From: potter@csusac.ecs.csus.edu (Carl Kolchak)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv
Subject: Re: Asimov / Heinlein
Summary: not SF, NOT SF, *NOT* SF..... please, not SF?
Keywords: "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA," revisited.
Date: 25 Jul 92 06:31:39 GMT
Followup-To: .alt.dev.null
Distribution: usa
Organization: INS, Inc.

Effendi Boyajian commented--

> Article 2423 of rec.arts.sf.tv:
> From: boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com (The Man from Another Place)
> Subject: Re: Asimov / Heinlein
> Message-ID: <1992Jul24.065411.5039@engage.pko.dec.com>
> Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
> Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 06:46:54 GMT
> 
> In <l6tlfnINNpsp@male.EBay.Sun.COM>, jimj@cleanplate.EBay.Sun.COM
>  (James D. Jones) writes...
> 
> } Asimov was also involved with the movie "Fantastic Voyage,"
> 
> No he wasn't. That's like saying that Alan Dean Foster was "involved"
> with every movie he wrote novelizations for.
> 
> } and indeed wrote a book by that name. But I don't remember if the movie
> } was based on the book, or if the book was based on the movie.  
> 
> The book was based on the movie. Asimov was hired to write the novelization
> and that was the entire extent of his "involvement" with the film.
> 

  Right.  Irwin Allen's outfit handed him a copy of the script and a
  check and said, "Make a serial out of this by <x> date, since we've
  pre-sold it to Saturday Evening Post and have book publications
  lined up."

> } "Fantastic Voyage..."  pretty lame now, but pretty good if you were 10
> } in 1965. I still remember watching the antibodies eat Donald Pleasance.
> 
> I saw it again within the last couple of years. As an interesting (if
> somewhat outrageous) bit of science fiction, it holds up pretty well.
> As an example of striking visuals (and I'm not just referring to Raquel
> Welch in a wetsuit), it definitely holds up well. As strictly a piece
> of entertainment, it's booooooorrrrrrrriiiiiiing.

 The "striking visuals" are extremely dated by current standards.
 My reaction *then* was "Matte lines.  Sloppy.  FUN, but sloppy."
 If memory serves, they won an Academy Award.
 I'm not clear on how this happened, of course.
  (Bear in mind that I'm still upset over Matlin winning Weaver's
   "best actress" trophy a few years back; there's just no explaining
   the kind of politics and favoritism that go into the awards.)

 The "underwater" effects were done on a dry stage, with the actors 
 held up on wires.    The wires show, and there are more coke bottles
 lying around than there were on the lunar surface in "DESTINATION MOON."
 
 I take exception to the use of the words "science fiction" in relation
 to the movie, even when you include the adjectival modifier "outrageous."    
 
 << incredibly brief spoiler warning; the wathapooblie *is* 25 years
      old, after all! >>
 
 Ever notice how, as they shrink, mass disappears?   Ever notice how,
 even though they're microscopic in size, their voices are normal,
 even though their vocal cords must be resonant at visible-light 
 frequencies by that time?  (Asimov "explained" this away in his
 novelization by postulating an extension of mass into some extra
 dimension, where gravity wouldn't affect it.... otherwise, they'd
 have been so heavy they'd have sunk right through the floor and
 free-fallen to the center of the earth.)
 
 Ever notice how, at the end, the human beings escape through a tear 
 duct as they're reverting to normal size?   Ever notice how you don't
 see ANY of the ship wreckage swelling up around them?   All of that
 wreckage is still in the guy's *HEAD*, swelling back up into a 
 full submarine.... along with the bad guy's body!  We're talking 
 raspberry explosion-ville, here! 

 I once pointed this out to Irwin Allen (no, I don't know him;
 I just met him briefly) and he looked puzzled and said:

 "The ship wouldn't expand again.  The white blood cells ate it."


 I rest my case.

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