Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship (1906) User Reviews

Confusing and strange.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 20 September 2011]

This is a rare case where I prefer the film's English language title more than its original French one. "Le Dirigeable Fantastique" was renamed "The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship"--now THAT's a great title!

Like so many of the films by Georges Méliès, he stars in this one and it's a film that is pure goofy fantasy. It begins with some odd women entering the professor's lab and holding him down with a blanket as two weird creatures cavort about. Later, you see that perhaps this is just part of his dream...or not. The dream consists of showing a dirigible seemingly flying across the sky as the Professor sleeps. Oddly, hot ladies of the period keep emanating from the balloon! Then, this sadly ends when the dirigible explodes--and he's once again back in his room! This is a mega-weird short. I am not sure if the plot (for what it is) works too well, but it is nice eye candy.

Melies As Crazybrains

[Michael_Elliott · 25 August 2011]

Le dirigeable fantastique (1906)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

aka The Inventor Crazybrains and His Wonderful Airship

More style than actual substance is what this Georges Melies film actually is. In the film Melies plays the title character who goes to bed and dreams that his airship actually takes flight. There's really not too much that happens in the three-minute running time, although I will admit that we get a pretty fun ending that includes some great fire effects, which are used perfectly with the red tinting used to show them off. Many of Melies films would have various objects taking off flying and we'd go on an adventure with them but that doesn't happen here. The airship takes off and that's pretty much it as it really never goes anywhere and we don't get to see any real action until the end of the picture. One thing that I did like were the actual effects that are taking place behind where Crazybones is sleeping. The way that they play out gives the film a 3-D like effect and I thought they were quite good.

One of Méliès later works

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 27 August 2015]

This is obviously a vague statement given this was still made almost 110 years ago. It's a black-and-white film that runs for roughly 2.5 minutes and has quite a few supernatural elements like people floating in space. But technical aspects were also present here with a zeppelin depicted. The star here was not Méliès himself anymore like in his earlier works, but the story. However, the story is not really too interesting I must say. I did not think this was among the director's best works and I do not encourage anybody to start with this one if you want to take a look into Meliès' filmography. But probably almost nobody will as this is one of his lesser known works. All in all, not a great watch. thumbs down.

Another Dream Sequence

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 17 November 2017]

An old professor has an idea for an airship. He has all the diagrams and documents with plans to achieve his project. However, when he falls asleep, imps come in and mess things up. In his dream when he tries to realize his plan, everything falls apart; as a matter of fact, it explodes. One big problem is all the unrelated junk that occurs just to show it off.

Silly but entertaining dream-fantasy

[jamesrupert2014 · 8/10 · 7 February 2020]

After Professor Crazybrains (an early, comic version of the venerable 'mad scientist' character) falls asleep amidst the drawings of his new dirigible, he is visited by fairies and cavorting imps (possibly the same Folies Bergères acrobats that appear in a number of Méliès' films). The laboratory walls slowly disappear, leaving the inventor thrashing in his bed as his airship, driven by giant propellers flies in the background, accompanied by more fairies. Suddenly a heavenly fireball strikes the craft, destroying it. More imps appear as the professor awakens, finds himself back in his lab, and promptly destroys his designs. There are some effective substitution-splices, set changes, and a nice dissolve as the laboratory disappears and the ill-fated aeronef takes center stage. The comedy may be a bit broad for modern tastes (the name 'Crazybrains' sets the tone), but the beautifully colorised version I watched on-line is fun and imaginative.

But the word "airship" in the title and I'll watch it

[MissSimonetta · 8/10 · 11 January 2022]

I have a fondness for old-school airships. Maybe it's the Miyazaki lover in me, who knows? At any rate, this is a minor Melies work but it's still charming and funny regardless. As far as hand-tinted movies go, this one is especially striking. The explosion at the finale is particularly stunning in how its presented.

I dream of airship with the sexy young women

[Tornado_Sam · 31 July 2018]

This short from Georges Méliès is an interesting mix of surrealism and science fiction. It begins with a professor (The Inventor Crazybrains, played by Méliès) in his workshop where he dances in excitement over his new plans of an airship. He goes to sleep and dreams that two clownish creatures enter his workshop, wreck his plans and make a huge mess, before the scene switches and the inventor sees in his dream the airship yet to be invented taking flight. A fireball hits it and makes it explode, and the inventor awakes in his laboratory only to lose his marbles.

The color tinting (which appears, oddly, to be stencil-color and not Méliès's usual hand-color) looks excellent for a movie of the time, especially the explosions. As for the plot, it doesn't really go anywhere, but that's okay since the visuals more or less keep your interest. The whole thing, quite apparently, makes no sense--particularly the addition of several beautiful girls who appear in the ship and float away. (However pointless, this aspect is the type of randomness one would experience in a dream). At only three minutes it's fun while it lasts and at least has a little bit of a plot, unlike other Méliès films around the same time.