Forbidden Planet (Two-Disc Special Edition) | 
 enlarge | Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $26.98
Buy New: $17.57
You Save: $9.41 (35%)
New (41) Used (17) from $12.98
Rating:  356 reviews
Sales Rank: 4239
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 98
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 66912
UPC: 012569691223
EAN: 0012569691223
ASIN: B000HEWEDK
Theatrical Release Date: March 15, 1956
Release Date: November 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
This 1956 pop adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest is one of the best, most influential science fiction movies ever made. Its space explorers are the models for the crew of Star Trek's Enterprise, and the film's robot is clearly the prototype for Robby in Lost in Space. Walter Pidgeon is the Prospero figure, presiding over a paradisiacal world with his lovely young daughter and their servile droid. When the crew of a spaceship lands on the planet, they become aware of a sinister invisible force that threatens to destroy them. Great special effects and a bizarre electronic score help make this movie as fresh, imaginative, and fun as it was when first released. --Amazon.com On the DVDs
On disc 1 of the colorfully designed 2-disc 50th Anniversary Edition of Forbidden Planet (also available in a collector's box), the movie is presented with a new digital transfer from restored picture and audio elements, with soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, offering considerable improvement over the film's previous DVD release. A selection of deleted scenes were taken from a faded and scratchy 16-millimeter "work print" that had originally been viewed by composers Louis and Bebe Barron as they were creating the film's unique electronic score; they consist of full or partial scenes cut from the final film-- mostly for good reason, but collectors (and those who first saw this rare material on the original Criterion Collection laserdisc) will welcome their inclusion here. The "lost footage" is crude special-effects test footage, primarily of interest to sci-fi historians and aficionados. Given the fact that the original "Robby the Robot" cost over $100,000 to build in 1955, it's easy to see why MGM wanted to get their money's worth: An excerpt from the 1950s TV series "MGM Parade" shows Forbidden Planet star Walter Pigeon appearing briefly with Robby, and the popular robot gets even more attention as a guest star in "The Robot Client," an episode of the Thin Man TV series (starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk) that originally aired on Feb. 28, 1958. Disc 1 also includes a gallery of seven science-fiction movie trailers dating from 1953 (The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) to 1960's The Time Machine. Disc 2 begins with 1957's The Invisible Boy, a still-enjoyable B-movie that served as Robby's post-Forbidden Planet showcase. Here, filmdom's favorite automaton plays sidekick to a young boy (Richard Eyer) who turns invisible when he gets caught up in a super-computer's scheme of global domination. Also included are three documentaries, ranging from very good to excellent: In addition to reuniting the surviving cast members of the '56 classic (including Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, Richard Anderson, Warren Stevens, and Earl Holliman), "Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet" is an appreciative tribute to Forbidden Planet with some of Hollywood's foremost sci-fi fans including special effects masters Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett, SF movie expert Bill Warren, and others. "Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon" is a featurette about the robot's design, creation and pop-cultural history, featuring original "Robby" designer Robert Kinoshita, Bill Malone (current owner of the original Robby), and Fred "The Robot Man" Barton, a lifelong robot fanatic who now sells fully authorized, full-scale replicas of Robby for sci-fi fans with deep pockets. Closing out disc 2 is "Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us," a 2005 documentary from Turner Classic Movies, written and directed by Time magazine critic Richard Schickel. It's a thoroughly comprehensive survey of '50s sci-fi and its influence on the next generation of film directors, including engaging interviews with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Ridley Scott and James Cameron. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
A dutiful robot named Robby speaks 188 languages. An underground lair offers evidence of an advanced civilization. But among Altair-4's many wonders none is greater or more deadly than the human mind. Forbidden Planet is the granddaddy of tomorrow a pioneering work whose ideas and style would be reverse-engineered into many cinematic space voyages to come. Leslie Nielsen plays the commander who brings his spacecruiser crew to the green-skied world that's home to Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) his daughter (Anne Francis)...and to a mysterious terror. Featuring sets of extraordinary scale and the first all-electronic musical soundscape in film history Forbidden Planet is in a movie orbit all its own.Running Time: 98 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSIC UPC: 012569691223 Manufacturer No: 66912
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| Customer Reviews: Read 351 more reviews...
 digital remix fantastic October 3, 2008
It's been more than twenty years since I've seen this movie and the remake is absolutely awesome. I watched the film with my 10 year old grandson and he said the film was great. He couldn't believe that the film was made over 50 years ago. The color and graphics were great and the audio was very good. I couldn't recommend a better movie for entertainment.
 His evil self at the door September 30, 2008
1.Altair 4, twenty years earlier science crew explored the planet. The mission is to find survivors.
2.Oxygen content 4.7% richer than earth air content.
3.Not cities, no sign of civilization, but the crew was radar scan from an area twenty miles square.
4.United Planets cruisers, Captain John J. Adams makes verbal contact with Edward Morbius, who rejects the offer for help and insists that the ship turn away and warns of danger. Captain JJ Adams decides to take a land crew and survey the situation. The landing location is in the middle of a desert and crew are instructed to wear side arms.
5.A robot navigating like a "mad man" is to transport the crew to the residence. The robot can speak a 180 languages. The robot is named Robbie.
6.The crew eats a synthetic meal was replicated by Robbie. Robbie is simply a tool. Robbie can not injure human life. Edward Morbius illustrates how safe and comfortable to the Captain and encourages him to leave.
