This is a sort-of sequel to 'A Trip to the Moon', which was itself a reboot of an earlier 'Trip to the Moon' made back in 1898. Of course Melies returned to this idea. He did a number of different versions of every idea he ever had. He dabbled in practically everything. He was best at 2 things: magic acts (sensible seeing as how he started out as a magician and saw film as an extension of the act of illusions), and fantasies (a different kind of magic act). Here, instead of going to the moon, he follows Jules Verne's advice yet again and goes to the other great big ball in the sky: the sun! As is the case with this format, they have to explore their ideas and build stuff (to aid in plausibility, a touch of pseudo-science if you will), then there has to one comedic mishap after another, things must blow up, crash, or explode in a giant puff of smoke)... None of it is to be taken seriously of course. The entire thing is an epic set-piece aimed at striking wonder to the imagination. It kinda works, but you can't escape the feeling that Melies stretches his films out too long for the ideas at hand and that this one is simply "another version" of his best work. Can't blame him for trying. He'd be out-'businessed', so to speak, by Edison within a decade and the rest of the story you've probably already seen from Scorsese's 'Hugo'. One quick fact for 'Hugo' lovers: Melies never filmed on color sets. Shades of gray always look better in black and white! All sets were monochromatic and hand-tinted later.
Review of An Impossible Voyage
