Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove
Over the holidays, I was able to get back in touch with some of my roots. By roots, I mean the joy inducing movies that changed my life when I was a child. In my nostalgic phase, I watched one of my all time favorites: Disney’s Flight of the Navigator. How I loved the feeling of reliving something that meant so much to me when I was a kid.
Now, Disney is going to ruin all that. According to the Hollywood Reporter, they are slated to remake the wonderful 1986 science fiction adventure film.
For those of you having a hard time remembering, let me give you a quick recap. A 12-year-old boy named David falls down a ravine, only to wake up 8 years in the future. When he returns home, his parents are relieved to see that he is alright, but NASA asks that he stay with them on their base for 48 hours so they can conduct tests. You see, his reappearance has coincided with the finding of a slick metallic space craft, with which he seems to be communicating.
During his time on the base, the space craft calls out to him, so he sneaks out of his room and finds it. He is whisked away in the ship by a silly robotic alien computer, who he renames Max. They travel around the globe while Max gathers his start charts from David’s brain to get back to his planet. Along the way, they form a friendship.
As a product of the 1980s, this film meant a lot to me. It is filled with cheesy 80s quotes, videos, and hairdos. But not only that, it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside, too. The robot space alien becomes loveable…and David is certainly a character from my childhood that I will never forget.
This new, probably not so good, version of Flight of the Navigator is being written by Brad Copeland, the same writer who wrote Disney’s Wild Hogs. He has also done work on the television shows Arrested Development and My Name is Earl.
My question: Why can’t they let sleeping dogs lie? Everyone knows that remakes are never as good as their originals. Nonetheless, I just ordered Flight of the Navigator off ebay for $5.00. I’ll just bide my time with that…and maybe, just maybe, I will see the new one when it comes out.
Maybe.
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