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by R.J. Carter Published: August 20, 2007
Colonel Robert Calder (William Hopper) is pulled from the sinking rocketship by a small crew of fishermen. But there's a non-human survivor of the wreckage as well -- a sealed cylinder with a jelly-like egg containing an unborn creature from Venus. (The creature was called an Ymir, but the name was never used in the story for fear of confusion that the audience might think it a Middle Eastern potentate.) The cylinder washes ashore, where it's found by Texas-obsessed Pepe (Bart Braverman), who empties the cylinder and carries the contents to a visiting zoologist, Dr. Leonardo (Frank Puglia). By coincidence, Dr. Leonardo's daughter, Marisa (Joan Taylor) is "almost a doctor" and is the only medical professional around who can answer the call to come attend the injured Colonel Calder. Pretty soon the doll-sized creature hatches, and it doesn't take it long to grow into a toddler-sized and then human-sized critter. Dr. Leonardo plans to drive it to Rome to display to a convention of zoologists there, having no idea that the Ymir isn't a mutation of an Earth creature. However, before he and Marisa can take it all the way there (and just before the military folks catch up to them), the Ymir busts out and runs off into the countryside, seeking shelter at a farm. This is when the real Mystery Science Theater 3000 moments begin. The creature scares horses! It scares sheep. It scares more sheep. It scares a guy off camera into throwing chickens! Finally, Colonel Calder leads the military and attending Italian constables into cornering it in the barn. He tells the men that, based on their experiences on Venus, the creatures aren't normally ferocious unless provoked. And then he proceeds to poke it with a large stick to try to herd it into a rickety wooden cage. Of course, the thing gets away, growing larger all the time -- abnormally fast in our environment, apparently. It seeks out a diet of sulfur, so the military knows what to use for bait. It deflects bullets pretty handily, but Colonel Calder knows its weakness: it seems on Venus they learned -- quite by accident -- that electrocuting the creatures could shock them into paralysis. Suddenly the cattle mutilations pulled off by the Grays no longer seems that abnormal.
Of course, you don't watch "20 Million Miles to Earth" for the riveting storyline or the commentary on the perils of space travel. You watch it for the exquisite stop-motion special effects of Ray Harryhausen. Indeed, this entire two-disc release is wild about Harry, with the second disc paying well-deserved tribute to the man and his achievements. The bonus features begin with "Remembering '20 Million Miles to Earth'," a twenty-seven minute documentary with interviews from Harryhausen on constructing the Ymir from an idea out of Norse mythology. Terry Gilliam, John Canemaker and others offer up their memories of the impact Harryhausen's filmwork made on them. The feature film is offered up in two versions -- the original black and white, and a colorized version. In the eleven minute featurette, "The Colorization Process," Harryhausen explains why the films had to be done in black and white even though color was available at the time. Legend Films founder Barry Sandrew and technicians then explain the process used to add an expanded palette to the film.
There are some featurettes that aren't Harryhausen-centric, the first of which is the seventeen minute "Interview with Joan Taylor," followed by the twenty-two minute tribute to composer Mischa Bakaleinikoff in "David Schecter on Film Music's Unsung Hero." BlueWater Productions, who are producing the Legend of Isis comic book series gets a plug in here as well, showcasing the first few pages of another book written by Scott Davis and penciled by Alex Garcia. 20 Million Miles More has a click-through pages and panels design, and focuses a bit more on the disease the astronauts encountered on Venus. There's an extensive gallery of artwork, and a seventeen minute segment of producer Arnold Kunert displaying promotional materials for many of Harryhausen's films. By the way, the feature film itself has the added bonus of commentary with Kunert, visual effects artists Dennis Muren and Phil Tippell, and the man himself, Ray Harryhausen. Watch the film without it for laughs, but then watch it again with the commentary on for a real education in filmmaking history. Audio is in English only, with available subtitling in English or French. Previews on this disc include "The Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth." |
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