A Trip to the Moon

Saw A Trip to the Moon, the 1902 fantasia. Bearded wizard/scientists start us off, becoming excited over an explanation of a moon-trip. They build the bullet-shaped rocket and fire themselves out of a cannon at the moon. There they encounter lobster-monster-men who chase them back to their ship and off, back to earth. The film is fun the way Winsor McCay's work is fun. It's not a lot of fun, but it's very different and weird and... joke-like. Perhaps the age difference is enough that we are actually unable to tell each other jokes, 1902 and I. The film is humorous but not funny. Anyway, this is not supposed to be exactly a comedy, it's supposed to be a kind of Avatar: a special-effects extravaganza with no brain at all. And in this it succeeds. Let's just love it for that.