What's strange about "Flight of the Navigator" is that it's really two different movies, and they work pretty well together. It's marketed as an adventure flick with a boy and his buddy robot spaceship, but that doesn't actually kick in for a good 45 minutes. Up until that point, David Freeman's an unsolved mystery, missing for 8 years, and there's some dramatic subject matter here for a kids movie (Disney, no less).
But then they find each other and that's where the movie really gets its footing. Joey Cramer and Paul Reubens have a good working chemistry; Reubens (and some good puppeteering) breathe some real life into Max, I was surprised.
This is one of those movies I'd watched a lot as a kid, and still holds up today. Mainly as an '80s movie. Even though David was a prisoner at NASA, they filled his room with some nice merch; that's what you tend to remember about a movie at that age. As an adult I wouldn't mind having his family's waterfront house. And that synth score really sticks out (this is a positive).
It's a movie I did not mind revisiting.
7/10
But then they find each other and that's where the movie really gets its footing. Joey Cramer and Paul Reubens have a good working chemistry; Reubens (and some good puppeteering) breathe some real life into Max, I was surprised.
This is one of those movies I'd watched a lot as a kid, and still holds up today. Mainly as an '80s movie. Even though David was a prisoner at NASA, they filled his room with some nice merch; that's what you tend to remember about a movie at that age. As an adult I wouldn't mind having his family's waterfront house. And that synth score really sticks out (this is a positive).
It's a movie I did not mind revisiting.
7/10