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This popular Children's Film Foundation effort is usually recalled as some
sort of precursor to Steven Spielberg's ultimate friendly alien tale E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (US, 1982), although it's unlikely Spielberg had ever seen or even heard of The
Glitterball, given the low-key distribution and promotion of CFF output. The
villainy of the adult authorities versus the innocence and purity of children -
the emotional key to Spielberg's magical movie - is largely absent from this
more straightforward action/adventure, in which the alien glitterball's nemesis
is a petty thief rather than the heartless, unthinking bureaucracy of the armed
forces.
The Glitterball is not even an innovative tale in itself, merely the latest
effective update to an ongoing CFF tradition. A series of films, including
Supersonic Saucer (d. S.C. Fergusson, 1955), The Monster of Highgate Ponds (d.
Cavalcanti, 1960) and the popular CFF serial Danny the Dragon (d. Pennington
Richards, 1967), saw kids protecting and rescuing visitors from outer space from
unfeeling adult authority figures. These were themselves fantasy extensions of
the 'kindness to animals' theme seen in CFF films like The Last Rhino (d. Henry
Geddes, 1960).
This earthbound piece of science-fiction doesn't require much in the way of
special effects, but what it does have is modest but effective. Tricks such as
backwards filming and stop frame animation are used to bring the hungry
glitterball to life.
The film's timing was fortuitous - The Glitterball was initially released in
1977, but the release of Star Wars in the UK in January 1978 ushered in a wave
of popularity for anything in the genre, to the CFF film's benefit. Direct links
to George Lucas's sci-fi series were made when director Harley Cokliss and
effects man Brian Johnson both worked on the second Star Wars movie The Empire
Strikes Back (US, 1980), with Cokliss as a second unit
director.
Alistair McGown
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1. On the loose in Woolies (3:29)
