Moonland

The set designs, costumes and matte paintings are all fabtastically realised here; it's a shame that in 10 minutes it doesn't tell much of a story beyond being a copy of "The Wizard of Oz", without any of that story's charm or enduring character.

Edit 2020: A fantasia of sorts, like the Wizard of Oz. Made in the 1920's, this features some gorgeous design backdrops and sets with good optical and miniature effects as well. The storytelling is pretty lackluster but the imagination is cracking. The strangeness is the best thing going. A dairy maid that creeps me out? Check! Green apple eating addicts? Yup An over abundance of ear to ear grins? You bet Terrifying demon hand? Yeah that's my cue to wake up.

Here's a charming silent short. Mickey McBan looks at the moon before going to sleep and wonders what's it like up there. Then he goes to sleep and dreams of his trip to visit the Man in the Moon.

McBan is an engaging child actor, with a quizzical expression and two black-out front teeth. His career as a child actor in movies like PETER PAN ended as he grew up, but he continued to perform in movies for another quarter century.

Other IMDB viewers have commented that this movie looks to be influenced by Melies. As a fancier of that great man's work, I'd like to agree, but between the Beaux Arts settings and a couple of the special effects, I think it shows more clearly the influence of Winsor McCay, the great cartoonist of LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND, and Edwin S. Porter. That sequence when Mickey is flying to the Moon looks based on Porter's DREAMS OF A RAREBIT FIEND.... based on another McCay comic strip.

MOONLAND is a 1926 film with two directors about a young boy who has a dream about visiting the moon . Where it probably exceeds is capturing the imagination of childhood where innocent fantasy and nightmare horror overlap . The trip proper involves the protagonist travelling through the lunar landscape and because space probes hadn't been invented yet there's a large amount of artistic license involved with landscapes very similar to something Salvador Dali had thought up

Where MOONLAND fails is that there's a genuine lack of Wow factor involved . Compare this movie to LA VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE directed by Georges Melies in 1902 , a film that had audiences gasping " How did he do that ? " on its release . MOONLAND also lacks Melies grotesque sense of humour which means it was destined for obscurity . That said I have seen worse films due to university film classes

I noticed that the other reviewer compared "Moonland" to Georges Méliès' film "A Trip to the Moon" (1902). This is a pretty fair comparison but I wouldn't say that one film necessarily better than the other--they are both quite good. However, I would say that "A Trip to the Moon" is a movie that was MUCH more ahead of its time when it debuted. For 1902, it was eye-popping amazing. "Moonland" is more sweet--and its effects, though generally better than those in 1902, don't seem all that advanced in 1926.

The film involves a little boy who dreams that he and his dog go on a magical trip to the moon. There, they meet a few odd characters as well as the Man himself--whose head is disembodied! But, he's a nice guy and they talk. He gives the boy his boat to use--and gives him a warning. You'll have to see where it all goes from there.

This is a very special film--exceptionally sweet and entertaining. However, it's way too brief and I would have LOVED to see this hashed out into a full-length film. Charming and made with a nice loving touch. I am not sure why this film isn't more famous--it sure deserves to be.