some of its production costs in the studio shopping out clips of the futuristic sets for other films of the period. Clips of the cityscape from this movie were later used in the Universal serials Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers; the mock-up Mars spaceship was reused in the former as Dr. Zarkov's spaceship. Also seen in the first Flash Gordon serial are the strange hand-weapons carried by J21 and RT42 on Mars, which are held under rather than over the fist, and re-used footage of dancing girls cavorting about and on a Martian idol with moving arms. By the time Just Imagine was released, movie musicals had greatly declined in popularity. As a result, major American studios would not back another big budget science fiction film until 1951. There was to be only one other American science-fiction musical in that period, It's Great to Be Alive (1933), which failed at the box-office. Film serials were an exception to this general trend, however. The first Flash Gordon serial from 1936 had an unusually large budget for a serial of the time, and Gene Autry's The Phantom Empire from 1935 can loosely be considered a science fiction musical serial. Awards Just Imagine was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by Stephen Goosson and Ralph Hammeras. It is notable as the first film of the science fiction genre to be nominated for an Oscar. See also List of films set on Mars References Notes Bibliography Altman, Rick. The American Film Musical. Bloomington Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987. . Kreuger, Miles ed. The Movie Musical from Vitaphone to 42nd Street as Reported in a Great Fan Magazine. New York: Dover Publications, 1974. . External links 1930 films 1930 musical comedy films 1930s science fiction comedy films American aviation films American science fiction comedy films American musical comedy films 1930s English-language films Films directed by David Butler Fox Film films American black-and-white films Films set in the 1880s Films set in 1930 Films set in 1980 Science fiction musical films Films set in the future Mars in film American musical fantasy films 1930s American films