"Ticket To The Moon" was released in the summer of 1981 on Electric Light Orchestra's ninth studio album, Time. As a huge ELO fan, I always thought this record was one of their greatest and most underrated. Although it was very successful when released, I remember it receiving pretty crappy reviews at the time (it currently rates only 2 stars at Allmusic...c'mon!). This might be my favorite track.....and I think with this video behind it, the song makes an even stronger impression.
Always wanted to see Georges Méliès'"A Trip To The Moon" behind ELO's "Ticket To The Moon", and I started the project almost 2 years ago. At that time I didn't have any HD footage to work with so I had incorporated more masks and effects behind the film clips to try and spruce them up...it was interesting, but I'm so glad I waited until I was able to include footage from the stunning color restoration that was recently released. I basically lost all my early edits and set the track to a much more linear version of the film...made a few minor adjustments to improve video for wide-aspect...mainly very minor noise reduction.
"Ticket To The Moon" is only a quarter of the length of "A Trip To The Moon"...you don't see even a forth of the film and it really needs to be seen in it's entirety to be fully appreciated. The New York Times film critic, A. O. Scott called the restoration "surely a cinematic highlight of the year, maybe the century."....I couldn't agree more. The restoration of this film is one of the most extraordinary things I've even seen.
The material for A TRIP TO THE MOON was sourced from a restored color version that had been considered lost for several decades. It is presented here with an original soundtrack by Air. In 2010, three experts in worldwide film restoration (Lobster Films along with two non-profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage) launched the most complex and ambitious restoration in the history of cinema. The process took over twelve years using advanced digital technologies to reassemble and restore the fragments of the 13,375 frames. The restoration print premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 and made a worldwide tour of international festivals including Telluride, Pordenone, Rotterdam and the MoMA Festival of Film Preservation. Now, one of the most technically sophisticated and expensive restorations in film history, A TRIP TO THE MOON can be seen in its original 1902 colors.
HUGE THANKS to:
Lobster Films
Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema
Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage for their work restoring "A Trip To The Moon" and especially Georges Méliès for creating it!
Read all about it!
http://www.technicolorfilmfoundation.org/en/home/programs/two-foundations-restore-georges-melies-a-trip-to-the-moon-1902-in-color.html
[Lyrics]
Remember the good old 1980s?
When things were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again
And everything could be the same.
I've got a ticket to the moon
I'll be leaving here any day soon
Yeah, I've got a ticket to the moon
But I'd rather see the sunrise in your eyes.
Got a ticket to the moon
I'll be rising high above the earth so soon
And the tears I cry might turn into the rain
That gently falls upon your window
You'll never know.
CHORUS:
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon)
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon)
Ticket to the moon (ticket to the moon).
Fly, fly through a troubled sky
Up to a new world shining bright, oh, oh.
Flying high above
Soaring madly through the mysteries that come
Wondering sadly if the ways that led me here
Could turn around and I would see you there
Standing there (and I would see you there, waiting...)
Ticket to the moon
Flight leaves here today from Satellite Two
As the minutes go by, what should I do?
I paid the fare, what more can I say?
It's just one way (only one way)...
REPEAT CHORUS:
REPEAT CHORUS: