YMMV / A Trip to the Moon

For the Méliès film:

• Adaptation Displacement: Far more famous than the stage play on which it is based, and arguably Verne's novel, too.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • An astronomer's umbrella inexplicably becomes a mushroom.
  • The famous "face of the moon" shot, since the moon isn't otherwise shown with a face or anthropomorphized.
• Fair for Its Day: The conduct of the astronauts while on the Moon would not be out of place at a time like the turn of the 20th century, when colonialist sentiments were still strong. That being said, elements of the film were intended to satirize not only colonialism and imperialism, but also the pseudoscience that was pervasive of the latter half of the 19th century.
• Nightmare Fuel: The moon. As funny as it getting hit in the eye is... the fact it's apparently a living being with a face in this setting is pretty unnerving. And then there's what's actually happening on the Moon's surface.
• Older Than They Think:
  • A Trip To The Moon was colorized on its initial release - in 1902!
  • Believe it or not, the film was mostly based on an even earlier stage play adaptation with Le voyage dans la Lune, by none other than Jacques Offenbach.
  • Thomas Edison was the first ever movie pirate.
• Signature Scene: The moon being hit in the eye.
• Watch It for the Meme: Chances are, if you aren't already a fan of Méliès', you're watching it nowadays either for the face of the moon, to see where The Smashing Pumpkins got the idea for the "Tonight, Tonight" video, or to see why Martin Scorsese wanted to make Hugo so badly.

For the Offenbach play:

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Are the human characters bad for messing with the lifestyle of the Moon people, or were their actions justified? Granted they did help give love a place on the moon.
  • Is Microscope a bumbling Idiot Savant, or is he legitimately smart but sometimes messes up?
  • Is King Cosmos simply effected by the spiked wine, or does he legitimately have a change of heart? Certain versions swing either way.
• Fair for Its Day: The idea of a bride auction is bad, but the main characters also think it’s a terrible thing and end up abolishing it in the end.