trip to the moon color

• Manage Account
• Solar Eclipse
• Bleeding Out
• Things to Do
• Public Notices
• Help Center

arts entertainment Movies

Blast from the past: Behind the amazing color restoration of 'A Trip to the Moon'

"a trip to the moon" remains a blast, fueled by méliès' magical imagination and drive to bring the fantastic to the screen at a time when simple documentary subjects were the norm..

By Chris Vognar

5:53 PM on Mar 27, 2018 CDT

As film restoration stories go, this one is a moonshot.

In the mid-'90s a rare hand-tinted copy of A Trip to the Moon was discovered in Spain. Georges Méliès' 1902 sci-fi short has long been considered one of cinema's founding works. It was thought that no color versions existed. But here was just that. The rub: It was in bad shape, too fragile to handle after nearly a century of decay.

But film restorers are determined people, and technology evolves. Through a painstaking process, chronicled in the illuminating documentary The Extraordinary Voyage , the color Trip to the Moon was brought back to life . It remains a blast, fueled by Méliès' magical imagination and drive to bring the fantastic to the screen at a time when simple documentary subjects were the norm.

You can see the finished film, and the documentary, on a brand-new Blu-ray released by the savvy distributor Flicker Alley . It's a trip well worth taking.

Chris Vognar , Special Contributor . Chris Vognar writes about film, music, theater and books. He previously was culture critic for The News.

Top Arts & Entertainment Stories

How ‘green’ are those travel options, really, movies in north texas theaters on march 22 and coming soon, spring festival season arrives in dallas-fort worth, see the total solar eclipse of 2024 at one of these watch parties in dallas-fort worth, remembering anne bromberg, dallas museum of art curator and art scholar.

ARTS & CULTURE

A trip to the moon as you’ve never seen it before.

One of the landmark films in cinema can now be seen in color

Daniel Eagan

It’s one of the most famous films in cinema, a special-effects, science-fiction extravaganza that became an international sensation when it was released in 1902. Almost instantly it was pirated, bootlegged, copied and released by competing studios under different names. And for decades it’s only been available in black-and-white copies.

Now, after a 12 year project that approached a half-million euros in cost, Lobster Films , The Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage , and Fondation Groupama Gan pour le Cinéma are unveiling a new version of A Trip to the Moon , “resurrected,” in the words of preservationist Tom Burton, from an original, hand-colored nitrate print. For the first time in generations viewers will be able to see the color version of the film that stunned early 20th-century moviegoers.

Le voyage dans la lune , to use its French title, is one of over 500 movies made by Georges Méliès, perhaps the first filmmaker to fully grasp the potential of cinema. The son of a wealthy shoemaker, Méliès was born in 1861. Fascinated by magic and illusions, he left the family business in 1888. Buying the Robert-Houdin theater from his widow in Paris, he developed a successful act with illusions such as “The Vanishing Lady.” Méliès was in the audience when the Lumière brothers held their first public film screening on December 28, 1895, and within months was exhibiting movies at his theater.

Méliès made his first film in November, 1896, built his own studio in 1901 and formed the Star Film brand to market his work in France and internationally. He made movies about current events and fairy tales, replicated his stage illusions on screen and developed a highly advanced technical style that incorporated stop-motion animation: double-, triple-, and quadruple-exposures; cross-dissolves; and jump cuts. More than any of his contemporaries, Méliès made movies that were fun and exciting. They were filled with stunts, tricks, jokes, dancing girls, elaborate sets and hints of the macabre.

A Trip to the Moon had several antecedents, including the 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and A Trip to the Moon , a four-act opera with music by Jacques Offenbach that debuted in 1877. Méliès may also have been aware of a theater show at the 1901 Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, called A Trip to the Moon . Filming started in May, 1902. It was released on September 1 in Paris and a little over a month later in New York City.

At the time exhibitors and individuals could purchase films outright from the Star Films catalog. Color prints were available at an extra cost. Probably not too many color prints of A Trip to the Moon were ever in existence, but it came out right around that time color became a real fad. Within a couple of years, the hand-painting was replaced by tinting and stencil process, so color became more prevalent and less expensive. Several color Méliès films survive, but it was believed that the color Trip to the Moon had long been lost.

But in 1993, Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange of Lobster Films obtained an original nitrate print from the Filmoteca de Catalunya . The only problem: it had decomposed into the equivalent of a solid hockey puck. In 1999, Bromberg and Lange, two of the most indefatigable of all film historians, began to try to unspool the reel by placing it in the equivalent of a humidor, using a chemical compound that softened the nitrate enough to digitally document individual frames. (The process also ultimately destroyed the film.)

Years later, Bromberg had some 5,000 digital files, which he handed over to Tom Burton, the executive director of Technicolor Restoration Services in Hollywood. In a recent phone call, Burton described how his team approached this “bucket of digital shards.”

“What we got was a bunch of digital data that had no sequential relationship to each other because they had to photograph whatever frame or piece of a frame that they could,” Burton recalled. “We had to figure out the puzzle of where these chunks of frames, sometimes little corners of a frame or a half of a frame, where all these little pieces went. Over a period of about nine months we put all these pieces back together, building not only sections but rebuilding individual frames from shattered pieces.”

Burton estimated that they could salvage between 85 to 90 percent of the print. They filled in the missing frames by copying them from a private print held by the Méliès family and digitally coloring the frames to match the original hand colored source.

“It’s really more a visual effects project in a way than a restoration project,” Burton said. “A lot of the technology that we used to rebuild these frames is the technology you would use if you were making a first-run, major visual effects motion picture. You’d never have been able to pull this off 10 years ago, and certainly not at all with analog, photochemical technology.”

For Burton, A Trip to the Moon represents the beginnings of modern visual effects as we know them today. “Seeing it in color makes it a whole different film,” he said. “The technique involved teams of women painting individual frames with tiny brushes and aniline dyes. The color is surprisingly accurate but at times not very precise. It will wander in and out of an actor’s jacket, for example. But it’s very organic. It will never rival the way A Trip to the Moon first screened for audiences, but it’s still pretty amazing.”

A Trip to the Moon was shown at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in May, and is screening on September 6 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bromberg will be showing it at this year’s New York Film Festival , and on November 11 at the Museum of Modern Art , along “with the world premiere of my documentary about the restoration. An absolute must!” as he wrote in an e-mail. Was this his most exciting restoration? “One of them, of course,” he answered. “The best one is the next one!!”

Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Daniel Eagan | | READ MORE

"Daniel Eagan is a film writer and author of America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry . "

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Cannes 2011: Méliès’s Fully Restored A Trip To The Moon in Color To Screen Fest’s Opening Night

Sophia savage.

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on LinkedIn
• Show more sharing options
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Print This Page
• Share on WhatsApp

Georges Méliès’ 1902 masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon will screen in hand-painted color at the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night.

The fully restored version, 109 years old, was considered lost until the restoration was undertaken by Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. With today’s digital capabilities, fragments of 13,375 frames were reassembled one by one. New to the film is an original soundtrack by French band AIR.

More info from the press release is below:

In May 1902, Georges Méliès shot the film, A Trip to the Moon. It was released in black and white, and also in color, hand painted. It was considered as a long feature at the time – around 14 minutes – and was success worldwide. The first blockbuster in the history of cinema was immediately pirated and plagiarized. In 1913, the black and white version survived Georges Méliès’ act of folly, when he attempted to burn his collection of film negatives. The color version was considered definitively lost, however a color print was finally found in 1993 in Barcelona, Spain, donated by a private film collector to the Filmoteca de Catalunya. However, the nitrate print had been severely damaged over time and was in such poor condition that attempting any restoration work seemed futile. Following a film exchange with the Filmoteca de Catalunya, Lobster Films received the damaged color print and began the tedious task of peeling off and unrolling the nitrate prints to be able to digitize them.  It took two years to extract the images fragments. The data obtained was stored on a hard drive for eight years as the technology available at the time did not allow Lobster Films continue the restoration.   In 2010, a project team involving Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage – the only two foundations in France dedicated to worldwide cinema – launched the most complex and ambitious restoration project in the history of cinema, with a budget equivalent to a long feature high-end restoration (more than 400,000 euros). The digital restoration of A Trip to the Moon took place at Technicolor’s laboratories in Los Angeles, California and was supervised by Tom Burton. A black and white original nitrate print belonging to the Méliès family and a positive print belonging to the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) were used during the restoration. The digitization of these elements was done by the Archives françaises du film (CNC-AFF) near Paris. As is the case with all the restoration projects conducted by the two foundations, the objective is to circulate the film to the largest audience possible. For this purpose, they have asked the French band, AIR, to compose an original soundtrack to accompany this silent film, which was at the time of its first release screened with a musician on stage playing “popular music,” as described the in the film reviews of the time. “This is the most complex and ambitious restoration project we have evertaken on, all the more that this film, one of the first in the history of cinema, was had vanished for over 100 years,” declared Serge Bromberg (Lobster Films), Gilles Duval (Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema) and Séverine Wemaere (Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage).   A colossal amount of work was done in order to breathe life back into this color masterpiece by Georges Méliès. Its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Classics section, will mark the 150th anniversary of the filmmaker’s birth.

Most Popular

You may also like.

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

A Trip To The Moon (1902;Original Color Print Version).

Video item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

3 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

In collections.

Uploaded by Bensw6754 on August 6, 2023

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

'A Trip to the Moon': 1902 Film Classic Gets 21st Century Facelift

NASA's Apollo astronauts may have first put boot prints on the moon in 1969, but moviegoers made the roundtrip long before that — in fact, way back in 1902.

Thanks to innovative French filmmaker, Georges Méliès, a pioneer of early cinema and special effects, audiences were transported across the intervening void to the moon. His 14-minute silent film, "A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage Dans La Lune)," was arguably the "2001: Space Odyssey" of its time.

The film portrays members of the Astronomers' Club, dispatched on an expedition to the moon. Their mode of propulsion — a huge cannon — borrowed from French novelist Jules Verne's space adventure "From the Earth to the Moon," which was published in 1865.

The film shows the intrepid travelers arriving on the moon safe and sound, only to encounter the Selenites. They escape the clutches of the Selenite king and hustle back to Earth in their bullet-shaped vehicle.

Landing in the ocean, the explorers are fished out by a sailor. All this is followed by cheers, decorations and a victorious parade for the six conquerors of the cosmos. [ 'Transformers' Film Trailer Rewrites Apollo History ]

Cannes Film Festival

Now, rocket ahead 109 years. A restored color version of the classic film is wowing theater patrons again, this time at the upscale Cannes Film Festival running May 11 to May 22 on the French Riviera.

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

When it was first released, Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon" was both in black and white, as well as a hand-tinted color version.

The color adaptation was thought to be long lost. But a colorized print of the film was recovered in Barcelona, Spain, about 18 years ago.

On close examination, it became painfully obvious that time had not treated the nitrate print well. It was severely damaged and in such poor condition that refurbishment of the film looked impractical.

Enter the digital age

In 2010, a cooperative film restoration project was launched by Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. [ Top 10 Movie Computer Interfaces ]

Brought to bear were state-of-the-art digital technologies, with the fragments of the 13,375 frames reassembled and painstakingly restored, one by one, to create a fully reinstated color version of the film.

Handling the damaged color print was not easy. It involved peeling off and unrolling the nitrate prints to be able to digitize them. That effort took two years, and images were stored on a hard drive for eight years.

The digital color restoration of "A Trip to the Moon" took place at Technicolor's laboratories in Los Angeles, under the watchful eye of Tom Burton, executive director of restoration services at the company.

21st century soundtrack

"This is the most complex and ambitious restoration project we have ever taken on," declared leaders of the restoration venture in a joint statement by Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films, Gilles Duval of Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Séverine Wemaere with Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage.

The budget to complete the task was purportedly somewhere in the range of $500,000 to $600,000.

According to a statement from Technicolor, the objective now is to circulate the film to the largest audience possible.

Back in 1902, at the time of its first release, "A Trip to the Moon" was screened with a musician on stage playing "popular music," as described in the film reviews of the era.

For that purpose, the French band Air composed an original soundtrack to accompany the silent film. That inventive musical duo has among their credits the critically acclaimed album "Moon Safari."

Explains Air musician, Nicolas Godin: "'A Trip to the Moon' is undoubtedly more organic than most of our past projects. We wanted it to sound 'handmade,' knocked together, a bit like Méliès' special effects. Everything is played live … like Méliès' film, our soundtrack is nourished by living art."

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is a winner of this year's National Space Club Press Award and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for SPACE.com since 1999.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Leonard David is an award-winning space journalist who has been reporting on space activities for more than 50 years. Currently writing as Space.com's Space Insider Columnist among his other projects, Leonard has authored numerous books on space exploration, Mars missions and more, with his latest being "Moon Rush: The New Space Race" published in 2019 by National Geographic. He also wrote "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet" released in 2016 by National Geographic. Leonard  has served as a correspondent for SpaceNews, Scientific American and Aerospace America for the AIAA. He was received many awards, including the first Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History in 2015 at the AAS Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium. You can find out Leonard's latest project at his website and on Twitter.

