Forbidden Planet is a 1956 American science fiction film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, and directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on an original film story by Allen Adler and Irving Block. It stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope, it is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s,[4] a precursor of contemporary science fiction cinema. The characters and isolated setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare‘s The Tempest,[5] and the plot contains certain happenings analogous to the play, leading many to consider it a loose adaptation.
Forbidden Planet pioneered several aspects of science fiction cinema. It was the first science fiction film to depict humans traveling in a faster-than-light starship of their own creation.[6] It was also the first to be set entirely on another planet in interstellar space, far away from Earth.[7] The Robby the Robot character is one of the first film robots that was more than just a mechanical “tin can” on legs; Robby displays a distinct personality and is an integral supporting character in the film.[8] Outside science fiction, the film was groundbreaking as the first of any genre to use an entirely electronic musical score, courtesy of Bebe and Louis Barron.
Forbidden Planet‘s effects team was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 29th Academy Awards. In 2013, the picture was entered into the Library of Congress‘ National Film Registry, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.[9][10] Tony Magistrale describes it as one of the best examples of early techno-horror.[11]
