Explorers 4K 1985

A well-made movie about aliens for elementary and middle school-aged children.

Ordinary schoolboys, around 13 years old, get caught up in a strange kind of research and invent an unusual way to travel through space.

The director’s signature style is clearly evident—the gloomy and terrifying *Piranha* and *The Howling* were followed by the funny and scary "Gremlins", and after that came the mysterious "The Explorers". In each of his films, Joe Dante lets his imagination run wild, trying to incorporate various visual effects.

However, the special effects in this film didn’t quite work out—it seems the budget allocated for them was far too modest. That’s probably why the children find the flying machine in a junkyard—the filmmakers simply didn’t have enough money for anything more.

Overall, the film resembles Spielberg’s "E.T."—it targets the same audience, has a similar plot, simple special effects, and, once again, aliens appear on screen.

But while Spielberg enjoyed stunning success, Joe Dante, who followed in his footsteps, unfortunately didn’t break any box office records. That, however, doesn’t make this charming and innocent film bad at all—I’d definitely recommend it for family viewing.