Ben Crandall, an alien-obsessed kid, dreams one night of a circuit board. Drawing out the circuit, he and his friends Wolfgang and Darren set it up, and discover they have been given the basis for a spaceship.
"This is a minor entry in the Joe Dante canon, but an amusing family yarn all the same. A pre-fame Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix team up with Jason Presson as a trio of kids who build their own spacecraft and set off on the adventure of a lifetime. The youngsters are uniformly excellent, Mary Kay Place and Dante regular Dick Miller stand out among the grown-ups, and the tone is refreshingly unpatronising and unsentimental. Kids will love it, while adults will enjoy spotting the in-jokes that Dante could not resist including." - Radio Times Review
"This is a minor entry in the Joe Dante canon, but an amusing family yarn all the same. A pre-fame Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix team up with Jason Presson as a trio of kids who build their own spacecraft and set off on the adventure of a lifetime. The youngsters are uniformly excellent, Mary Kay Place and Dante regular Dick Miller stand out among the grown-ups, and the tone is refreshingly unpatronising and unsentimental. Kids will love it, while adults will enjoy spotting the in-jokes that Dante could not resist including." - Radio Times Review