7.The planet was occupied by an advanced civilization.
8.Morbius staff have all died of a mysterious deaths. The coworkers were torn limb from limb. The dark force has not attack Morbius and lying close at hand.
9.Morbius daughter, Altair, emerges and is introduced to the crew.
10.Cap JJ Adams must make contact with base earth for instructions. A special communication device must be constructed to contact earth. The estimated time to complete is ten days.
11.The monster is invisible. Valuable property was taken.
12.Ancient Hieroglyphics, the Krell, million years ahead of human, solved sickness, no crime, then turned outward to space, walked earth, and in one night they perished. Krell metal can drink up energy like a sponge, impenetrable to blasters.
13.Krell final project was a civilization without instrumentality.
14.Ventilator shafts spanning twenty miles in both directions, 7,800 levels, 400 shafts, a single machine, 8,000 cubic miles, and 16 years ago a modification was made to the machine, and 92 thermonuclear reactors. Morbius will administer the release of Krell technology.
15.The cook and Robot were drinking alcohol while the monster attacked the ship and killed the Chief. The robot could not be the killer.
16.Special cannon lasers and an energy fence are initiated to stop the monster. Automatic control attacks a mysterious shape, big as a house, radar blip, and the crew drives back the monster.
17.Morbius alternate mind has created the monster using the Krell mind machine. The mind machine has an infinite energy source and the krell doors can not protect Morbius. His evil self at the door.
18.24 hours to be a hundred million miles in space before self-destruction.
DVD REVIEW September 29, 2008
I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THE DVD. PRICE WAS GOOD AND IT WAS SHIPPED AND DELIVERED QUICK.
LOVE OLD SCI-FI MOVIES September 16, 2008
I have always loved the old sci-fi movies from when i was a kid...this is one of my fave. I was very happy to find and buy it. It takes me back...what fun!!
Top notch September 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
When one thinks of 1950s science fiction films one thinks of the sort of schlocky black and white B films that were parodied on the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 television show. Yet, while there were far more films like Plan 9 From Outer Space and Robot Monster than good films, the 1950s did have some very good, if not great, science fiction films like The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, War Of The Worlds, and The Thing From Another World. Yet, the best of the bunch, for its literacy and production values, was undoubtedly MGM's first big foray into A level science fiction, Forbidden Planet, released in 1956. It was a 98 minute color film, directed by Fred M. Wilcox, that featured then state of the art special effects, and was endowed with a very good screenplay by Cyril Hume, from a screen treatment called Fatal Planet, by Irving Block and Allen Adler, who adapted aspects of William Shakespeare's The Tempest into it.
The film drew raves when it was released, for its Oscar nominated special effects, its all electronic music score, by Louis and Bebe Barron (although credited as Electronic Tonalities, to avoid music guild fees), vivid matte paintings- inspired by Chesley Bonestell, and the famed Monster Of The Id (MOTI), which was animated by an animator, Joshua Meador, on loan from the Walt Disney studio. Even more famous was the appearance of Robby The Robot, in his first role in either film or television. Later he would appear in the film The Invisible Boy- included in this DVD as a bonus, as well as several appearances in the 1960s sci fi tv shows The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and Lost In Space- with whose own robot he is often confused, and a cameo appearance in the 1984 film Gremlins.
The tale is simple, but elegantly constructed, and filled with humorous asides that leaven the forced `love story' aspect in the film. In the 23rd Century, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D- a flying saucer, led by Commander J.J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen- yes he was once a leading man type before his Police Squad days), is en route to the planet Altair IV, to investigate what happened to the crew of the Bellerophon, sent to the planet twenty years earlier. After a year's journey, there they encounter the lone survivor of the party, Doctor Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), the Prospero stand-in- a philologist, his gorgeous blond daughter Altaira (Anne Francis)- the Miranda character in a pre 1960s miniskirt, and Robby the Robot, the domestic servant who is the Calibanian counterpart. Morbius warns the crew of a mysterious force that killed the Bellerophon party in their first year, yet he was immune to it.... All in all, it's a technically good film- especially with some rear projections and matte paintings, and the absurdity of the adult reactions to Timmy's and Robby's exploits borders an Dalian surreal absurdity. Yet, it's manifest that the filmmakers had no sense of the sublime absurdity the film conjures, for it's played straight, thus making it even funnier. As for the main feature? Forbidden Planet deserves all its kudos. It's not a perfect film, but it's a great way to spend a couple of hours, and far better than Star Wars, which although made twenty years later seems much more outdated, and juvenile. Only such films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Alien and Aliens, and the first two Terminator films, have really equaled or surpassed this classic in depth and effects.
It's worth knowing that, despite Forbidden Planet's `happy ending', there is the possibility that the MOTI is still dormant within Alta, as well. After all, she is her father's daughter, and had an even more vivid nightmare than her father when the MOTI attacked the ship a second time. Also, the film wisely only `shows' the MOTI once, and never shows the Krel, for the imagination can always conjure greater scares than the best special effects. The film also makes good use of narrative ellipses to condense the tale, something that far more realistic art films often fail to do. Forbidden Planet is one of those rare films that both defines yet transcends its era- unlike other sci fi films which were rather obvious Cold War allegories. Watch it, and you will agree, as well as sleep a little less easy. But, even if you don't, there's still the scene of Anne Francis skinnydipping. That alone is timeless.
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