Question: Which film was released first, Old Yeller or Flight of the Navigator?

Context articles: Fred Gipson
Old Yeller (film)
Old Yeller (dog)
Savage Sam (film)
Old Yeller
Little Arliss
Flight of the Navigator
A Dog of Flanders (1959 film)
Jenny Wiley Theatre
Rudd Weatherwax

Frederick Benjamin "Fred" Gipson (February 7, 1908 – August 14, 1973) was an American author.
 He is best known for writing the 1956 novel "Old Yeller", which became a popular 1957 Walt Disney film.
 Gipson was born on a farm near Mason in the Texas Hill Country, the son of Beck Gipson and Emma Deishler.
 After working at a variety of farming and ranching jobs, he enrolled in 1933 at the University of Texas at Austin.
 There he wrote for the "Daily Texan" and "The Ranger", but he left school before graduating to become a newspaper journalist.
Old Yeller is a 1957 American drama film produced by Walt Disney.
 It stars Tommy Kirk, Dorothy McGuire and Beverly Washburn.
 It is about a boy and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas.
 The film is based upon the 1956 Newbery Honor-winning book of the same name by Fred Gipson.
 Gipson also cowrote the screenplay with William Tunberg.
 The success of the "Old Yeller" film led to a sequel, "Savage Sam", which was also based on a book by Gipson.
The book ends when Yeller becomes exposed to rabies while defending the family from a rabies-infested wolf and Travis is forced to shoot the dog.
 Old Yeller's puppy helps him get over Old Yeller's death.
 Yeller's puppy becomes the title character of the 1962 movie sequel, "Savage Sam".
 There is also a third book, "Little Arliss", set after the first two and starring Travis's younger brother.
Savage Sam is a 1963 film sequel to "Old Yeller" based on the novel of the same name by Fred Gipson.
 Norman Tokar directed the live-action film, which was released by Walt Disney Productions on June 1, 1963.
Old Yeller is a 1956 children's novel written by Fred Gipson and illustrated by Carl Burger.
 It was nominated for the Newberry Medal.
 The title is taken from the name of the yellow dog who is the center of the book's story.
 In 1957 Walt Disney released a film adaptation starring Tommy Kirk, Fess Parker, Dorothy McGuire, Kevin Corcoran, Jeff York, and Beverly Washburn.
Little Arliss (1978) is the third book centered on the Coates family of frontier Texas by Fred Gipson.
 It follows "Old Yeller" and "Savage Sam", and focuses on Little Arliss, the youngest member of the family.
 Like the first two novels, it is told in the first person, this time by Arliss, instead of Travis.
Flight of the Navigator is a 1986 American science fiction adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser and written by Mark H. Baker, Michael Burton and Matt MacManus.
 The film stars Joey Cramer as David Freeman, a 12-year-old boy who is abducted by an alien spaceship and finds himself caught in a world that has changed around him.
A Dog of Flanders is an American film, released in 1959 by 20th Century Fox in CinemaScope and Color by De Luxe.
 Based on the 1872 novel of the same name by Ouida.
 It was directed by James B. Clark, with stars David Ladd, Donald Crisp and Theodore Bikel.
 The film has a happy ending for the boy and his dog.
 "Patrasche" is played by Spike the Mastador, best known for playing the title character in Old Yeller.
Jenny Wiley Theatre is a non-profit organization that puts on productions of classic Broadway musicals, comedies, historical dramas and holiday productions at both the Jenny Wiley Amphitheatre, located within the Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, and surrounding venues.
 The theater's first musical was "South Pacific", performed in the summer of 1965.
 Some theater alumni have later achieved success in television, film and national theater.
 These include: Michael Cerveris, who won two Tony awards, one for his performance in "Tommy" in 1994, and one for his performance in "Assassins" on Broadway; Christine Johnson, Nettie Fowler in the original Broadway cast of "Carousel"; Sharon Lawrence from ABC's "NYPD Blue" and "Desperate Housewives"; James Barbour, who played the Beast in Disney's Broadway production of "Beauty and the Beast" and was Tony-nominated for his role as Mr. Rochester in the musical, "Jane Eyre"; Jim Varney, "Ernest Goes to Camp"; Tommy Kirk, "Old Yeller"; Ron Palillo, "Welcome Back, Kotter"; Eileen Bittman Barnett, "Days of Our Lives"; Cynthia Bostick, "As the World Turns"; Lawrence Leritz, "Broadway and Beyond"; Jeff Silbar, composer of "The Wind Beneath My Wings"; Randy Jones of the Village People singing group; and Paige Davis, host of TLC's "Trading Spaces".
Ruddell Bird "Rudd" Weatherwax (September 23, 1907 – February 25, 1985) was an American actor and animal trainer and breeder.
 He and his brother Frank are best remembered for training dogs for motion pictures and television.
 Their collie, Pal, became the original Lassie, handled by Rudd for the 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film "Lassie Come Home".
 He also handled the dogs for the "Lassie" television series which ran from 1954 to 1974, and trained Spike for the 1957 feature film "Old Yeller".
 After his death, his son, Robert, took over the training of the animals