Danger, Will Robinson!
Remember that immortal phrase? Maybe you heard it some Saturday afternoon during a repeat of the campy 1960s sci-fi TV series “Lost in Space.” Maybe you heard it in the trailer for the $90 million “Lost in Space” movie that blasts into theaters Friday. (If you don’t know the phrase, ask Mom or Dad; they will.)
So what’s up in the flick? Something for everybody. Look for 750 special-effects shots, explosions galore and lotsa creepy spiders. There’s an offbeat cast that includes bad guy Gary Oldman, way-serious William Hurt, “Friends” hunk Matt LeBlanc and “Party of Five’s” Lacey Chabert, as well as Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham and 10-year-old Jack Johnson. Original series stars Mark Goddard, June Lockhart, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright pop up in cameos. Then there’s the very cool, very revamped Robot, who still speaks with the booming voice of Dick Tufeld.
Oh, yeah, the story: Sent into space to find a hospitable planet, the bickering Robinsons – Hurt and Rogers as Mom and Dad; Chabert, Graham and Johnson as their kids – must join forces with Maj. Don West (Le Blanc) when nasty Dr. Smith (Oldman) sabotages their mission and sends the group’s ship, Jupiter 2, off course.
Just before “LIS’s” release, KidNews caught up with several of the actors.
LeBlanc recalled feeling like a kid in a candy shop during filming. “There were a lot of days like that,” he said. “When we got started and they fitted my spacesuit and gun belt for the very first time, it was very, very cool. My pilot’s chair on the Jupiter 2 was custom fit to my whole body. When you’re a kid, you play cowboys and Indians or spaceman. I got to do that all over again. It was really pretty fun.”
Johnson, a 5th-grader who co-starred with Shaquille O’Neal in a popular Pepsi commercial, described his favorite part of the movie. “The absolute coolest part? The idea of going up into space, working with this real robot and wearing this neat space suit. Oh, and I do some stunts. There’s this one scene where I jump down this big elevator shaft to save the family. There were all these explosions around me. It was a fun, kind of scary scene to do. That was a dream come true. I can’t wait to see how it came out in the movie.”
Rogers sounds thrilled that her Maureen Robinson, unlike her ’60s counterpart, is a well-rounded character. “You’ll see me struggling to be the mother of three and the wife of a professor,” she said, “and I’m a professor in my own right. The Robinsons really have an edge this time, and Maureen is the peacekeeper; she’s trying to keep her family together, and she’s a fully functioning team member. She’s not making lunch; let’s put it that way.”
Tufeld, who’s 71 and has made a living for 55 years doing voice work for commercials and Disney’s Christmas and Easter TV specials, discussed why now was the time for a “Lost in Space” movie.
“Science fiction is hot,” he said. “Also, it has to do with nostalgia. A lot of people watched `Lost in Space’ when it was on, and those people, who were youngsters then, are parents now. They have fond memories of it. It touches some interesting emotional nerves in people. … I bet they’ll take their own kids to see the movie, to share that experience.”
If you can’t get enough of “Lost in Space,” check out “Lost in Space” books from Scholastic. There’s the digest ($4), which summarizes the movie and has eight pages of color photos; the 8 by 8 ($3.50), the digest’s beefier cousin; and the deluxe ($6), a storybook featuring 50 color photos. (Whew, that sounded like the menu in a fast-food restaurant.) Don’t expect the books to contribute much to the “Lost in Space” legacy – they basically give you snapshots of the movie. But they’re OK if you want a lasting reminder of a cool movie experience.
