Talk:A Trip to the Moon

Victory Parade
The article claims that the victory parade only appears on the colour version found in 2002. I watched La Voyage dans la lune yesterday (6th February 2007) at the National Film Theatre and it did include this victory parade, but the entire film was in black and white. Does anyone know more about this? On another note, shoudln't the article be titled "La Voyage dans la lune" - that is the film's title, with "A trip to the moon" a re-direct? Tompagenet 08:51, 7 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, the 'victory parade' section is confusing - maybe the BFI has some info? About the title, Wikipedia policy is to use the English release title. Cop 633 21:39, 7 February 2007 (UTC)


 * My DVD of Georges Méliès films (released by Arte, NTSC version) shows a complete version of Le Voyage dans la lune, ending and all. Thus the information is wrong.User:some guy who don't know how Wikipedia works 22:43, 11 February 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.69.180.72 (talk)

Sections needed

 * Initial release information (dates, places, reactions, etc.)
 * Subsequent critical analysis
 * Behind the scenes information (production information, how they did some of the special effects, etc.)
 * Impact on pop culture


 * What are the things you should know about this movie? -BiancaOfHell 22:30, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 02:04, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

GAN on hold
And a note on my talk page when done. Cheers, dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 10:25, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Where's your GA/FA count, out of curiosity (AnonDiss)?
 * In Special:Contributions/Anonymous Dissident. I'd prefer to go out and actually contribute than fiddle with stats. And I guess I'd start worrying about where I could draw the line about calling a FA/GA my own, how many I have, whether I am x amount of numbers higher or lower than the next person... nup, not for me. I prefer to just mosey around, add a bit here and there, and maybe chip in a bit on various collabs. Much easier going I find. --  Anonymous Dissident  Talk 08:39, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
 * "The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second." - 16fps isn't the default, is it? Better to say the the time when running at whatever the default framerate is
 * Firstly, I suppose how long it went for when filmed gives historical context, secondly, I have no idea how would would work out the adjusted running time.
 * It's in the infobox ;) dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 08:47, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
 * "It is also considered by many to" - also not necessary
 * Fixed
 * 2nd paragraph of lead should be longer than 1st, and about the same length as 3rd. For aesthetics and for general practice...needs reorganisation, basically.
 * Fixed
 * Quotes in 3rd paragraph need refs
 * Fixed
 * Ref 4 needs formatting like others
 * Fixed
 * "Exhausted by their journey, the astronomers" - they were the explorers in the last sentence. Be consistent
 * Fixed.
 * "wakens the explorers. The explorers then" - redundancies
 * Fixed
 * "(continuing to whack the pursuing Selenites on the way)" - Can you use a better word than "whack"?
 * Complete version section could probably be L3 (as part of the preceeding one)
 * Fixed.
 * There's a stack of white space under the Distribution section
 * Fixed
 * "same event is shown twice, and very differently" quote needs attribution
 * Fixed
 * Anything on "reception"?
 * That's kind of hashed over in the lead, where it is mentioned that it is the most celebrated film my the director, and also in the third para of Analysis.
 * All done methinks. -- Anonymous Dissident  Talk 08:26, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Passed, methinks. dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 08:47, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. -- Anonymous Dissident  Talk 08:53, 21 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Seven refs to make it a GA?!  Lugnuts  (talk) 13:52, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Was the Moon a man or a woman?
This article mentions the "Man in the Moon" character in the film. The "Moon" was played by a woman, and IMDb list the character as "Lady in the moon". Is there any evidence that Méliès specified the Moon was meant to be a man? 92.2.157.250 (talk) 18:02, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

The "Man in the moon" (centuries old legend) was played by a woman, simple as that. There's no credits to the film, the character is clearly the "Man in the moon". 76.69.181.34 (talk) 01:15, 4 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Not to necro an old discussion, but the film's title is Le Voyage dans la lune. It's female. GRAPPLE   X  07:03, 17 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Why are you people assuming the face seen in the film is that of a woman? Just because of the thick lips and eyelashes? In the old silent film days, actors of both sexes often wore heavy makeup. And the filming of this movie is portrayed in From the Earth to the Moon (TV miniseries), which is carefully staged to seamlessly match the actual footage. Tom Hanks portrays Méliès's assistant, personally constructing the plaster Moon like a cream pie around a male actor's face. You have to be careful about IMDB; it's not always a reliable source. Our article says Bleuette Bernon is "one lady in the Moon", not the lady; she could have very well been one of several Moon maidens depicted in the film. Since she played Joan of Arc, I doubt very much that she's this ugly guy with the "cannon shell" stuck in his eye. JustinTime55 (talk) 18:09, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Tonight, Tonight
There should be mention in the article of the Smashing Pumpkin's music video for "Tonight, Tonight" being based on the movie. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cheesecake42 (talk • contribs) 18:21, 2 October 2008 (UTC) ✅ See Also section.—  MY, OH, MY!   (mushy yank) — 20:22, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

