Snappy Video Presents "The Phantom Planet" Blu-ray

BOTTOM LINE: Fans of old school B&W sci-fi should enjoy this film. It's got more cheese than the entire state of Wisconsin. The Blu-ray for 1961's THE PHANTOM PLANET features a clean, solid transfer... but be warned: it's a burned rather than factory-pressed release, so it might not play in some older/finicky machines. I've always liked this silly yet charming old sci-fier. Hopefully you will, too. 4 STARSTHE STORY (contains spoilers): Hotshot USAF space division pilot Frank Chapman, (a sullen Dean Fredericks, of 'Steve Canyon' fame), is dispatched to find out why two previous space flights, which were investigating an appearing & disappearing planetary object, both ended in disaster. After being disabled while flying through a prerequisite swarm of deadly meteors, an unconscious Chapman is soft-landed on the mysterious disappearing planetoid, thanks to the quick intervention of a tractor beam. Exposure to its atmosphere causes him to shrink down to six inches and before you know it he's up to his tiny neck in mushy soapy opera intrigue & shoestring budget Gulliver's Travels-type adventures.THOUGHTS: First caught this movie thru PD supplier Sinister Cinema years and years ago. I found it to be a fairly typical programmer from a third string studio, yet the film has some offbeat bits that help keep it amusing enough to see it through to the end. Dean Fredericks is a ruggedly handsome hero, although he's such a belligerent jerk through most of the film that you have to wonder why the laid-back folks of planet Rheton bother to keep him alive after finding him guilty of attacking a Rhetonian citizen. The kidney bean-shaped planet has a dry, spartan look that bespeaks of the minuscule budget. (How do these people exist on such barren, rocky planet?) Silent screen legend Francis X. Bushman boosts the film's lax star power playing soft-spoken Sesom, leader of the space-fairing people of Rheton. Second-in-command Herron, (Anthony Dexter, who disturbingly resembles Kevin Spacey with a bad hairpiece), butts heads with surly Frank over a couple of Rheton hotties, one of whom is Herron's girlfriend, (of course!). Frank does manage to pull his head out of his posterior eventually, and the two alpha boneheads bury the hatchet (after trying to literally kill one another! LOL).Go-to uber-tall villain actor Richard Kiel gets a few minutes' screen time stumbling about as a terrifying Solarite, mortal enemies of the angelic Rhetonians. (The Solarites/Fire People are nasty reptilian/fungus looking something-or-others that delight in routinely menacing the planetoid.) Kiel's Solarite had been captured and held in a force field prison but escapes during a Solarite attack; he runs amok, terrorizing helpless citizens, carrying luscious maidens in his arms and so forth. Yes, THE PHANTOM PLANET is jam-packed with the usual sci-fi trappings but contains a few surprises in its script, along with some fairly decent visual F/X (considering its budget) to help hold your interest throughout the picture. Most of these were unable to be fully discerned or appreciated until this new hi-def transfer. Speaking of which...THE BLU-RAY: Snappy Video (an offshoot of Thunderbean animation, who did the recent spectacular restoration of the classic Fleischer GULLIVER'S TRAVELS cartoon) has done a great job of cleaning up and fine-tuning a rare, decent quality 35mm print of this rather obscure space saga. Considering the crummy, faded, scratchy-looking prints I've suffered through up til now, the HD transfer of this film is beyond impressive. In fact, some scenes are so sharp and crisp you'd think it were live shot on B&W video, instead of an old film print. Bravo! The sound is mostly clean & clear as well. Thin bonus content is a brief but interesting gallery of stills & promo materials and Spanish subtitles for the film. Overall, a nice restoration of a lesser science fiction 'B' flick. Recommended.

This could have been a 5 star collectable but was produced as a BDR disc. The cost and ease of having a "pressed" disc would have added very little to the cost of manufacturing this item. Small batch production is easy to acommodate these days for limited run items without resorting to inferior lifespan and durability BDR. It also bugs me that they included Spanish subtitles but no English subs. English subtiles are appreciated for folks that have hearing difficulties. They are not just for lanquage needs. I expect the BDR format of this disc might result in many bootlegs of this showing up from other online sources and being hard to identify an official release. Quite a shame as Thunderbean has distributed some wonderful pressed blu-rays of rare items. Their perfect release of the Fleischer Gulliver's Travels comes to mind.

OK so-bad-it's-good late 50's-early 60's black-and-white sci-fi film. An astronaut ends up on an inhabited asteroid, shrunken down to the size of the rock dwellers. He joins in their fight against alien bad guys in ridiculous costumes, and spends his free time trying to return to earth full-size. The Snappy Video Blu-ray-R is excellent quality BUT it is a BR-R, which means it supposedly has a limited shelf life. The Image Entertainment DVD is also very good quality and it's NOT a DVD-R. Take your pick. Recommended.

This review is for the film, and not Snappy Video's transfer.I watched this for the first time last night, so there was no nostalgia to color this review.This was clearly a very low-budget affair that got bogged down for over half its duration, but with some redeeming qualities.CONS:~ Poorly-paced middle section.~ Too much lame dialog.~ Lousy-looking evil aliens/spacecrafts.~ Some weak acting by male aliens.~ One viewing was enough.PROS:~ Lunar Base concept.~ Imaginative premise.~ Cool missile launches.~ Solid lead actor.~ Solid female supporting actors.OVERALL: 3.2 Stars.

Glad to finally have this title on BluRay. It’s a fun movie and the picture quality is a big improvement. My only gripe is that on my copy at least, the last credit in the opening credits, the credit for the director is either cut out or cropped so you can’t see it. Other than that, I have no problem with it.

Even though is produced on BD-R format, the quality of this edition is top notch. Restored from a 35mm print, this widescreen 1080p image is outstanding, the best this movie has ever looked in home video. Some additional bonus features and optional spanish subtitles round up this very recommended release.

I preordered this directly from Steve Stanchfield of Snappy Video/Thunderbean Animation. I hadn't heard of this particular vintage low-budget sci-fi flick, so I was most intrigued when I saw it was going to be released on Blu. Happily, the film is loads of goofy fun, and the transfer is absolutely jaw-dropping. Crisp and full of detail, wonderful greyscale. Another excellent job by Steve and company. If you're a fan of classic '50s/'60s sci-fi like I am, this absolutely belongs on your shelf. You should also check out Snappy's fine remastered Blu of MISSILE TO THE MOON (1958).