Le Voyage Dans La Lune is the first sci-fi comedy documentary ever made. It tells the story of the first time mannys ever went to the moon - how they got there, and what they did when they got there. Because this film was made almost 70 years before mannys went to the moon, they had to use metaphor and special effects instead of archive footage. Luckily for them, special effects had just been invented in time to make this film.
It is not a long film, so I managed to watch it all the way through without having to have any sleeps in the middle.
It starts with some wizards who want to go to the moon. None of the characters have names or say anything, so we have to decide for ourselves what they are called and what they are saying. The leader of the wizards has a big white beard, but because he has a green coat and is obviously in charge I will call him Captain Kirk.
Captain Kirk has a plan for them to go to the moon - they have to become scientists and use science! So some of the wizards change their clothes to become scientists and then they go and make a rocket. Their rocket gets fired at the moon from a big cannon.
The manny in the moon gets hit in the eye by the rocket, but he doesn't seem to mind that much.
The mannys spend a lot of their time falling over and indulging in slapstick. One character has a red coat and a wig like a judge. He seems to fall over even more than the other mannys do so I will call him Avon.
The mannys get tired and decide to have sleeps on the moon. While they are sleeping they miss seeing the stars and planets doing a dance or just generally showing off. The mannys are woken up when it begins to snow.
Captain Kirk plants his umbrella and it turns into a big mushroom. For some reason this annoys a nearby alien (possibly it is symbolic of colonialism) and there is a fight until the alien gets Kirk-slapped and explodes into smoke. More aliens come and capture the mannys.
They are taken to see the alien king, but Captain Kirk makes him explode and in the confusion they all run back to their rocket pursued by aliens. This bit reminds me of Star Trek for some reason.
They have cleverly parked their rocket on the edge of a cliff so it will fall back to the Earth, but they cannot make it go so are in trouble. If this were a serial then this would be an obvious place for a literal cliffhanger, but it isn't so the action continues when one of the aliens accidentally helps tip the rocket over and they all fall into the water.
The story finishes with the mannys all being given big moon medals for being so brave. They have also captured one of the aliens (the one who tipped their rocket over the cliff maybe) but this plot thread is left dangling, perhaps hinting at a sequel.
Moving stuff.
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