One of the things that I really love about The Mysterious Planet is the above screen grab. This story was made in 1986, and thus things like computer graphics weren't that great. But, they were better than nothing, and people would jump at the chance to use them, even in situations where a practical effect would work just as well and give a better result. In this instance, computer effects have been used in order to add a wooden stick into the frame, giving the impression that you are looking out from the window of a hut. But this effect doesn't entirely work as intended, unfortunately.
It looks like someone has taken a picture, imported it into MS Paint, and then gotten their 5 year old child to draw a stick on top of it. It looks unrealistic, cheap, and completely fails to achieve this relatively simple effect (indeed, on first viewing, I was perplexed as to what it was meant to be representing). And yet, I love it for all of those reasons. These are people who aren't afraid to try new things, and who don't shy away from their failures. Sure, it's not the best effect in the world, but it has a fair amount of charm behind it, and at the very least, it gives me a lot of nostalgia for when I was 5 years old and mucking about on MS Paint, creating alien vistas, majestic buildings, and unrealistic sticks.
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