'Constellation' season 1 episode 8 review: This isn't the conclusion you're looking for

Watch 'Doctor Who' visit the Victorian Era and the age of dinosaurs in new Season 14 trailer (video)

Overlooked Apollo data from the 1970s reveals huge record of 'hidden' moonquakes

Most Popular

By Robert Lea March 27, 2024

By Mike Wall March 27, 2024

By Daisy Dobrijevic March 27, 2024

By Jamie Carter March 27, 2024

By Robert Lea March 26, 2024

By Sharmila Kuthunur March 26, 2024

By Nicoletta Lanese March 26, 2024

By Jeff Spry March 26, 2024

By Robert Z. Pearlman March 26, 2024

By Harry Baker March 26, 2024

• 2 Supermassive black hole’s mysterious hiccups' likely caused by neighboring black hole's 'punches'
• 3 'Vampire' neutron star blasts are related to jets traveling at near-light speeds
• 4 Tragic Baltimore bridge collapse aftermath seen from space (satellite photos)
• 5 NASA is super stoked for the 2024 total solar eclipse and hopes you are, too.

A Trip to the Moon

Flicker Alley, 2 discs, 15 min., not rated, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $34.95 Volume 27, Issue 4

by Sean Axmaker

July 11, 2012

Rating: 3.5 of 5

This two-disc limited edition release features the home video debut of the painstakingly restored color version of George Méliès's landmark 1902 fantasy short—'the first international hit in motion picture history,' in the words of cinema historian and archivist Serge Bromberg, and perhaps the most famous film made prior to The Birth of a Nation . The surviving hand-painted print was discovered in the late 1990s in brittle and badly decomposed condition, and it took over 10 years to complete the digital restoration, which premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was glimpsed in Martin Scorsese's Hugo . Historical importance aside, A Trip to the Moon is a delight—a whimsical portrait of science as wizardry by way of the industrial revolution, a picture-book fantasy brought to life with intricate sets and the effects that Méliès had perfected in his 'trick films.' A Trip to the Moon showcases the best of Méliès as magician and showman; and for this definitive issue, the French pop duo AIR contributes an offbeat original score. Released as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo, extras include the feature-length documentary The Extraordinary Voyage (which covers both the history of the film and the restoration process), a preserved black-and-white version with a choice of three additional soundtracks, two other Méliès shorts, and an interview with AIR. Essential for any early cinema collection, this is highly recommended. ( S. Axmaker ) [Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review—Mar. 20, 2018—Flicker Alley, 15 min., not rated, Blu-ray/DVD Combo: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1902’s A Trip to the Moon features an excellent transfer with a DTS 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include the black-and-white version of the film, multiple scores for the original film and optional English narration written by director George Méliès, 'The Extraordinary Voyage' 2011 'making-of' documentary (65 min.), two Méliès short films—1907’s 'The Eclipse' (9 min.) and 1898’s 'The Astronomer’s Dream' (3 min.)—and a booklet featuring an essay excerpt from A Trip to the Moon Back in Color. Bottom line: the definitive edition of an early cinematic landmark.]

Star Ratings

As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.

Most Popular

Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today:

Search form

Visit AWN on Twitter Visit AWN on Facebook Visit AWN on YouTube Visit AWN on Instagram Visit AWN on LinkedIn Visit AWN on FlipBoard Subscribe to AWN

• AnimationWorld
• All Categories
• Most Recent Videos
• Top Playlists
• All Video Categories
• Animation Industry Database
• Filmporium Store
• How To Succeed in Animation

Trip to the Moon in Color, VFX & Animation Speakers at Palo Alto Fest

The color version of Georges Méliès' masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon (1902), was presented at the Cannes Film Festival during the Opening evening, on May 11, 2011.

Press Release from Palo Alto Film Festival

The color version of Georges Méliès' masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon (1902), was presented at the Cannes Film Festival during the Opening evening, on May 11, 2011. 109 years after its first release, a fully restored color version is once again visible on screen, after being considered lost.

In 2010, a full restoration was launched by 3 experts in worldwide film restoration: a private collection Lobster Films, and two non profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage.

Thanks to the advanced digital technologies available today, the fragments of the 13,375 frames were reassembled and restored one by one. The film premiered at the Cannes Festival with an original soundtrack by the French band, AIR and is now starting a worldwide tour of the international festivals. It is presented in Palo Film Film Festival on October 1st.

In May 1902, Georges Méliès shot the film, A Trip to the Moon. It was released in black and white, and also in color, hand painted. It was considered as a long feature at the time - around 16 minutes - and was success worldwide. The first blockbuster in the history of cinema was immediately pirated and plagiarized. In 1923, the black and white version survived Georges Méliès' act of folly, when he attempted to burn his collection of film negatives.

The color version was considered definitively lost, however a color print was finally found in 1993 in Barcelona, Spain, donated by a private film collector to the Filmoteca de Catalunya. However, the nitrate print had been severely damaged over time and was in such poor condition that attempting any restoration work seemed futile. Following a film exchange with the Filmoteca de Catalunya, Lobster Films received the damaged color print and began the tedious task of peeling off and unrolling the nitrate prints to be able to digitize them. It took two years to extract the images fragments. The data obtained was stored on a hard drive for eight years as the technology available at the time did not allow Lobster Films continue the restoration.

In 2010, a project team was set up, involving 3 experts in worldwide film restoration: a private collection Lobster Films, and two non profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. This team launched one of the most complex and ambitious restoration project in the history of cinema, with a budget equivalent to a long feature high-end restoration (more than 400,000 euros).

The digital restoration of A Trip to the Moon took place at Technicolor Creative Services in Los Angeles, California and was supervised by Tom Burton. A black and white original nitrate print belonging to the Méliès family and a positive print belonging to the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) were used during the restoration. The digitization of these elements was done by the Archives françaises du film (CNC-AFF).

As is the case with all the restoration projects conducted by the two foundations, the objective is to circulate the film to the largest audience possible. For this purpose, they have asked the French band, AIR, to compose an original soundtrack to accompany this silent film, which was at the time of its first release screened with a musician on stage playing "popular music," as described the in the film reviews of the time.

"This is the most complex and ambitious restoration project we have evertaken on, all the more that this film, one of the first in the history of cinema, was had vanished for over 100 years," declared Serge Bromberg (Lobster Films), Gilles Duval (Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema) and Séverine Wemaere (Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage).

