Review of The Black Hole (1979) by Christopher S — 21 Dec 2008

This was a promising but ultimately a dissapointing Science fiction cinematic adventure from the Disney studios-their answer to 77's "Star Wars".

It came out Christmas/1979 but unfortunately for them Paramounts much anticipated "Star Trek; the Motion Picture" also was released, stealing it's thunder with superior effects and storyline.

The story is an interesting and imaginative adaptation of Jules Verne's "20.000 Leagues Under the Sea" which had a notable cast including; Maximillian Schell, Robert Forster, Anthony Perkins, Yvette Mimeux, and academy award winner Ernest Borgnine but again despite the cast it seems that their hearts were just not in it-performancewise-but then again it is quite challenging when your acting with special effects and a limited screenplay.

It does have it's entertaining moments though, the general look of the film is quite impressive even for 1979, these were the top effects and most advanced that the Disney studios had produced up to that time, they even designed new camera technology for the film and it also features the first digitally recorded score & soundtrack.

The robot characters were also interesting with V.I.N.cent (voiced by Roddy McDowall) ,BoB(voiced by Slim Pickens) ,and of course the main metallic antagonist of the picture...the murderous Maximillian.

The story although suffering from some innacurate facts and impossible situations is refreshingly dark for a Disney picture (this was the studios first PG rated film) with some acts of violence, peril, murder and dark psychosis in a universe gone mad.

Compared to todays technological advances and the advances in science fiction writing this film suffers noticeably but nonetheless it does hold up in some aspects and is generally an entertining film from what was otherwise a dark period for the Diney film studios.