The short film Icarus Montgolfier Wright was released on August 22, 1962. It involves a pilot named Jedediah Prentiss, chosen for the first flight to the moon, who is dreaming in the New Mexico desert the night before the flight. In his sleep he asks himself who he is and what illustrious names he might identify with, and dreams about the pioneers of flight.

This film won a well-deserved Oscar nomination and was blessed by the presence of great talent. The artwork was by Joseph Mugnaini, Ray Bradbury’s chosen artist to illustrate his works, and gives an opportunity to see his work in color. The camera work was well done. The story was by Ray Bradbury and the script by Bradbury and George Clayton Johnson, who would go on to cowrite Logan’s Run. The voice work was by James Whitmore, the narrator, and Ross Martin as the astronaut, who unfortunately had very few lines, which was the only thing I was unhappy about. This was at least Martin’s second time playing an astronaut, which he did in Conquest of Space in 1955 and would go on to do again in “Death Ship” on The Twilight Zone in 1963.

As to how it did in predicting the future, the date given for the moon launch was August 22, 1970, obviously chosen because it would be Ray Bradbury’s 50th birthday, and without regard to President John F. Kennedy’s speech that the moon landing would have to occur by the end of the 1960s. NASA was very well aware of this speech and scheduled the moon landing for July 20, 1969. There was an attempt to land on the moon in April 1970 by Apollo 13 but due to a problem the landing did not occur. The lunar missions launched from Florida, not New Mexico. The first man on the moon was named Neil Armstrong, not Jedediah Prentiss, and luckily Armstrong did not seem to have the sort of insecurity about his name not being enough that Prentiss displays in this film. Overall Prentiss is perhaps a bit too insecure, fanciful, imaginative, and lyrical for the sort of practical person chosen for NASA’s space program, but good film nonetheless.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dandelion,

dandelion, FYI, while ICARUS MONTGOLFIER WRIGHT received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for best cartoon short subject, the winner at the 1963 Oscars in that category was a film called THE HOLE.

I did not know that. I have corrected my review above and also where I posted it elsewhere. Also changed "John F. Kennedy" to "President John F. Kennedy" as it's more respectful and frankly there are kids who have no clue as to what happened last week let alone in the 1960s.