ARTICLES

After the success of Star Wars in 1977, science-fiction and fantasy became a popular theme of eighties movies. Special effects were decent enough quality to warrant believability, puppetry / prosthetics were in their heyday. Space travel was in the nation’s psyche with NASA’s new space shuttle and SETI’s ‘Wow!’ signal offering a world of possibilities.

It’s no wonder then that aliens, or alien-like creatures, featured heavily in kids movies of the era. Whilst there were many adult films doing aliens a disservice – most of them wanted to kill us – the non-human species in PG films were much less hostile. I take a look as some of these creatures, and discuss their attribute and shortfalls.