A colossal amount of work was done in order to breathe life back into this color masterpiece by Georges Méliès. Its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, for the Opening Evening, was a great start to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the filmmaker's birth in 2011.

Other vfx and animation highlights:

Paul Debevec: A Pioneer in Virtual CinematographyPaul Debevec (Spider-Man 2, Avatar) is a Research Professor at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. A pioneer in Virtual Cinematography, he invented High Dynamic Range Image-Based Lighting and received a Scientific Academy Award for the Light Stage facial capture systems used in films such as Superman Returns, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and TRON: Legacy. He will speak about his research and professional work.

Rango: The New Frontier of Visual Effects with John KnollJohn Knoll is an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor at George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Best known for his work as Visual Effects Supervisor on Hook, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, the Star Wars prequels, the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and Avatar. He is the co-creation of Adobe Photoshop, Knoll will speak about the visual effects techniques employed on his latest film Rango.

John McCreaJohn Knoll is an Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor at George Lucas’ Industrial John McCrea has been a web entrepreneur since 1994. He currently heads up the social entertainment startup, Tunerfish, which he incubated inside Comcast. Comcast also acquired his prior startup, Plaxo, where he headed up marketing. John has an S.B. from M.I.T. and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He will speak on the panel "Digital Filmmaking & Distribution: Whose Tail Is Wagging The Dog?"

Tom SitoTom Sito is a 37-year veteran of animation production whose credits include the classic Disney films Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Dreamworks’ Shrek, and Illumination’s Hop. Author of an upcoming history of computer graphics, he will discuss "The Roots of Character Animation in Silicon Valley 1935-2011." Afterward, Patricia Hannaway will join Tom to discuss the relevance of traditional animation skills in the age of digital cinema. Tom Sito and Patricia Hannaway will speak on the Animate This! panel.

Animate This!: A Conversation with Patricia Hannaway and Tom SitoAnimate This! is a conversation with Patricia Hannaway and Tom Sito, who will discuss the history of animation in the Silicon Valley and how animation has changed over time. Patricia Hannaway is a local animator and artist who worked on hits like Mulan and Shrek. As the Senior Animator for the character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, she was instrumental in developing his facial system and performance. Tom Sito, a 37-year veteran of animation production, has worked on the classic Disney films Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Dreamworks’ Shrek, Illumination’s Hop. He has also worked on hours of television production and commercials.

Encyclopedia Pictura: Isaiah Saxon, Daren Rabinovitch, Sean HellfritschEncyclopedia Pictura is the directing team of Isaiah Saxon, Daren Rabinovitch, and Sean Hellfritsch. Encyclopedia Pictura has won numerous awards for their music videos, including Video of the Year from DA&D, UK VMA, Antville and Spin Magazine. Esquire called them “The Directors of the Future”. The trio will be speaking about their award-winning work, augmented reality (AR), and their upcoming feature DIY.

Rick DeMott Animation World Network Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks

View the discussion thread.

Elsewhere on AWN

The award-winning definitive authority on all things visual effects in the world of film, TV, gaming, virtual reality, commercials, theme parks, and other new media.

Winner of three prestigious Folio Awards for excellence in publishing.

Subscribe to the VFX Voice Print Edition

Subscriptions & Single Issues

• Web Exclusives
• Digital Editions
• ABOUT VFX VOICE
• EXECUTIVE NOTE
• VES HOMEPAGE
• VES 20th Anniversary

A TRIP TO THE MOON : A Blockbuster Restored

By PAULA PARISI

An example of what poor condition the print for Le voyage dans le lune (A Trip to the Moon) was in. More than 13,000 frames needed to be resurrected. This is an example of what frame technicians had to work with. The frames were in an advanced state of decomposition while many were stuck together. Tom Burton, Executive Director of Technicolor Restoration Services, called it a “bucket of digital shards.”

A blockbuster of its time, George Méliès’s 1902 film A Trip to the Moon is considered the first visual effects film, setting the template for the technical manipulation of images to create onscreen magic. The tale of a group of astronomers fired inside a projectile from a huge artillery canon to the lunar surface inspired generations of filmmakers as well as the VES, which took as its logo the signature image of the bullet-like craft poking the man in the moon’s eye.

Among the VFX techniques pioneered by the French auteur were substitution splices, multiple exposures, forced-frame perspective, time-lapse photography and dissolves. He employed all manner of practical effects – explosions and trap doors – and was one of the first to use storyboards.

Although Méliès made more than 500 films between 1896 and 1912, competing with Edison and the Lumière brothers through the tumultuous birth of cinema,  A Trip to the Moon remains the work for which he is best remembered. While it has screened continuously since its release, the color version of the print was believed to have been lost.

The discovery in 1993 of a badly deteriorated color print that had been donated to the Filmoteca de Catalunya in Barcelona led to a meticulous restoration made possible by Technicolor.

“In the history of restoration, I’ve never seen such a crazy project,” says Séverine Wemaere, who was running the now-defunct Technicolor Film Foundation that partnered in the restoration with Lobster Films, whose principals – Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange – were the private collectors that found and acquired the tattered treasure.

“It was 13,375 frames that were completely fragmented and we had to put together like a huge puzzle,” Wemaere adds. This was done in Los Angeles by Tom Burton, who headed up Technicolor Creative Services at the time of the restoration, and his team. It would take 20 years and $1 million from the time of the ruined masterpiece’s discovery until its reappearance, in all its original splendor, to an appreciative audience at the opening night of the 2011 Festival de Cannes. The film then toured the world, exhibited at museums and film festivals, often as a double bill with The Extraordinary Voyage , the restoration documentary directed by Bromberg and Lange.

Decomposed frames from A Trip to the Moon

“A rocket in the eye of moon, what a bizarre idea!” Bromberg says early on in the film, while the notion of ever being able to repair Méliès lost masterpiece must have seemed no less strange. Contained in a single reel, the 15 minutes of footage had melted and congealed into what was described as “a large hockey puck.” The sticky configuration was helped along by the fact that in Méliès’s day, black and white films were hand-painted using dyes that were mixed with glue. The process, which was reserved for A-list movies, was undertaken by assembly lines of up to 200 women.

The process of separating the rigid, compact mass was arduous, and took team Lobster many years. Although they were initially told the print was irretrievable, their experiments prying it apart led to the discovery that only the edges were stuck; the central frames, though scratched and dirty, were relatively intact. Progress was by the centimeter and took weeks.

