The Vine: April 29, 2011
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on April 29, 2011 – 1:45 PM18 Comments
I can remember pitifully little about a film that I saw when I was about 6 or 7, but I hope it is enough for you or one of the tendrils to recognise, because this has been nagging at me like a chipped tooth, for years.
I think that I saw it around 1973. It featured at least one boy who was spoken to, telepathically I think, by a female-voiced spaceship. There was a scene of the boy and a friend in a meadow surrounded by soap bubbles. I also remember him as having dark hair cut in a sort of pudding-bowl style.
I don’t know why this is haunting me but if any of your readers can help I would be very grateful.
Regards,
Why oh why do I need to know this?!
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Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
It kind of sounds like Flight of the Navigator, but that came out in 1986, so maybe not.
The first thing that sprang to my mind was Disney’s Flight of the Navigator, but that came out mid-80s.
OH! I will be watching for an answer to this one. I have a feeling it was a made-for-TV movie, possibly one of those Sunday night Disney ones. Maybe that’s why I am having no luck with Google.
Dear Why oh Why,
I hear you on being haunted by a snippet that takes years to hunt down. Let me ask a couple of questions that can help narrow down the search.
– do you remember if you saw it in a theater, or if you saw it on television?
– your spelling of “recognise” makes me think you’re not in the U.S. Knowing what country you were in when you saw it will help immensely.
– can you say that there’s a year after which you definitely would not have seen it? (In other words, “I know that I saw it before 1975 because by then we had moved to XYZ” or whatever.) It’s helpful to know if there’s a definite boundary on the year, one way or another.
Putting my detective hat on …
I don’t remember the bubbles, but this made me think of Escape to Witch Mountain. It came out in 1975 so it’s a possibility.
Following up on my first comment. Very long shot, but does anything from “The Tomorrow People” (broadcast in the UK on ITV in 1973) ring a bell for you? (Telepathy, talking computer, kids…)
The description reminds me of the conclusion to the original Disney Escape to Witch Mountain. But I just IMDB-ed it and that was 1975. The memory is relatively fresh, because I inflicted it on my 12 year old over Winter Break.
Not the awful, awful Richard Thomas sci-fi schlockfest Battle Beyond The Stars? It came out in 1980, so it’s probably not right. The uterus-shaped ship? Definitely not right.
There was a British film I remember seeing on PBS where a boy spoke telepathically to a female voice (either a ship or an actual alien). The alien’s (or ship’s) name was Chocky which may have been the name of the movie and is definitely the name of the book by John Wyndham
@Profreader — I DO remember the Tomorrow People! It showed on Nickelodeon in the early 80s. What a trippy little introduction to sci fi that show was. I remember loving it, but the specific details mentioned by Why Oh Why don’t ring a bell…
Sounds like Chocky to me, a British TV series that ran for three seasons, based on Wyndham’s 1968 novel. Only problem is that the show didn’t come out until the early 1980s?
@Jennifer M.: if it’s the BBC series of Chocky then 1973 is way too early, the series was definitely early to mid 1980s. I don’t think there was an earlier film. I was thinking The Tomorrow People too, but I’m not sure if that’s right.
I was going to suggest “Escape to Witch Mountain.” Definitely NOT “Flight of the Navigator” because the ship in that had a man’s voice (specifically, Pee-Wee Herman’s voice).
Glad I wasn’t alone in thinking Escape to Witch Mountain, even though it’s been years since I’ve seen it.
Dear All, I am the LW, nothing so far feels exactly right but I am going to watch Witch Mountain as that seems the closest.
@Profreader, I like your suggestions for narrowing the quest:
I saw it in a cinema – I grew up in South Africa and there was NO television till 1976 even then, only a couple of hours a day, though I now wonder if it might have been some sort of short before a movie.
1980 seems too late, my mother used to take me to lots of movies, including this one, but I started going on my own when I hit early teens. Too, this memory feels older, I would put 1977 as the absolute upper boundry.
If this helps at all, the rocket’s voice was quite a warm gentle inviting one which I seem to think made me faintly uneasy. Too, I think that there was some wishing involved, but this detail is so uncertain that I didn’t include it in my original letter.
Thank you all for your help, I will be following up suggestions in the next few days.
Failing success in this, does anyone have any ideas about how to rid oneself of a brainworm?
Don’t bother with Escape to Witch Mountain. The voice the brother hears is his uncle. I wish you lots of luck!
I adored The Tomorrow People!!! That computer was named Tim (I believe)but was a male voice.
I’m have access to the full AFI catalog at work, so I did some keyword searching in the year range you mentioned; sadly I didn’t come up with much. I have to say, Escape to Witch Mountain has telepathic communication (the children talked to each other this way, so there would have been a female voice at least), a girl and a boy, and a meadow that plays a prominent part in the plot- there were probably rip-offs of it too. The AFI catalog is for American feature films only, so if it wasn’t American, or if it was a short or a TV thing re-purposed for theaters, then it wouldn’t come up here. Good luck!