“Part Star Wars, part Dancing With The Stars”

Here’s something crazy cool that will eat a healthy two-and-a-half hours of your Thursday morning. Film geeks have unearthed Bollywood’s first sci-fi film, Hindi space adventure Trip to Moon, made in India in 1967, and, since it’s unlikely to take Netflix by storm anytime soon (though I fully expect an American re-make by end 2012), they’ve uploaded it to YouTube in full.

It tells the story of an astronaut (his space ship is a tent) who is kidnapped and held hostage on the moon, where he takes part in a series of low-gravity song and dance routines, saves a princess, fights a bunch of villains including Martians, a cyclops, a robot and a rhino in a series of low-fi, set pieces that rival the very worst, low-budget, cardboard set nightmares ever seen – like 7de Laan before they got a budget.

You can see the full-length spectacle of Trip to Moon here. Be warned, it’s not in English, but well worth a look anyway. My tip: skip to about 02h15 where the giant finale battle begins – sparklers, rhinos, dancing, outer space – it’s cinema gold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgjPAqBfvU0

[Source: io9]