Once unwound, the brittle reel was sent to the Haghefilm Digitaal in the Netherlands, where it was treated with chemicals to restore pliability. After several months of effort, nearly a third of the film was saved onto an internegative. The part that was not able to be uniformly salvaged was returned to Lobster in shards – some 10,000 pieces which would require the patience of a jigsaw puzzle specialist to recombine.

In early 2000, Bromberg and Lange got their hands on a new three-million-pixel digital camera which they used to capture the fragmented images, which kept them busy through 2005. When finished, they found themselves with a disjunctive masterpiece on a hard drive, but were forced to wait for digital restoration techniques to advance to a level suited to the sensitive task.

Tom Burton, Executive Director of Technicolor Restoration Services in Hollywood, helmed the restoration of A Trip to the Moon at the Technicolor laboratories in Los Angeles. (Photo:Ahmad Ouri)

Technicians labor lovingly during restoration of A Trip to the Moon at Technicolor labs in Los Angeles.

It was in 2010 that the heavy-lifting began for Burton and the group at Technicolor Creative Services. As it happened, at the time of the restoration, Technicolor was also working on Martin Scorsese’s 2012 film, Hugo, about the life of Méliès, and the director wound up incorporating the footage into his project, which  received 11 Academy Award nominations, earning a Visual Effects trophy for Rob Legato.

That happy accident was a long way from Burton’s mind when he began the restoration. “The files we received were in various formats – TIFF, TGA, JPG – and different resolutions. Some were captured via digital camera, frame by frame, and some were from the digital scanner,” Burton recalls. “There was no way to play back a continuous image, nor was the data sequentially organized.” Using for reference an HDCAM telecine of an existing B&W print, the individual frames and image shards were carefully mapped to their proper locations.

From then on, it became a process of iteration. “Playing back this timeline of newly assembled color-tinted images that no one had had the opportunity to view for many decades – possibly a century or more –was very exciting,” Burton says. Ensuing steps included image stabilization – more precisely adjusting the shattered fragments – “de-flickering,” which conformed frame-to-frame densities, and a color pre-grade.

With this baseline look established, Technicolor set about recreating the missing color shards and in some cases frames; about 10% of the film had simply crumbled to dust. Carefully sampling the original color palette, Burton’s crew copied data from the black and white print, carefully preserving the anomalies of the hand-tinting, which included smudging and other quirks. The reconstruction utilized VFX tools including Digital Vision Phoenix/DVO, MTI and After Effects.

“It’s really more a visual effects project in away than a restoration project,” Burton told Smithsonian magazine in 2011. “A lot of the technology that we used to rebuild these frames is the technology you would use if you were making a first-run, major visual effects motion picture. You’d never have been able to pull this off 10 years ago, and certainly not at all with analog, photochemical technology.”

You May Also Like:

Most popular stories.

CHANNELING THE VISUAL EFFECTS ON SET FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON 2

2024 STATE OF THE VFX/ANIMATION INDUSTRY: FULL SPEED AHEAD

NAVIGATING LONDON UNDERWATER FOR THE END WE START FROM

REMOTE WORK 2024: FINDING THE BEST BALANCE BETWEEN HOME AND OFFICE

GAIA BUSSOLATI: CONNECTING HOLLYWOOD AND ITALIAN CINEMA – AND STAYING CURIOUS

VisualEffectsSociety Follow 11,405 51,699

Blockbusters may be synonymous with CGI, but dramas and art-house films rely extensively on sophisticated visual effects that you may never realize are effects at all.

Join the VES Technology Committee for a dynamic webcast as we delve into the implications of GenAI in the VFX industry. Tues 4/9 at 11AM (PDT), 1PM (CTD), 2PM (EDT), 7PM (BST), 8PM (CEST), 11:30PM (IST) & Wed 4/10 at 4AM (AEST) & 6AM (NZST). RSVP now: https://bit.ly/48YlTq2

Brought together by @netflix is the visual effects supervisor duo of Jabbar Raisani and Marion Spates who are collaborating on their third series together. Go inside the #VFX of AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER in our latest #VFXVoice web exclusive feature -

ACHIEVING THE LIVE-ACTION STATE FOR AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

Brought together by Netflix is the visual effects supervisor duo of Jabbar Raisani and Marion Spates who are colla...

www.vfxvoice.com

Looking to join a dynamic global community of #VFX artists & innovators? If you have at least 5 years VFX experience, apply to join the VES by this Friday, March 15th. Ck out our membership benefits here: https://bit.ly/3wIZXSc. More info/apply here: https://bit.ly/3V9mUs3

• PRIVACY POLICY

[login_form]

[mc4wp_form id=”362″]

[register_form]

Watch A Trip to the Moon

A Trip to the Moon (Color Restored) is a classic science fiction movie that came out in 1902, which was one of the earliest movies in the genre. The movie is directed and starred by Georges Melies, along with Henri Delannoy, Bleuette Bernon, and Francois Lallement. It is a silent movie that lasts for around 14 minutes and is famous for its innovative visual effects, storytelling, and groundbreaking cinematography.

The movie follows a group of astronomers who build a spacecraft and travel to the moon. The group is led by Professor Barbenfouillis, played by Melies himself, who is passionate about exploring the mysteries of outer space. The film takes us on a journey to the moon as the group lands smoothly on the moon's surface using an umbrella as a parachute, leaving behind the crew of the spacecraft. Once on the moon, the group encounters a group of extraterrestrial beings who are not happy with the moon's visitors.

The film is known for its imaginative and captivating visuals that have influenced filmmakers throughout the 20th century. Melies used various techniques that were innovative for his time, such as stop-motion animation, miniatures, multiple exposures, and hand-painted color. The film's elaborate set designs and costumes are interesting to watch and serve as a testament to Melies' artistic abilities.

The restoration of the film's color adds a new dimension to the movie's visual aspect. When the film was created, it was hand-tinted, and most existing prints contained only black-and-white footage with no colors. But the surviving colored portions of the film were restored, and the entire film was made available with color restored.

The film's impact on cinema history cannot be understated. It was the first science fiction film ever made and set the stage for the genre's future. The techniques developed by Melies were an inspiration to subsequent movies, and they influenced numerous filmmakers, including Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In conclusion, A Trip to the Moon (Color Restored) is a revolutionary and imaginative film that is a must-watch for any cinephile. The restoration of color creates an entirely new experience and enhances the visuals so that they are even more impressive by modern standards. The movie demonstrates Melies' artistry and cinematic ingenuity and serves as a testament to how far cinema has come in the last century. Anyone interested in the history of cinema or science fiction should undoubtedly watch this groundbreaking work.

