Sharp Family Movie Night Diary - Flight of the Navigator
Aaron Sharp | March 15, 2020
One of the fun parts of parenting is introducing our kids to the things that we enjoyed when we were growing up. Both the Wonder Woman and I really helping the kids get to know the books, movies, and music that were part of our formative years.
Most of the times this goes well, sometimes it is a colossal disaster, but it is almost always worth keeping a running diary of the experience. This weekend I decided it would be a good idea to sit the kids down for a viewing of the classing 80s Disney movie – Flight of the Navigator. What follows is a diary of the experience but realize that during the last part of the movie there aren’t as many entries because we were making supper. All times are approximate.
In case you need a refresher here is the trailer.
The movie begins with an opening montage of dogs catching frisbees. The kids loved it. If the whole movie was just this the kids would be totally entertained. I need to keep this in mind if we all end up quarantined for an extended period of time.
:37 – The Fashionista asks her usual pre-movie question for clarity, “Can we ask questions?” I say yes, but know that I’ll live to regret it.
4:12 – The family is driving home from the dog competition and the two kids are sitting in the back of station wagon. There are no seat belts, no booster seats, and good grief how did we survive?
6:25 – The main character, a twelve-year-old boy named David, is now stalking his crush through a telescope. This is what movies taught us how to do back in the day. The dad’s only comment when he catches his son spying on the neighborhood girl is that he should try to talk to her. No wonder the kid is a stalker in training.
11:05 – Wait, there is time travel in this movie. How do I not remember that?
12:57 – David falls down a ravine, is unconscious for a while, then runs home. When he gets to his house, he discovers that his parents no longer live there, and he basically breaks into the house and runs around. And the old couple who lives there just rolls with it. In 2020 somebody would be dead if this happened.
16:39 – The Wonder Woman has joined the frivolity and we stop the movie to catch everyone up on the plot. The Ballerina has lots of questions including why the dog licked him.
20:07 – I utter my first, “Just watch the movie.” Definitely not the last.
25:55 – The technology in this movie is amazing. One of the NASA scientists just said, “He’s communicating directly with the computer in binary code.” I read a novel from the 90s the other day and it referred to the, “world-wide infonet.” Technological references may date movies and books more than music.
27:02 – Dr. Johnny Fever is a NASA scientist.
29:26 – David is now at NASA for tests. They show him the TV in his room, hand him the remote, and say, “This is a remote-control wand.” I guess in the 80s we looked at remote controls like they were made of holly and unicorn hair. This seems ridiculous, but I remember having to get up to change the channel, and now that I think about it remotes were basically magic back then.
30:41 – There it is. The first appearance of Sarah Jessica Parker and Wonder Woman loses it. I was today years old when I realized she was in this movie.
32:55 – There is a reference to Twisted Sister. The voice in my head starts singing, “We’re not gonna take it. We’re not gonna take it anymore!”
34:48 – Sarah Jessica Parker’s character offers to get David a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke. The Zoologist is amazed that we still have the same McDonalds food thirty-four years later. I don’t have the heart to tell him that we might still have the exact same food that was being served thirty-four years agao. It has probably been under a heat lamp this whole time.
42:19 – There it is, some classic 1980s action sequence chase music. I may be wrong about this, but I feel that you could place 90% of 80s movies in the decade they were made, just by listening to the movie’s instrumental soundtrack.
[There is a gap in the diary because I have to change a dirty diaper]
53:49 – The alien, voiced by Pee Wee Herman, responds to all of David’s requests with, “Compliance.” Part of me hopes the kids will start this.
63:38 – I Google the cast and realize that life hasn’t been kind to Joey Cramer, the actor who plays David.
64:12 – David disses some teenagers by saying they are geeks. Little does he know that in a few decades geeks rule the world.
68:54 – David and the alien end up in Tokyo while trying to get to Ft. Lauderdale. The Zoologist, who has been learning geography, snickers loudly.
71:34 – The Beach Boys song comes on and the Zoologist is basically me watching this movie three decades ago.
73:13 – David uses a pay phone, and even though no one asks any questions, I’m pretty sure the kids have no idea what’s going on.
81:29 – Due to a large number of questions I have to pause the movie to explain the term, “vaporized.”
83:47 – With just a few minutes left in the movie the Ballerina looks at me and says, “Wair, that’s an alien?”
And these, ladies and gentlemen, are my children.