A Trip to the Moon

In a quiet, dark room, a bright light suddenly flashes onto a big white screen. I flicker to life. I am not a person or a place, but a moving picture, a story told in black and white. Before I tell you my name, imagine seeing something you have never seen before. You see a group of funny-looking scientists in pointy hats planning a big adventure. They are building a giant cannon and a capsule shaped like a bullet. Where could they be going? They are aiming for the stars. I am a dream you can watch with your eyes open. I am the famous film, ‘A Trip to the Moon’.

I was born in a glass studio near Paris, France, way back in 1902. My creator was a wonderful man named Georges Méliès. He was not just a filmmaker; he was a magician. He used his magic tricks to create me. He painted giant backdrops of the stars and the moon. He built strange Moon creatures, called Selenites, out of canvas and had acrobats play them. Georges used clever camera tricks to make things appear and disappear, just like magic. For example, he would stop the camera, have an actor step away, and start filming again. When people watched, it looked like the person vanished into thin air. One of my favorite parts is when the space capsule lands right in the eye of the Man in the Moon. It looks a little silly, but it made everyone gasp and laugh when I was first shown to the world on September 1st, 1902.

When people first saw me, they had never seen anything like it. Movies were brand new, and I was one of the very first to tell a whole adventure story with amazing sights that were not real. I showed them that a movie could take you anywhere, even to the Moon. I made people dream about space travel long before real astronauts existed, more than 60 years before anyone actually walked on the Moon. People were so excited that they wanted to see more stories like me, which helped movies become the wonderful art form they are today. I may be a very old film, and I do not have any sound, but my story is timeless. I remind everyone that with a little imagination and creativity, you can build new worlds and go on the most fantastic adventures. I live on to show that the biggest journeys always begin with a single, wonderful dream.