Watch Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet (also known as Fatal Planet) is a 1956 American science fiction film from MGM, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly and Robby the Robot. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope, it is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s, a precursor of what was to come for science fiction cinema. The characters and isolated setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Its plot contains certain story analogues to the play. Forbidden Planet is noted for pioneering several aspects of science fiction cinema. For instance, it was the first science fiction picture to depict humans traveling in a faster-than-light starship of their own creation. It was also the first to be set entirely on another planet in interstellar space, far away from Earth. Outside of 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. The Robby the Robot character is also 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. 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".