there with him.  In fact, I love this movie so much, it was the first anything I streamed when Disney+ went live two years ago.  I was thrilled to see that the movie holds up really, really well as it tells the tale of a boy and the unlikely friendship he forms with an alien spacecraft.

The movie begins in 1978 and introduces the audience young David Freeman and his family enjoying the Fourth of July.  That evening, David is sent to meet his brother Jeff and bring him home from a neighbor’s house.  Along the way, David is walking through a nearby wood when he falls into a ravine, hits his head and loses consciousness. When David wakes up he returns home to find strangers living in his house with no idea who David is or where his family could be.  In the custody of police, David is reunited with his family and he learns that he was reported missing eight years ago.  Yet, while time has passed on Earth, David has not aged at all.  At the same time of David’s return, NASA discovers a mysterious silver spacecraft on the outskirts of a city.  The ship is impregnable, but can be moved.  Lead NASA scientist Dr. Louia Faraday, directs the team to take the ship to a warehouse at NASA for study.

As David is being studied by doctors to determine what happened to him to keep him from aging, they stumble upon a strange image produced in a computer by David’s brain: it is an image of the recently discovered ship.  David also confides inJeff that something is calling to him, but he does not know what it is.  David’s doctor’s report their findings to NASA and Dr. Faraday asks for 48 hours to research the connection between David and the Spacecraft.  David’s parents reluctantly agree.  As Dr. Faraday and NASA scientists attempt to question David about his accident and read his brainwaves, they discover strange star charts stored in David’s brain and something communicates with the scientists telling them David has been on a planet called Phelon.  Before thet can learn more David becomes upset and runs off.  Later that evening, the voice in David’s head returns and guides David to the hanger with the ship.  Once there the ship reveals itself to be the one communicating with David.  After a brief encounter with NASA scientists and security, David boards the ship and it takes them out of the hanger.

Once away from the hanger the ship reveals that it was sent various worlds from Phelon in order to stud other forms of life.  When Pheleans learned that humans do not fully use their brain, they fill Davi’s with information about the universe, including star charts.  The ship tells David that it inadvertently crashed into a power plant which wiped its star charts from it’s computers, so the ship needs the star charts in David’s head to help it return to Phelon, hence David is the Ship’s navigator.  David agrees on the condition that he be returned to his parents and not to NASA.  This leads to an adventure as the two try to evade NASA and get the ship, eventually named Max, back to Phelon.

That is easily the longest summary I’ve ever written for a Nerd Review, but that should give you an idea who much I love this movie.  So let me get to why I love this movie.  It begins and ends with the friendship developed between David and the spaceship Max.  Like many other stories, the pair begin the tale somewhat at odds.  This is mostly Due to David being rightfully angry that he was plucked from his family and cannot be returned to them in 1978 for fear by Max that his frail human body could not survive time travel.  Yet, as David, played by young Joey Kramer, and Max, voiced beautifully by Paul Reubens, work together they form a genuine bond.  This bond is mostly formed through David teaching Max what it means to be human, specifically, what it means to have emotions such humor.  As a result, when you reach the film’s climax, Max and David’s bond inform the course of the film’s finale.

The other reason I loved this film growing up and still do today is the ship.  There’s no denying it, the ship is really stinking cool.  To begin with, the ship (Max) is one of the first times I can remember outside of The Last Starfighter where CGI was heavily used.  The special effects team really wanted to show the capabilities of their technology, the ship changes shape many times during the movie and the special effects crew do a masterful job manipulating the environment to present the illusion the ship is real.  The first scene where Max takes off from the hanger and blows the roof off of a shed, looks incredibly realistic.  The timing of the animation and effects are perfect.  Couple these effects with what still looks like a futuristic craft in 2021 and you have one engaged Patrick.  Add Paul Reubens voicing Max and the ship isn’t just cool, it’s fun too.  You know why?  Because Reubens uses the Pee Wee Herman voice for the final 30 minutes of the film, but not as a gimmick.  The voice is an evolution of Max as it learns about the lighter side of being human.  It’s brilliant and still spoke to my child some 40 years after debuting in theaters.

The movie’s runtime is brief, but Disney really went out it’s way to jam pack a great deal of fun in Flight of the Navigators runtime.  If you are looking for a little bit of nostalgic Sci-Fi you can watch as a family, Flight of the Navigator is a surefire hit.  I cannot recommend it enough.

Patrick’s Rating: 4.88/5.0

Overall Nerds’ Rating for Flight of the Navigator (1986): 4.44/5.0