Missing scenes in embedded film
I think the film is supposed to end with some scenes of triumph, after the travellers' return to Earth. Yet in the film embedded in this article (stored in Commons) those scenes are missing: the film ends with the shell being towed to port.

I've been looking up in Commons and in archive.org and I found the following files:

Case 1
 * File: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_Voyage_dans_la_Lune_%28Georges_M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s,_1902%29.ogv
 * Size: 97433491 Bytes
 * Md5sum: c61273dd39b5c31e22ef01340b3a1a4e
 * Lasts: 11:12
 * Resolution: 640x480
 * Frame rate: 29.97
 * Soundtrack: yes
 * Last scenes of triumph: no

Case 2
 * File: http://www.archive.org/details/Levoyagedanslalune
 * Size 51641795 Bytes
 * Md5sum: 44cd59a19582dcd230be23f391b0dd95
 * Lasts: 13:26
 * Resolution: 400x30
 * Frame rate: 29.97
 * Soundtrack: yes
 * Last scenes of triumph: no

Case 3
 * File: http://www.archive.org/details/le_voyage_dans_la_lune_2006
 * Size: 37113917 Bytes
 * Md5sum: 42c620fd79689ce09be6c8fdc4f40bdd
 * Lasts: 09:39
 * Resolution: 400x300
 * Frame rate: 29.97
 * Soundtrack: yes
 * Last scenes of triumph: yes

Case 4
 * File: http://www.archive.org/details/TripToTheMoon_304
 * Size: 53237860 Bytes
 * Md5sum: c24c4802e04d8369263a47da129cb9bb
 * Lasts: 11:05
 * Resolution: 400x300
 * Frame rate: 20
 * Soundtrack: yes
 * Last scenes of triumph: no

Case 5
 * File: http://www.archive.org/details/LeVoyageDansLaLune_218
 * Size: 48668018 Bytes
 * Md5sum: 22ac57b5c2df517f76daf09b3e16932b
 * Size 48668018
 * Lasts: 12:48
 * Resolution: 400x300
 * Frame rate: 18.07
 * Soundtrack: no
 * Last scenes of triumph: yes

The film embedded in the article is the file in case 1. There it's written that the source to the file in case 1 is the file in case 2. One can say for sure it is not the same file. Could it have been derived from?

To the matter in hand: what can one do now?, regarding the missing scenes
 * do nothing
 * upload another file to Commons and embed it in this article instead of the current file
 * add to the article a notice about the missing scenes and a link to another file Garsd (talk) 13:50, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Around the World in Eighty Days (1956 film)
The Oscar winning film Around the World in 80 Days, starts with a shorten version of a Trip to the Moon. MBG 101.113.205.0 (talk) 11:26, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Moon sighting
Cory Doctorow posted on Boing Boing a few years back about a Méliès tribute on an iron fence in New York. I can't figure out whether this is notable enough to be mentioned the article (I highly suspect it isn't), but if somebody wants to add it in, here's the ref text:

And here's the citation:



--Lemuellio (talk) 21:28, 15 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Its cute, but I don't think its really notable. --GHcool (talk) 23:11, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

External links cleanup
I would appreciate suggestions on how to clean up the "External links" section of this article. Currently, in addition to the standard IMDb, AllMovie, and Rotten Tomatoes listings, the section includes the following miscellany (quoted from this edit of the page):


 * Filmsquish — Blog-A-Thon of critics celebrating the film
 * Was the NASA splash down inspired by Georges Méliès? — A letter to NASA
 * The hand-colored, restored version of "A Trip to the Moon" on Hulu
 * | A Trip to the Moon complete film on YouTube
 * | A Trip to the Moon (Hand-colored) complete film on YouTube
 * | A Trip to the Moon complete film on YouTube
 * | A Trip to the Moon (Hand-colored) complete film on YouTube

The first of these items seems of questionable value, but perhaps some readers would find it interesting, so I'm not sure whether to keep it. The second is merely a scan of two pages from a book about Méliès, and the information therein doesn't seem particularly notable, so I'd wager this link can be removed, but again, I'd value any suggestions.

