Bill Wrobel's DVD - Film Score Rundowns

and David Hedison. The scifi disaster concept (that the above-atmosphere Van Allen belt
caught fire and will heat up the Earth to a cinder!) is preposterous but it was fun to watch
the cascading fiery special effects. I like the overall production values and clarity, the
good cast. The action starts finally at around 18 or 19 minutes into the movie as the Van
Allen belt catches fire. There is not really a great deal of “action” per se because the only
“monsters” are the burning Van Allen belt and that giant squid. Most of the trouble
makers in this movie are people! I recommend that you activate the excellent
commentary on the dvd from an authority of the movie and series, Tim Colliver. His
information and insights will help make the slow parts of the movie go a bit faster! You
will learn a lot. For instance, I did not know that the Captain of the Seaview for the
motion picture (played by Robert Sterling) was actually first offered to David Hedison
who turned the role down—but later accepted the role for the tv series!
I like also like Paul Sawtell’s and Bert Shefter’s music better than Lost World.
You can access the Main Title and other cues on the Film Score Monthly site:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/CDID/202/Voyage-to-the-Bottom-ofthe-Sea/
-Fantastic Voyage (1966) *** 1/2 [music ****]
http://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Bottom-Sea-
Fantastic/dp/B00004VVOH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1292997180&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Voyage-Special-Stephen-
Boyd/dp/B000O78KWE/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1293599686&sr=1-1
Here is a link to the final screenplay:
http://leonscripts.tripod.com/scripts/FANVOY.htm
This was truly a fantastic movie to watch back in 1966, and I was so happy 20 th
Century Fox produced it since seven years earlier they did such a great production job on
Journey to the Center of the Earth. The romanticized images of the inner body on the
miniaturized level works wonderfully. When later done in Inner Space, the miniaturized
effects looked more realistic perhaps, but also a lot uglier and uninviting. There are
many attractive “freeze frame” points in the movie (a sort of excursion into modernistic
interpretative organic art!). Some of mine include 00:53:55 (after exiting the heart
towards the lung); 00:55:08 and 00:56:07 (magenta and blue cells); 1:10:41 just before
entering the lymphatic system (looks like a fantastic modernistic art painting or
something!); then 1:11:30 in the lymphatic system now; 1:15:11 shot inside the ear
canal;1:25:32 (light from outside into the ear); 1:26:42 (Boyd and background green
canal). Then the sequences in the brain are nice.
The atonal music by Leonard Rosenman doesn’t kick in until 00:38:02 when the
Proteus is actually injected into the bloodstream. I studied his Rebel Without A Cause but
never had a chance to research Fantastic Voyage, so unfortunately I cannot comment
anything factual about the written score. I would’ve sworn that I saw a full score page
somewhere, perhaps on a forum, but I cannot find it at the moment. A researcher
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