Excursion to the Moon (1908)

"Excursion to the Moon" is Segundo de Chomon's version of the better known Melies film from 1902. As many other reviewers have stated, this film is a complete remake of the Melies film and Chomon obviously didn't take as much effort to make this as Melies did. There are a few changes (the rocket goes into the moons' mouth instead of it's eye, instead of the professor falling into a tub he is caught by a hook, one of the professors bring home a moon-girl and there's a dance too in the scene with the king of the moon-men). However, it is pretty much an imitation all the way through (although there are some additional scenes earlier on).What makes this film so good is the color. Pathe specialized in coloring their films and this one's no exception. A lot of scenes are tinted blue while some are in color. It's also a bit funny too because the scientists here don't make much preparation for the trip; they treat it more like a joyride and there's hardly any build-up. In the end, however, I would agree with framptonhollis. It may be a rip-off, but it's very nice to watch and holds up just as well as the Melies classic.

Depending on who you are and what your perspective is, "Excursion to the Moon" can be seen as one of two things; either it is among the earliest examples of the movie remake, or it is the 1908 equivalent to many of today's B-movie ripoffs (ex: "Transmorphers", "American Warships", etc.), a film whose sole purpose is to capitalize off of a popular cine-product. My outlook on the matter is that it is a little bit of both of these. It is important to note that the man behind the camera wasn't just some early 20th century hackjob trying to make a quick buck; instead, he was Segundo de Chomón, a respectable filmmaker in his own right, although he often imitated Georges Méliès with his works. So, I am stuck on this issue; but no matter what the truth of the matter is, this was still just a damn fun movie to watch. It's barely seven minutes of your time and offers a wild, colorful journey through a fantastical vision of outer space. It's lighthearted, comic glee that may please or enrage depending upon your perspective whilst watching it.

Excursion dans la lune (1908)** 1/2 (out of 4) French film from de Chomon is a big(ger) budgeted remake of Georges Melies' A TRIP TO THE MOON. Once again a group of men build a spaceship and shoot for the moon where they find that they're unwelcome. The original Melies film has rightfully become a truly legendary film and this remake is certainly watered-down and weaker. For starters, the Melies film was truly an epic for its day but this thing here pretty much cuts out all the story and instead just goes for the better known moments. These include the building of the ship, the rocket launch and of course the scene where they land but instead of going into the moon's eye we're greeted with the ship landing in its mouth. The only minor advantage to any of these sequences is that they're obviously working with a larger budget but in the end this means very little as the imagination simply isn't here. This thing clocks in at just over 7-minutes and I must admit that there were times where I found myself yawning. Towards the end of the film we get a mini-dance sequence that really adds very little to the movie. EXCURSION TO THE MOON isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination and I'm sure sci-fi fans will want to watch it but be sure you check out the original version first.

The DVD (Retour de Flamme vol 5 - if you're interested in early cinema and curios be sure to seek out all the discs under this umbrella title) on which I saw this 1908 short made no mention of this being a rip-off of George Melies' classic from six years before, choosing instead to consider it an alternative adaptation of the Jules Verne novel. Either way, there are a number of similar scenes, including the iconic one of the rocket landing on the moon - although here the rocket drifts into it's mouth instead of sticking in it's eye. The film is hand-coloured, but it's not done very well, resembling at times a child's colouring-in using a crayon. And because it is so similar to Melies' film, it is all too familiar and offers little new to keep the viewers attention - even at just over eight minutes long I found my attention wandering.