• Genres Sci-Fi
• Cast Georges Melies Henri Delannoy Bleuette Bernon Francois Lallement
• Director Georges Melies
• MPAA Rating NR
• Runtime 16 min

• Movies & TV
• Featured Categories

Return this item for free

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Sorry, there was a problem.

Image unavailable.

• Sorry, this item is not available in
• Image not available
• To view this video download Flash Player

A Trip to the Moon: In Its Original 1902 Colors Dual-Edition Format

• Prime Video $1.99
• Blu-ray from $28.59
• DVD from $3.15
• VHS Tape from $4.99

Purchase options and add-ons

Customers usually keep this item

This product has fewer returns than average compared to similar products.

Frequently bought together

Similar items that may ship from close to you

From the manufacturer

A TRIP TO THE MOON: IN ITS ORIGINAL 1902 COLORS IS BACK ... AND NOW WITH BRAND NEW OPTIONAL SCORES!

Blu-ray/dvd combo.

Flicker Alley, Lobster Films, and Blackhawk Films are proud to announce the re-release of the restored 1902 hand-colored edition of Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon , featuring new scores from composer/DJ Jeff Mills, musical group Dorian Pimpernel, and an improvised piano track by Serge Bromberg with optional narration written by Georges Méliès.

Once believed lost, a copy of the original, hand-colored version of Georges Méliès’ masterwork A Trip to the Moon was miraculously found in Barcelona, Spain in 1993. Initially thought too fragile to restore, the film underwent one of the most complex and ambitious film restoration projects ever. Three experts in film restoration – Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation, and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage – used the most advanced digital technologies available to assemble and painstakingly restore the film’s 13,375 fragmented frames.

Follow six scholars—members of the Astronomers’ Club—as they set off on an expedition to the moon!

Traveling in a bullet-shaped rocket fired into space by a giant cannon, these voyagers arrive to meet the moon’s inhabitants: the Selenites. Escaping the Selenties’ king, the scholars fall back to Earth in their rocket and are fished out of the ocean by a sailor. Applause and a triumphant parade for the six heroes concludes the first outer-space adventure in the history of cinema.

Flicker Alley, Lobster Films, and Blackhawk Films are thrilled to present this re-released publication of the 1902 hand-colored edition of A Trip to the Moon . This deluxe dual-format edition features two brand new scores by Jeff Mills and Dorian Pimpernel, as well as an improvised piano track by Serge Bromberg with optional narration written by Georges Méliès.

Special Features Include:

• THE EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGE - with Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange (Lobster Films)
• A TRIP TO THE MOON (B/W) - beautifully restored black-and-white edition from original 35mm elements
• THE ECLIPSE (1907) & THE ASTRONOMER’S DREAM (1898) - two shorts by Méliès.
• 23-Page Booklet - featuring an essay by Gilles Duval & Séverine Wemaere, and and much more!

Product Description

Blu-ray + DVD edition. Once believed lost, a copy of the original, hand-colored version of George Melies masterwork A Trip to the Moon was miraculously found in Barcelona, Spain in 1993. Initially thought too fragile to restore, the film underwent one of the most complex and ambitious film restoration projects ever. Three experts in film restoration - Lobster Films, Groupama Gan Foundation, and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage - used the most advanced digital technologies available to assemble and painstakingly restore the film's 13,375 fragmented frames. Follow six scholars-members of the Astronomers' Club-as they set off on an expedition to the moon! Traveling in a bullet-shaped rocket fired into space by a giant cannon, these voyagers arrive to meet the moon's inhabitants: the Selenites. Escaping the Selenties' king, the scholars fall back to Earth in their rocket and are fished out of the ocean by a sailor. Applause and a triumphant parade for the six heroes concludes the first outer-space adventure in the history of cinema. Flicker Alley, Lobster Films, and Blackhawk Films are thrilled to present this re-released publication of the 1902 hand-colored edition of A Trip to the Moon. This deluxe dual-format edition features two brand new scores by Jeff Mills and Dorian Pimpernel, as well as an improvised piano track by Serge Bromberg with optional narration written by George Méliès.

Product details

• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.6 x 6.68 x 5.31 inches; 4.32 ounces
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ FA0023R
• Director ‏ : ‎ Georges Méliès, Serge Bromberg, Eric Lange
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 2 hours and 10 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ March 13, 2018
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Georges Méliès
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Flicker Alley
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B078Y34G26
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
• #442 in Fantasy Blu-ray Discs

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Reviews with images

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

FLICKER: A Trip to the Moon - In Original 1902 Colors in March

• The Extraordinary Voyage, a fascinating documentary directed by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange about the life of Georges Méliès and the magic of film history and preservation it chronicles the journey of A Trip to the Moon from the fantastical Méliès’ production in 1902 to the astonishing rediscovery of a nitrate print in color in 1993, to the premiere of the new restoration on the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

Turn Your Curiosity Into Discovery

Latest facts.

10 Facts About Futures Trading That Every Investor Should Know

10 Facts about Americans in Spain

42 facts about the movie a trip to the moon.

Written by Frederica Hamilton

Modified & Updated: 04 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

The movie “A Trip to the Moon” is a true classic in the world of cinema. Released in 1902 and directed by Georges Méliès, this French silent film tells the fascinating story of a group of astronomers who embark on a journey to the moon. It was one of the earliest examples of science fiction film and remains a groundbreaking work in the history of cinema. With its imaginative special effects and innovative storytelling techniques, “A Trip to the Moon” paved the way for future filmmakers and continues to inspire modern audiences. In this article, we will delve into 42 fascinating facts about this iconic movie, revealing intriguing details about its production, impact, and enduring legacy.

Key Takeaways:

• “A Trip to the Moon” is a groundbreaking silent film directed by Georges Méliès, known for its imaginative special effects and influence on science fiction cinema.
• The movie, released in 1902, is a significant milestone in cinematic history, inspiring future filmmakers and earning recognition as a timeless classic.

The film was directed by Georges Méliès.

Georges Méliès was a French filmmaker and illusionist who is known as the pioneer of special effects in cinema. He directed and produced A Trip to the Moon, which was released in 1902.

The movie is also known by its French title, Le Voyage dans la Lune.

Le Voyage dans la Lune translates to “A Trip to the Moon” in English.

It is a silent, black and white film.

A Trip to the Moon was made in the early days of cinema when sound and color technology were yet to be developed.

