Perhaps an overlooked 80’s family film in many ways, not quite as affecting and heart-warming as E.T., and not as endearingly campy as the likes of Labyrinth and Neverending Story, but Flight of the Navigator remains a solid piece of kid-friendly Sci-Fi.
For those who don’t remember, or perhaps have yet to see it, Navigator is the story of David Freeman, a regular twelve year old kid who goes missing one night after falling and bumping his head when out fetching his younger brother home. When he returns to his family, it’s eight years later and David has no knowledge of where he has been. The first half of the movie focuses on this mysterious disappearance and David struggling to adjust to the news that it is now 1986, his parents have moved to a new home and his younger brother is now much older than he is. The second half shifts the tone slightly as David is visited by NASA officials who believe he may have been abducted by aliens.
David’s family agree to let NASA take him to their nearby base where they run tests on him and begin to suspect he has some form of psychic link with an alien force. Whilst holed up at the base, David grows lonely and afraid, but does find time to befriend the kindly intern who brings him his meals, played by a young Sarah Jessica Parker. Fearing that the government agency plans to keep him locked up, David escapes his room and under the guidance of a voice he hears telepathically, he finds his way to a secret spaceship captured and held on the base. Once inside, he befriends the ship’s pilot, an AI life form whom he nicknames Max (voiced by Pee-Wee himself Paul Reubens). It turns out that Max travels across the galaxy collecting various specimens and taking them back to his home planet of Phaelon for further analysis. David and Max soon strike up a close friendship and after first escaping the base, the pair start zooming around the earth deciding what to do next.
While comparisons with E.T. are perhaps unfair, there are some noticeable similarities between the two. A young boy from a small all-American town befriends an other-worldly creature and struggles to stay one step ahead of the government agency who seemingly want to keep them both contained. There’s even a knowing nod thrown in for good measure when David and Max make a pit-stop at a remote petrol station in order to make a quick phone call and after they zoom off the awestruck owner notes, “he just wanted to phone home.” Yet Navigator also clearly lacks the warmth and sense of wonderment that made Spielberg’s movie so special. Navigator is a far simpler and straightforward movie, an unabashed rollicking adventure aimed at pre-teen kids. There are no hidden meanings or complicated plot twists, it’s just a boy and his alien buddy trying to keep away from the authorities and possibly get him home.
The special effects still stand up pretty well with Max and his ship looking every bit as fantastical as they did back in the 1980’s. Other aspects of the movie have dated less well however, from the ludicrously cheesy opening credits set inexplicably at a dog-Frisbee show, to the synth-rock score accompanying the action throughout. However it all adds to the film’s charm and while it is very much of its time, there’s still much to enjoy. There’s plenty of warmth in the story with several touching moments between David and his family. The sequences in the spaceship also inject some necessary humour, and while Max does get a little grating once he begins to adopt human characteristics, it’s still the kind of OTT zaniness that younger viewers will enjoy.
Not quite a classic, but still a most welcome blast from the past, Flight of the Navigator zips along nicely and while not especially memorable, it could still be a hit with a new generation of wide-eyed youngsters.
Director: Randal Kleiser
Stars: Joey Cramer, Paul Reubens, Veronica Cartwright
Runtime: 90 min
Country: USA, Norway
Film Rating: 
