DVD review
Directed by Fred M Wilcox
Starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens
Release date 18 June 2007

A spacecraft is dispatched to human colony Altair-4 where the crew encounters Dr Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), his free spirited daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) and their multilingual robot Robbie as well as vestiges of an advanced alien civilisation and a terrifying invisible monster...

Famous for being a loose adaptation of The Tempest relocated to a distant star system, 1956's Forbidden Planet confounded audience expectations: its flying saucer is piloted by humans on a futuristic quest and the robot (the excellent Robbie) is benign, despite some of the film's promo posters. One of the most distinctive and accomplished productions of the 1950s, it was a big glossy space opera with classy, colourful visuals and countless memorable sequences. It was also a clear influence on Star Trek, both in looks and storytelling style.

With its space captain played by a pre-Naked Gun Leslie Nielsen, perhaps it's hard to take some scenes seriously now, but it retains some considerable charm. Though it's not as paranoid about the atomic age as The Incredible Shrinking Man and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Forbidden Planet still concerns a fear of technology, where great power can have deadly consequences.

The movie has been cleaned up for DVD, looking and sounding stellar. Extras on Disc One are light, with 13 minutes of rather ropey deleted scenes, which have curiosity value, even if the additions are minimal. Likewise, nine minutes of rare lost footage show tests of planet and model shots; interesting for completists but hardly riveting.

Rounding off this disc are snippets of MGM Parade, a rather stilted 1950s version of Access Hollywood hosted by Walter Pidgeon; then there's Robot Client, a 1958 episode of TV mystery series The Thin Man, guest starring Robbie. If you think the likes of James Bond is swamped by corporate product placement, then these 25 minutes show that it's hardly a new phenomenon, and it was less than subtle.

Disc Two has better extras, including three lively documentaries totalling 95 minutes: Watch the Skies with Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, George Lucas and Ridley Scott on cold war era sci fi; Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet, a closer look behind the movie dubbed the "Star Wars of the 1950s"; and Robbie the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon, about the film's innovative automaton.

Lastly, Disc Two is notable for the The Invisible Boy, a hokey 1957 black and white B-movie brimming with nuclear technology, which partners Robbie the Robot with an inquisitive brat. This anniversary set is also available in a collector's tin with Lobby Cards and your very own miniature Robbie! Ian Calcutt

VERDICT: 9/10
Some of the extras are hit and miss but the remastered movie remains a true classic and the lengthy documentaries are a must-have.