Another Joe Dante flick and one of the greatest kids films ever!

You don't need a drivers' licence to reach the stars...

Explorers (1985) tells the tale of three childhood friends building their own spaceship and travelling off to the far reaches of the galaxy.

How do they make their own spaceship? Using their dreams!! 

A great opening sequence of a very young Ethan Hawke flying over what looks like a circuit board sets the tone for a perfect marriage of science fiction, adventure and comedy.

As well as Ethan we also have River Phoenix making his screen debut as an eccentric young inventor called Wolfgang. The intrepid duo are joined by a third kid, Darren (Jason Pressman) and together the trio create a force field which they can control through Wolfgang's computer.

Putting together a ramshackle spaceship made out of rubbish bins and a fairground ride they combine with the forcefield and its not long before they're on a journey into outer space.

Despite being a box office flop this is surely a perfect kids' movie. The idea of building a spaceship in your own backyard and then actually meeting up with aliens is every young boys dream. The  kids backgrounds are well detailed - Hawke is the idealistic stargazer, Phoenix, son of an eccentric inventor and Pressman more pessimistic thanks to his broken home. This only adds to the sense of wonder and makes the film all the more involving.

Director Joe Dante (he of The Burbs, Gremlins and Innerspace) again proves his great strength is in the details - look out for the scene where the ship flies through a cinema screen showing a bad Star Wars parody - Starkiller.

The production schedule was rushed and Dante himself was hugely unhappy with the experience, upon the release it was a box office failure, snubbed by audiences and critics alike.

Nevertheless Explorers deserves to be dug out of its pit of anonymity and re-evaluated as one of the all time great kids' films with enough in-jokes, satire and pathos to keep adults happy.