103) A Trip to the Moon

[00:00:03] Step right up ladies and gents, a show for the ages, a spectacle of silent silver, gather around folks, don't be shy, a real humdinger of a picture of eight, thrills, chills, and plenty of laughs

[00:00:24] From the golden days of flickering reels and grand Nickelodeons comes a program most extraordinary, a real corker of a show, a top-notch talkie about a world with no talk at all, it's Casabloga, Silent Treatment

[00:00:43] When people say silent films are boring, I like to remind them that in 1902, a year before the Wright brothers' first flight, Doris Milliers shot a rocket into the eye of the moon A Trip to the Moon is often considered the very first science fiction film Up until this point, most films were what were called actualities, a term popularized by the Lumiere brothers

[00:01:10] There were basically short glimpses of everyday life, a train arriving, workers leaving a factory, busy street, stuff like that Milliers wasn't interested in recording reality, he wanted to invent it By 1902, cinema was no longer a novelty, it was becoming a genuine artistic medium

[00:01:34] And A Trip to the Moon was one of the earliest examples of film telling a full-structured story It uses special effects and painted backgrounds to tell the story, as well as built sets and props Milliers was famous for manufacturing spectacle and imagination The film is actually best known for the shot of the rocket hitting the moon's eye

[00:02:05] And that's usually the only thing people know about the film And they think that's the whole thing It's actually 16 minutes long The first, I want to say about 5 minutes Takes place before that happens Like the first 2 or 3 minutes is a single shot There's no intertitles But you still know what's going on There's a professor

[00:02:36] He basically draws on the chalkboard Like what the plan, basically the plot of the movie is Like there's Earth, there's the moon, here's a rocket Dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot We're going to the moon And He's got a room full of, I want to say students Astronauts Something So a lot of this movie is more context based

[00:03:04] When the film came out, they didn't need intertitles because they had a narrator With, you know, they were basically narrating the film We don't have that now, obviously Instead, we have to use the context given in the film And then the next scene It's them loading the rocket And I think that probably the second most famous Shot of the film

[00:03:35] Is of the How they shoot the rocket Again, this was a year before the Wright brothers flew So Space travel wasn't even Conceived yet Like there was no People thought that this was a very outlandish concept And so Now you know In order to take it to space We, you know We have a little rocket It's on the It's standing And then It goes in the air Old What they

[00:04:03] They basically used what they knew at the time And they They use a cannon They shot the rocket off to the moon Using a cannon And It's probably the longest cannon ever I mean Granted it was a painting But it still looks really cool The version I watched Um I had seen the original black and white one But On Max

[00:04:32] As in HBO Max There's a Colorized version Because Melies did a black and white And a color version And The beginning of the version on Max Opens with a title Card Explaining that The film was considered lost For a long time Until it was discovered In 1999 And then In the early 2010s It was digitally restored And that's the version That's on Max And so

[00:05:02] Again I'd seen the movie In black and white And I'm like Oh okay It's It's interesting It's even better in color It's Um The way it was colorized It It doesn't look like a modern film It looks more surreal It does kind of have like a CG Feel to it It was Hand The frames were hand painted And that's how That's how the film was done Back then That's how color film was done In the early days They were hand painted Frame by frame

[00:05:33] And I think the titles The title cards say There was like 13,000 frames So That's a lot of frames To hand paint And then When they get to the moon There's these Uh Creatures Chasing them around And What I love And I think It's kind of hilarious Is that They're defeated By umbrellas So You take the umbrella You hit them with it And they Disappear in a puff of smoke And then The

[00:06:03] The protagonist By the way The professor Who goes to the moon He's like He's at the beginning And then he like Goes to the moon Played by George Melies Himself So That was a little fun fact Uh So The professor And you know The astronauts That go to the moon They get chased around By the earth inhabitants And Again This was long Before

[00:06:31] We ever went to space So Nobody knew About You know The If you wanted to nitpick This film About scientific Accuracy Like This whole thing Would just be like Red Red Like red X's Like everything about this Is completely Scientifically inaccurate For For starters The moon Has plant life Uh It has life Uh They're breathing On the moon There's gravity Uh

[00:07:01] The earth Is a little closer Than it should be Um I kinda wanna see Somebody like Take it Way too seriously Like this film Is very inaccurate Now here's my List of reasons It's inaccurate In fact I think the only Thing accurate About this film Is that when They get back To earth They have to Land in water I think it's funny How they get Back to earth Cause I was One

[00:07:30] Cause I was Watching it I'm thinking How are they Gonna get back They used a Cannon To get to the moon How are they Getting back To earth Well You wanna know How they do it The rocket Is on a cliff And then it Falls off And it Falls back To earth Which I mean 1902 Logic You know The moon Is up in the sky And the gravity Falls down They They don't know About the zero Gravity

[00:08:00] In space They just know Earth They just knew The moon is up And what comes Up Comes down So I mean It is easy to Kind of laugh And make fun Of that But They

[00:08:34] That's We're gonna go Back and colorize This Cause it's fun It was an Officially Done Colorized version By milliers And his team It was just Lost and then Found and Digitally restored And that's the Version on max And I do Recommend Checking That out There was Technically a Prequel To A trip to the Moon Or rather A trip to the Moon is a Sequel Technically Very technically

[00:09:04] I don't know If there's Anything official In 1898 Milliers Did a film Called The Astronomer's Dream It was a Short film It's literally Like three minutes Long It's very Experimental Kind of surreal Not as surreal As a trip to the Moon But It was Hilarious Like I was Watching it And I was Laughing the Whole time And Without Okay I know I spoiled A trip to the Moon But

[00:09:34] Without Spoiling The Astronomer's Dream I will say This Astronomer Was having A really Bad day Though To be Fair It is Called The Astronomer's Dream So while It doesn't Show him Going to Sleep Or waking Up I'm Going to Assume It's All a Dream However The Professor The Astronomer In The Astronomer's Dream Looks And acts Suspiciously Similar to The one

[00:10:03] In The Professor In A Trip To the Moon I believe It was also Played by Melies And so Even though It's Unofficially Even though It's not Technically Official I like To imagine That it's A prequel To That A Trip To the Moon Is a sequel To The Astronomer's Dream That Also Is on

[00:10:34] YouTube Also Last thing I'll say Here This Is By far The Oldest Movie I have Ever Covered On Casabloga 1902 Technically If you want To get Extremely Technical The Oldest Movie I've Ever Talked About

[00:11:03] On Casabloga Was The Astronomer's Dream Because It's 1898 But I'm not Doing a Whole Episode On That It's Like Three Minutes Long Granted This One 16 Minutes Long But There Is A Complete Narrative There Basically This Was The First One Of The First Films That Had Like A It's Not Feature Length In What We Think Of Today

[00:11:33] As Up Until Then All The Films Were Either Actualities Which Would Just Show Like Busy Crowds Trains Entering The Station Stuff Like That Or Like The Astronomer's Dream And It Would Just Be

[00:12:03] More Of An Experimental Short Film Just Kind Of Playing Around With What Was Possible This Was The First Time That There Was Like A Full Complete Narrative Arc In Film And So That's Why This Is The Furthest Back I Will Go On This Show Because Everything Before This Doesn't Technically Count I Was

[00:12:33] Going To Do An Episode On A Trip Down Market Street But Again That One's Really Short It's Considered A Silent Film Even It Is A Silent Film But It's More Of An Actuality And I Don't Want To Cover Actualities On This Show So Yep Trip Trip To The Moon Is The Oldest Show The Oldest Movie I

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