Sci fi fairy tale with everyone's favorite alien

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2006)

This is a wonderful fun, heartwarming fairy tale of a story for both kids and adults. In terms of a cute science fiction story, no one has ever been able to touch Stephen Spielberg's classic.
The fairy tale begins when some alien botanists visiting earth for samples inadvertently leave behind one of their own on this strange, bewildering new planet. The adorable little alien critter is discovered by a 10 year old boy named Elliot, who finds him foraging for food in their garden shed. The friendly alien (ET, as he comes to be called, for Extra Terrestrial) comes to stay in the boy's home. Elliot, his older brother, Michael, and younger sister, Gertie, sort of take him under their wing. But as they learn to communicate, they discover that ET is lonesome. He wants to go home, and to that end, concocts some type of device he thinks might help get him there. However, if he succeeds, Elliot (whose own parents are going through a divorce) will lose his new friend.
It's all too cute, especially the little alien guffer himself. Basically, he kind of represents every homesick kid (or adult) who ever lived. Despite his newfound human friends, he just misses his own home world and fellow critters. Memorable scenes for me are of course the legendary ones...ET hiding among the stuffed animals and assorted junk in a closet so Elliot's mom won't spot him, Halloween trick or treating, and the famed flying bicycle scene. And of course the ongoing "ET go home".
Great acting by everyone, especially the three kids. ET is simply a fabulous movie with some fancy modern effects and a space age theme, but mainly a story about the bonds of friendship revolving around a touching little guy that needs love and help from his new earthling buddy. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry...just like any truly good movie should. This is one that perennially appeals to the kid in all of us.