Jim, un surfista solar, se enfrenta a una cacería intergaláctica de tesoros cuando cae en sus manos un legendario mapa que le llevará a buscar la fortuna más grande del Universo. A bordo de un espectacular 'galeón solar', Jim se convierte en el ayudante del cocinero del barco, John Silver -mitad hombre, mitad máquina-, que le enseña a ser un buen explorador del espacio.
Una noche, cerca de su casa, en Indiana, Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) observa en el cielo unos misteriosos objetos voladores. Obsesionado por comprender lo que ha visto, se distancia de su esposa (Teri Garr). Neary encuentra apoyo en Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon), que también fue testigo de esas visiones nocturnas. Juntos buscan una respuesta a ese misterio que ha alterado sus vidas. Al mismo tiempo, un nutrido grupo de científicos internacionales, bajo la dirección de Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut), empieza a investigar las apariciones de OVNIS y otros extraños fenómenos.
Poor chimney sweep Ivan and Princess Zabava fall in love with each other. They dream of their future happy life, but the difference in their social status and the treacherous Polkan, who dreams of marrying a royal daughter and becoming a ruler, stand in their way. To avoid marriage with the royal adviser, Zabava informs that she will marry only the one who can build a flying ship. Now Ivan has to solve this problem by all means.
Originally, AlchemyII Inc. had hoped to create a live-action series using animatronic characters, as Ken Forsse had helped Disney do with Welcome to Pooh Corner and Dumbo's Circus. However, due to production costs and difficulties in this format, Forsse, AlchemyII and Worlds of Wonder decided animation would be a better route and the 65 episode animated series was created. The pilot episode of what would have been the animatronic series was instead released as a stand-alone ABC Movie of the week in 1986 and also aired in syndication as a 2-part episode.The show can be found on videocassette. The "animatronic movie", as it's called by Teddy Ruxpin fans, used primarily the same voice talent as the Teddy Ruxpin toy software had, most of which (with the exception of Phil Baron and Will Ryan) were replaced in the later animated TV series by Canadian voice talent.
Captain Gomes uses a flying battleship to battle the giant robot Daitetsujin 17. Theatrically-released abridgement of Episode 15 of the TV series.