The film is approximately 14 minutes long.

Despite its short duration, A Trip to the Moon is considered a significant milestone in cinematic history.

It is based on Jules Verne’s novel, From the Earth to the Moon.

Jules Verne’s novel served as the inspiration for the storyline of A Trip to the Moon.

The movie features imaginative and groundbreaking special effects.

Méliès used innovative techniques such as stop-motion animation and double exposure to create stunning visual effects in the film.

A Trip to the Moon is one of the earliest science fiction films.

It showcases the creativity and imagination of early filmmakers who explored the possibilities of the medium.

The iconic image of a spaceship crashing into the moon’s eye is from this movie.

The image has become synonymous with A Trip to the Moon and is often referenced in pop culture.

The movie was made on a relatively small budget.

Méliès managed to create a visually stunning film with limited resources.

The cast of the film includes Georges Méliès himself.

Méliès not only directed the film but also played the role of Professor Barbenfouillis, the main character.

The film was originally released in black and white, but Méliès later hand-painted some copies.

This hand-painted version added color to certain scenes and enhanced the visual experience of the film.

A Trip to the Moon is known for its distinct art direction.

The set design and costumes contribute to the whimsical and fantastical atmosphere of the movie.

The film features a combination of live-action and animation sequences.

Méliès seamlessly blended these two techniques to create a unique cinematic experience.

A Trip to the Moon was initially met with mixed reviews.

Some critics praised its technical achievements, while others did not understand its artistic value.

The movie was rediscovered in the 1920s and gained recognition as a cinematic masterpiece.

It is now regarded as one of the most important and influential films in the history of cinema.

A Trip to the Moon inspired many future filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg has cited Méliès and A Trip to the Moon as a major influence on his filmmaking career.

The film was groundbreaking in its use of special effects.

Méliès’ innovative techniques paved the way for the development of visual effects in cinema.

A Trip to the Moon was highly ambitious for its time.

Méliès pushed the boundaries of what was thought possible in filmmaking and created a memorable and imaginative work.

The film’s plot follows a group of astronomers who travel to the moon.

They encounter strange creatures and face various challenges during their journey.

A Trip to the Moon was a commercial success.

Despite its initial mixed reception, the film attracted audiences with its captivating visuals and storyline.

The movie went on to inspire other filmmakers to explore the possibilities of science fiction in cinema.

It had a lasting impact on the genre and influenced future films such as Star Wars.

A Trip to the Moon is recognized as a significant cultural and historical artifact.

It is included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, which preserves and promotes documentary heritage.

The film showcases Méliès’ skill as a performer and magician.

His background in stage magic and illusion contributed to the film’s imaginative visuals and tricks.

A Trip to the Moon was restored and colorized in 2010.

The restoration process brought the film back to its original glory and allowed modern audiences to experience it as intended.

The iconic rocket ship used in the film was named “La fusée en pétard” (The Fireworks Rocket).

This rocket design has become synonymous with space travel in popular culture.

A Trip to the Moon was considered a pioneering work in the use of narrative storytelling in cinema.

Méliès used visual cues and gestures to convey the story, as there were no dialogues in the film.

The film’s imaginative portrayal of the moon and its inhabitants captured the imagination of audiences.

Méliès’ creative interpretation of the lunar landscape added to the film’s charm and appeal.

A Trip to the Moon was a significant technical achievement for its time.

Méliès’ use of multiple exposures and innovative editing techniques showcased his mastery of the medium.

The film’s success led to Méliès making more fantasy and science fiction films.

He continued to experiment with special effects and create visually stunning works throughout his career.

A Trip to the Moon is often regarded as a precursor to modern science fiction cinema.

Its influence can be seen in later films that explore similar themes and concepts.

The film’s iconic image of the moon with a rocket stuck in its eye has been referenced and parodied in various forms of media.

It has become a symbol of early science fiction cinema.

A Trip to the Moon was one of the earliest films to use a narrative structure in cinema.

Méliès’ storytelling techniques set the foundation for future filmmakers to explore the possibilities of storytelling in film.

The film was a major success in both France and abroad.

It was widely distributed and screened in theaters around the world.

A Trip to the Moon is a prime example of Méliès’ unique filmmaking style.

His blend of fantasy, humor, and visual spectacle is evident throughout the film.

The movie’s success helped establish filmmaking as a legitimate art form.

It showed that films could be more than just simple recordings of reality.

A Trip to the Moon was one of the first films to have a clear narrative structure.

Méliès’ use of storytelling techniques elevated the film beyond a mere visual spectacle.

The film’s success allowed Méliès to expand his studio and produce more ambitious works.

He became one of the most influential filmmakers of his time.

A Trip to the Moon was groundbreaking in its use of special effects.

Méliès’ innovative techniques set the stage for the future development of visual effects in cinema.

The film’s impact can still be seen in contemporary science fiction films.

Its influence can be felt in movies that explore similar themes of space exploration and fantastical worlds.

A Trip to the Moon was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by Time magazine.

Its inclusion in the list solidifies its status as a significant cinematic achievement.

The film’s success allowed Méliès to establish his own film production company.

He had full creative control over his projects and continued to make groundbreaking films throughout his career.

A Trip to the Moon remains a timeless classic and a milestone in the history of cinema.

Its imaginative storytelling and groundbreaking visual effects continue to captivate audiences today.

In conclusion, “A Trip to the Moon” is a groundbreaking and timeless classic that has left an indelible mark on the history of cinema. From its pioneering use of special effects to its imaginative storytelling, this film continues to inspire and captivate audiences even over a century after its release. Its iconic image of a rocket landing in the eye of the moon remains one of the most recognizable scenes in movie history.With its combination of science fiction, fantasy, and adventure, “A Trip to the Moon” paved the way for future filmmakers to explore new realms of possibility on the silver screen. Its influence can be seen in countless films that followed, solidifying its status as a true cinematic masterpiece.Whether you are a die-hard fan of classic cinema or simply curious about the early days of filmmaking, “A Trip to the Moon” is a must-watch. Its whimsical charm, innovative techniques, and imaginative narrative continue to make it a beloved treasure for movie enthusiasts around the world.

1. When was “A Trip to the Moon” released?

“A Trip to the Moon” was released on September 1, 1902.

2. Who directed “A Trip to the Moon”?

The film was directed by the French filmmaker Georges Méliès.

3. Is “A Trip to the Moon” a silent film?

Yes, “A Trip to the Moon” is a silent film, as it predates the invention of sound in movies.

4. What was the running time of “A Trip to the Moon”?

The original running time of the film was around 14 minutes.