What about the final five? Since the film is in the public domain, certainly a link to the complete film might be worthwhile, but five links seems like overkill at best. Each of the linked versions are slightly different, however, so it's tough to tell which (if any) to keep. Thoughts?--Lemuellio (talk) 21:50, 4 May 2014 (UTC)

Removing mention of illegal copying in the Release section
IN the release section, several mentions were made that Edison and others illegally distributed the film. Reading of the source material does not support this interpretation. Also, movies were not covered by copyright law in the USA until the 1912 Townshend Amendment to the 1909 revision of copyright law, and neither the Amendment nor the 1909 law existed when Edison reproduced and distributed copies of the film. Deleted all uses of "illegal" in the section.

Realspool32 (talk) 19:29, 1 March 2015 (UTC)

VPP discussion
This movie has come up in a VPP discussion, where some people are arguing it's always wrong to embed full length movies in Wikipedia. This article already had one film embedded, in the last section; I added the one for the film itself in this edit. In my opinion, we should make it quickly and visibly apparent to readers when a movie is genuinely available for them to watch right here, right now. I see there is past discussion of which embedded film to use, and maybe someone took it out, so I might have come into an existing controversy here; in any case I think the opinion from people editing this page would be useful. Wnt (talk) 12:05, 6 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for asking for opinions, Wnt!
 * The video clip in question was actually already on the page, in the "Release" section (where it was correctly identified as an incomplete version of the film), so I've removed it from the infobox. I would strongly recommend a cautious attitude toward putting full-length films on pages, and especially in infoboxes, for numerous reasons. Here are a few of them:
 * According to Template:Infobox film, the purpose of the "image" parameter is to supply "a relevant image for the film … Ideally, an image of the film's original theatrical release poster should be uploaded … In the absence of an appropriate poster or cover image, a screenshot of the film's title card may also be used." Using this parameter instead to host a full-length streaming film simply does not fit its intended purpose, creating an inconsistency.
 * This film, like almost every other silent film ever made, was intended to be experienced with a musical score. The versions on Wikipedia Commons are necessarily silent (for lack of a public-domain recording of a score for the film), so to call any of them "the complete film" is a bit deceptive: it's not the full experience which the filmmaker intended, and which you can get from any reputable home-video release of the film. In other words, it may look like the "movie is genuinely available for [readers] to watch right here, right now," but the experience they'll get is in fact missing an important component.
 * Preparing films, especially old films, for home-video releases is a complicated process that often involves all of the following steps: working with numerous public and private collections to determine what fragments/versions of the film survive; combining incomplete prints to reconstruct a complete version, often simply "as close to complete as possible"; restoring tints, tones, and/or hand-coloring missing from the prints in question; removing scratches and other film damage, using chemicals or digital tools or both; recreating title cards missing from the film; researching how fast the film was meant to be projected (i.e. how many frames per second); and compiling all this work into a DVD- or Blu-Ray-ready format. Much of this might be written off as sweat of the brow work, but can we really just rip a painstaking restoration from a DVD and write it off as public-domain? I honestly don't know. I wish there were a clearer policy at Commons about this.
 * Thank you for drawing my attention to the VPP discussion; I'll put a comment or two there as well, so that the conversation can continue.--Lemuellio (talk) 12:44, 6 February 2016 (UTC)
 * In general "image" is a deprecated equivalent of "file" - I see no reason why the film itself doesn't make a good image when it is available. A note that the soundtrack is not provided would however be useful.  As to the morality of copyright, well, I see none.  All the time we deny our readers access to content that ought to be available, except some court ruled it off limits to us.  When the court rules in the public's favor, you want to change the rules?  No, if we can provide it we should. Wnt (talk) 00:01, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Is it known why the throng don British court wigs (and robes)?
Haps British the court wigs just came over as exotic against the rather bland French court dress. Anyway, noteworthy of at least a byword. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.0.183.116 (talk) 12:18, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

