Starring: Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O’Brien, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Pleasence, Arthur O’Connell
Director: Richard Fleischer
Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Release Date: October 8, 2013
Run Time: 101 minutes
Film: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3.5 out of 5 stars
If you like science-fiction then you should know and love “Fantastic Voyage” released back in 1966. The film is the original psychedelic inner-space adventure. It delivered a great cast including Stephen Boyd, Donald Pleasence and Raquel Welch in her feature-film debut. The film also was awarded an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, which is definitely deserved. The director Richard Fleischer was also known for his amazing 1954 Disney classic “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. The film is a classic and only gets better with age, top that with a very impressive Blu-ray presentation and you have a winner here for sure!
The adventure of a lifetime occurs not in the outer reaches of space, but inside the human body. An elite team of medical and scientific specialists race to save a top government scientist who is suffering from a blood clot on the brain. Their mission: be reduced along with their submarine-like craft to microscopic size, enter the bloodstream of the ailing scientist, and journey to the brain to perform an emergency procedure. With only sixty minutes to complete their mission, the scientist find themselves fighting off an attack by white corpuscles, caught in a tornado-like storm in the lungs, and struggling to survive sabotage from one of their own.
Fox delivered a very impressive Blu-ray presentation. The film won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects like I said and they look stunning with this 1080p transfer. For a film nearly 50 years old, the transfer gives it a really nice face life. There are two audio tracks for this Blu-ray including an DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. I liked the surround mix but I have to admit the mono really took it home for me personally. I felt that the 5.1 track delivered the sound well but for this film the original mono sound did it better.
The special features are quite impressive as well for the 1966 classic. There is a great commentary track from Film & Music Historian Jeff Bond. There is an Isolated Score Track with commentary by Film & Music Historians Jeff Bond, Jon Burlingame and Nick Redman. Not really a full isoalted track due to the commentary but still awesome. There is a featurette called “Lava Lamps & Celluloid: A Tribute to the Visual Effects of Fantastic Voyage”, a must see for fans of the film. There is a cool “Storyboard-to-Scene Comparison” for the Whirlpool Scene. Lastly there is the Original Theatrical Trailer included.