TAKING FLIGHT

IF IT’S POSSIBLE TO WIN AT Hollywood, Disney is doing it right now. With all the Star Wars and the Marvels and the Pixars, however, it’s easy to forget that the company hasn’t always been top mouse. In the mid-’80s, even the studio’s animated movies were struggling to make a mark – though Disney did have a decent line in the kind of mid-budget family films that would, these days, find their natural home on Netflix. Flight Of The Navigator, the story of a 12-year-old kid from 1978 who suddenly finds himself transported to 1986, is arguably one of the most fondly remembered of those.

By the time director Randal Kleiser came on board – ’s John G Avildsen was attached at one point – the movie was already well into development. Unfortunately, Disney and their production partners at Producers Sales Organization (PSO) couldn’t quite agree on the movie’s direction.