5. Did “A Trip to the Moon” win any awards?

During its time, there were no official film awards, but “A Trip to the Moon” received critical acclaim for its innovative visuals and storytelling.

6. Are there any remakes or adaptations of “A Trip to the Moon”?

While there have been no direct remakes, the film has served as inspiration for various movies, music videos, and artistic creations over the years.

7. Is “A Trip to the Moon” available to watch today?

Yes, “A Trip to the Moon” has been preserved and is available for viewing online and on DVD as part of film history collections.

8. What is the significance of the rocket landing in the eye of the moon?

The iconic image of the rocket landing in the eye of the moon symbolizes humanity’s conquest of uncharted territories and the triumph of exploration over the unknown.

9. How did “A Trip to the Moon” influence future filmmakers?

The film’s imaginative storytelling and pioneering use of special effects opened up new possibilities for filmmakers to explore science fiction and fantasy genres, leaving a lasting impact on the industry.

10. Why is “A Trip to the Moon” considered a classic?

“A Trip to the Moon” is considered a classic due to its historical significance, innovative techniques, and enduring influence on the art of filmmaking.

Was this page helpful?

Our commitment to delivering trustworthy and engaging content is at the heart of what we do. Each fact on our site is contributed by real users like you, bringing a wealth of diverse insights and information. To ensure the highest standards of accuracy and reliability, our dedicated editors meticulously review each submission. This process guarantees that the facts we share are not only fascinating but also credible. Trust in our commitment to quality and authenticity as you explore and learn with us.

Share this Fact:

NASA announces 4 astronauts who will travel around the moon on Artemis II

The team includes the first woman and first person of color on a moon mission.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced Monday the four astronauts who will partake in the next Artemis mission and fly around the moon.

The Artemis II team will be made up of three Americans -- Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman -- and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

The team includes Koch as the first woman and Glover as the first person of color who will eventually go on to step foot on the lunar surface. Glover will be the pilot of the spacecraft and Wiseman will be the commander of Artemis II.

The agencies made the announcement at a media event at the NASA Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field in Houston, Texas.

MORE: How Hurricane Nicole impacted Artemis I rocket

"We are here today with the mission to introduce the world to the crew of Artemis II for names, for explorers, for my friends, answering the call to once more rocket away from Earth, and chart a course around the moon," Joe Acaba, chief of NASA's astronaut office, said at the start of the event.

Glover, 46, will be the first person of color to voyage to the moon. Glover was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013 and most recently served as a pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2020.

He has spent roughly 167 days in space. According to NASA, Glover was the first African American astronaut to join a long-duration expedition crew aboard the International Space Station.

"We need to celebrate this moment in human history because Artemis II is more than a mission to the moon and back," Glover said. "It's more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars and this crew, we'll never forget that."

Koch, 43, made history with fellow astronaut Jessica Mer in October 2019 when they performed the first all-female spacewalk together.

Koch was also selected as an astronaut in 2013 and has completed six spacewalks. She currently holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days.

"We're not going to go to the moon right away," she said. "We're gonna stay in an amazing high orbit, reaching a peak of tens of thousands of miles while we test out all the systems on Orion and even see how it maneuvers in space. And then if everything looks good, we're heading to the moon."

Wiseman, 47, is a decorated naval aviator who was selected to be an astronaut in June 2009.

In 2014, he served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station and, over a 165-day mission, completed more than 300 experiments with his crewmates. Wiseman recently served as chief of the astronaut office, but stepped down in November because the chief is unable to fly in space.

MORE: Artemis I Orion capsule splashes down after NASA mission near moon

Hansen, 47, was a fighter pilot before he joined the CSA and he currently helps NASA with astronaut training and mission operations.

Not only will this be Hansen's first mission in space but he will also be the first Canadian to ever travel to the moon.

President Joe Biden congratulated the team in a tweet Monday, which included a video of him speaking with the Artemis II team.

"Look, I want to thank you for your incredible service," Biden said in the clip. "The mission you're about to go on, the United States can return people to the moon. It's hard to believe for the first time in over 50 years."

It comes after the Artemis I mission was completed in December last year after spending 25.5 days in space and making a 1.4-million-mile journey around the moon, according to NASA.

Artemis I was the first step of NASA's ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon and, later on, to send a crewed shuttle to Mars.

Artemis II is scheduled to send four astronauts into space in 2024 for a lunar flyby before returning to Earth.

It will be the first crewed mission aboard NASA's new Orion spacecraft and the first to launch on the agency's new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.

"With Artemis I, we set out to prove that the hardware was ready, that SLS was prepared to launch our astronauts skyward, that Orion was equipped to carry them to the moon and back safely again," said Norman Knight, director of Flight Operations Directorate at NASA. "Artemis I was a resounding success and Artemis II will leverage that by putting humans in the loop."

The mission will take approximately 10 days, but the system will need to undergo massive amounts of testing first to make sure it can support humans living and working in deep space, NASA said.

This will be the first set of missions that NASA has used to send a crew to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, more than 50 years ago.

The mission broke several records including the longest spacewalk and largest lunar samples brought back to Earth and also involved several experiments, including sending five mice into space with the crew.

MORE: On anniversary of NASA's Webb telescope reaching destination, here are the most striking images so far

"Over the course of the Artemis missions, the first woman and the first person of color will take giant leaps, on the lunar surface," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

In total, the Artemis expedition includes four missions, each of which will cost roughly $4.1 billion. The project will cost up to $93 billion by 2025, according to an audit from the NASA Office of the Inspector General.

Artemis III plans to send four astronauts to the moon in 2025 while Artemis IV plans to be the second lunar landing in 2027.

In addition to setting up a permanent base camp on the moon, the program aims to be the gateway to eventual human missions to Mars.

"Under Artemis, we will explore the frontiers of space and push the boundaries of what's possible," said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center. "You may walk on the moon or be one of the many explorers who venture onward to Mars. We're all looking forward to you being a part of our mission."

ABC News' Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.

Related Topics

Top stories.

Fani Willis vows nothing 'will derail' Trump's election interference trial

• Mar 27, 5:41 PM

Trump's Truth Social stock is soaring as the company loses money. Here's why.

• Mar 27, 4:26 PM

Bridge collapse live updates: 2 bodies recovered from submerged pickup truck

Democrats sound alarm on RFK Jr. and new running mate, Shanahan

• Mar 27, 3:34 PM

California State Bar recommends ex-Trump attorney be disbarred for election efforts

Abc news live.

24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events