New video
Hello. I've found a good Trip to the Moon video in the public domain with public domain music. The video can be found here: (https://archive.org/details/a_trip_to_the_moon_1902). I think it would be a great video to add to the page. May I add it? :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by A Clockwork Potato (talk • contribs) 00:35, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:36, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Le Voyage dans la lune (1902).webm

Shouldn't the colored photos be removed also?
Since the colored video of the film was removed and is copyrighted, shouldn't the stills be also deleted and reuploaded here as fair use images (or choose a frame that hasn't been tampered with)? Though I'm not exactly sure of the colored version of the famous shot of the moon, since it doesn't look like a derivative. — Preceding unsigned comment added by A Clockwork Potato (talk • contribs) 02:57, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD
Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Le Voyage dans la lune (black and white, 1902).webm, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for September 1, 2022. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2022-09-01. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 7.8% of all FPs 15:48, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD
Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Le Voyage dans la lune (black and white, 1902).webm, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for September 1, 2022. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2022-09-01. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 7.8% of all FPs 15:48, 24 May 2022 (UTC)

Four percent?
Under "Coloring", we read "As with at least 4% of Méliès's output..." I read a few pages into the source and I didn't see "4%". It's kind of an odd number. I didn't mark "failed verification" because I wasn't sure if I missed something. Does anyone see 4% in the ref? 71.228.112.175 (talk) 05:43, 1 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Found it on page 74 of the source. It's just before footnote marker 79. Lemuellio (talk) 02:37, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
 * The issues I see with the current phrasing are the two claims that (1) 4% of all of Méliès's output was colored, when the source says that only two years of Star Films' advertisements were looked at (1905 and 1908), and (2) the Thuilliers produced all of his films' color prints. According to the article Élisabeth and Berthe Thuillier, Méliès used the Thuilliers' lab from 1897 to 1912, and then (according to the book "Moving Color") he was forced to start using other labs which performed stenciling in order to cut costs. I'll rephrase the section to add some details and clarity. Iritscen (talk) 13:32, 10 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Nicely done! Incidentally, can you point me to the place in Moving Color where it says Méliès hired other colorists after 1912? Since he was no longer in charge of a film studio after 1912, I'm drawing a blank on when he would have had occasion to switch over to stenciling. Lemuellio (talk) 18:17, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I admit confusion on this point, but I can direct you to page 75 of Moving Color where it says, "Jacques Malthête notes that in his examinations of Méliès's colored prints, he has seen evidence of only hand coloring and not stenciling. Stenciling may have been used on Méliès's films after 1911 when Star Films had declined. Méliès was funded by Pathé Frères from 1911 to 1913 and contracted out his coloring to Pathé's labs. Given the growing length of films, the artisanal practice of hand coloring took longer to complete and added greatly to the cost of prints—something that the semi-industrial process of stenciling could have alleviated."
 * This wording is actually kind of weaselly, since it's saying maybe a few of his last films used stencilling, but it hasn't been observed. I got the dates of "1897 to 1912" from the Thuiller article I linked to above, where the citation behind that statement is pages 84 and 166 of Moving Color. However if that "1897 to 1912" statement simply is intended to cover the years of Méliès's activity as a film maker, then maybe we shouldn't be suggesting that someone else colored his films later on.
 * However, note that "Méliès was funded by Pathé Frères from 1911 to 1913" under the deal that eventually ruined him financially. The implication seems to be that Pathé would have used stencilling to color his films. The only way this would not be the case is if they were subcontracting his films to the Thuillers (since they did subcontract some work to them, p84). Maybe this seems unlikely to the author because the Thuillers' hand painting process was slower and more costly. I suppose the real problem is that we don't have enough surviving Méliès films to tell if stencilling was used at the end. -- Iritscen (talk) 20:25, 12 September 2022 (UTC)
 * P.S.: I should add that I don't possess the book Moving Color, so I'm beholden to the few pages that Google Books allows me to see. There's an interesting excerpt on page 165 that starts, "The Pathé colorist Germaine Berger recalls seeing Méliès at Pathé shortly after World War I, outsourcing a few of his prints for coloring in Dana,[…] However, she does not specify what methods were used to color…". If I could see the rest of this passage, maybe it would clarify things, but then again, maybe it doesn't answer the question at all! -- Iritscen (talk) 20:38, 12 September 2022 (UTC)