Watching Journey Through the Impossible helps you understand why 1902's A Trip to the Moon is the most well-known of Georges Méliès' films - it probably felt more groundbreaking, it's more direct, and though bizarre, you can still get a handle on what's going on. Journey Through the Impossible is almost impossible to comprehend, being an ambitious sequel of sorts to that earlier short film, and a good deal crazier.
What's being traveled to, and why, and how... it's all bizarre and unhinged. You get the sun with a face this time, instead of a moon. There are multiple crazy vehicles. There's an octopus. Every scene where the characters aren't in motion, they're just standing around gesturing wildly at each other. Just early days of cinema things.
It's still interesting to watch. I think it's worthy of attention for anyone who wants to see some of the more creative and out-there early short films from the medium's history; it's similarly worthy of attention as A Trip to the Moon. It's repetitive, even at 20 minutes, and one does have to accept that this is not a normal "adventure" movie by any means, but you have to admire Méliès' uncompromising imagination at a time where not too many years earlier, "films" really just served as tiny little documentaries of everyday life, lasting just a minute or two; sometimes less.
Things like Journey Through the Impossible did start to get eclipsed 10-20 years later, by a good margin, but it's always interesting to see an artform slowly start to take shape, and Méliès was undeniably a key figure in making movies movies.
What's being traveled to, and why, and how... it's all bizarre and unhinged. You get the sun with a face this time, instead of a moon. There are multiple crazy vehicles. There's an octopus. Every scene where the characters aren't in motion, they're just standing around gesturing wildly at each other. Just early days of cinema things.
It's still interesting to watch. I think it's worthy of attention for anyone who wants to see some of the more creative and out-there early short films from the medium's history; it's similarly worthy of attention as A Trip to the Moon. It's repetitive, even at 20 minutes, and one does have to accept that this is not a normal "adventure" movie by any means, but you have to admire Méliès' uncompromising imagination at a time where not too many years earlier, "films" really just served as tiny little documentaries of everyday life, lasting just a minute or two; sometimes less.
Things like Journey Through the Impossible did start to get eclipsed 10-20 years later, by a good margin, but it's always interesting to see an artform slowly start to take shape, and Méliès was undeniably a key figure in making movies movies.