I took my first hot air balloon flight when I was but a young lad, somewhere in my early teens. Waking up at five in the morning proved the most difficult part—once I’d surmounted that hurdle, I was fully enchanted by the whimsy of it all.
The massive fabric balloon could take us up, up, and away (as the 5th Dimension so lyrically put it in 1967). It couldn’t, however, take us to a particular location. Our destination was wherever the wind whisked us. That day, we landed an hour and change after takeoff in a field of cows outside of beautiful Galena, Illinois. The cautious bovines looked at my family like we were aliens descended from another world. The farm’s owners burst out of their house and delightedly welcomed us, even joining in on the traditional safe-landing toast.
It all felt distinctly fantasy to me—flying to an unknown place in a vehicle that could go up and down, even twist in circles, but could never be steered deliberately. That feeling is precisely why I read fantasy in the first place—the author may take me to any land he or she wishes, and I’m there to enjoy the ride.
Years later—aka a few weeks ago, when I suggested writing about this topic—I had the nagging urge to discuss hot air balloons as fantasy vehicles. Here are the five examples that languidly floated into my brain…
Matilda (2022)
Netflix’s 2022 adaptation of Matilda has a unique sort of double-adaptation magic, adapting a successful Broadway musical in turn adapted from Roald Dahl’s classic book. It is woefully underappreciated, and you should watch it for many reasons, including the hot air balloon scene. Watch it above if you don’t mind minor spoilers.
Matilda’s world is dark and uneasy, dominated by a barbaric headmistress who siphons any happiness from the lives of Crunchem Hall’s young students. In “Quiet,” Matilda pines for a moment of peaceful silence and meditation. She finds it in a hammock hanging between ropes of a hot air balloon. She achieves her goal, and her attainment of inner peace gives her control over her burgeoning powers.
In Matilda, the hot air balloon is more metaphor than reality. Rather than whisking our protagonist into a fantasy world, it removes her from a dangerous and absurd fantastical setting, allowing her a moment to breathe easy.
Community
Leave it to Dan Harmon’s Community to defy all the usual sitcom expectations and instead offer viewers a deranged, genre-bending muppet episode.
The fourth season’s “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” is pure camp. The characters, unwilling to talk about something bad that happened recently, are tasked with re-enacting the experience using puppets. The opening minutes feature a very human Sara Bareilles belting a song and ushering our muppet-ified main cast onto a hot air balloon. The song begins as a jaunty but conventional upbeat ditty. The lighthearted journey quickly goes awry, however, as the crew crash lands in a forest and meets Jason Alexander, who feeds them psychotropic berries.
The juxtaposition of the opening scene and the dark turn comments on expectations and desires: What began as a hopeful journey into a whimsical unknown instead became a fearful trip that will reveal characters’ most terrible secrets (which are also delivered in song, of course).
Up
Okay, I know it’s a stretch. First off, it’s steerable. Second, it’s a whole damn house. And third, it’s held aloft by thousands of regular-sized balloons instead of one big one.
It’s all those things. But it’s also just as delightful as any of the other hot air balloons on this list, so it totally deserves a mention. Carl Fredricksen’s makeshift balloon house sets sail for Paradise Falls with Junior Wilderness Explorer Russell and adorable Golden Retriever Dug along for the ride. Carl’s house is one of my favorite hot air balloon analogs because it’s the purest form of the vehicle in its narrative purpose. He means to travel to a scenic and meaningful place. He does exactly that—then discovers the place has a darker underbelly than he’d expected.
“Hot Air Balloon” by Owl City
If you’re anywhere near my age, chances are you read “Owl City” and thought “Wow, I forgot about that guy.”
Well, I didn’t forget, and I’m here to remind you! It’s relatively rare for a song to make it on to one of these lists at Tor.com, but I think this one deserves it.
It’s hard to describe what’s so fantastical about the song “Hot Air Balloon.” The lyrics tell the story of two kids playing and using their broad imaginations, taking off in a hot air balloon of their own making. The backing track really gives it that fantasy feel, though. It’s a bubbly and whimsical take that feels like an injection of sugar and sunshine straight into your ears. Whenever the song pops on, I find myself listening to it two or three times in a row just to enjoy the escapism.
If you’re saying “huh?” to yourself about now, I don’t blame you. Listen to the song, then come back and tell me if it clicked!
The Wizard of Oz
Let’s finish things off with one of the most famous films of all time. The titular wizard plans to return Dorothy to her home in Kansas via his hot air balloon. When Toto hops out of the basket and Dorothy chases after him, the balloon drifts off. The wizard, helpless, yells “I don’t know how it works!” and floats out of the frame, leaving poor Dorothy (seemingly) stranded.
Thrust into Oz by a tornado, the hot air balloon offers a solution to Dorothy’s plight, but it’s also a symbol of the Wizard’s hubris. A bit of a rascal, he’s ruled Oz by way of falsehoods and deceit, pretending to be something he’s not. His incompetence with the balloon is a sign of his inability to make meaningful change, and his blundering exit from the frame always makes me chuckle.
Luckily, Dorothy has some magical shoes that’ll get her where she needs to go without any of the Wizard’s hot air…
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Ready to take off? Fire up the burners and tell me about your favorite fantastical hot air balloons in the comments below!
Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. For the most part, you can find those words at The Quill To Live. He voraciously reads epic fantasy and science fiction, seeking out stories of gargantuan proportions and devouring them with a bookwormish fervor. His favorite books are the Divine Cities Series by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
