Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman
Studio: The Criterion Collection
Mar 09, 2020 Web Exclusive
A former marketing man for a shoe company, Karel Zeman took a job for an animation studio and went on to create not only several of the most influential Czech films of all time, but become arguably the most important Czechoslovak filmmaker of the pre-New Wave era. Zeman’s works demonstrate an imagination unrivaled by many filmmakers to have come since, and ingenious approach to special effects more artful than utilitarian. Three Fantastic Journeys collects a trio of his best-known adventure tales.
Released in 1955, Journey to the Beginning of Time was clearly inspired by Jules Verne’s famous tale about a certain trip to the center of the Earth. Plot-wise, there’s little to it: four boys hop into a paddleboat and row their way into a cave, convinced that doing so will lead them on a trip through time and allow them to see real, living dinosaurs. Well, it works! They emerge from the cave and into daylight to find themselves in the ice age. As they row further, they progress through prehistory: spotting mammoth, gigantic birds, and other extinct creatures, and eventually dinosaurs.
Zeman routed his Journey to the Beginning of Time as something of an educational film: for much of the movie, the boys row and point out the prehistoric wildlife they spot on the shore, sharing facts and theories about the long-lost beasts’ existences. What’s impressive about the film even today – and is part of the reason for its enduring appeal – is just how seamlessly the imagined creatures blend in with the real world elements around them. Zeman would use not only stop-motion to build his beasts, but puppets in the same scene, depending on the shot, creating results that resemble what might have been if Ray Harryhausen and Jim Henson had worked together at the heights of their respective careers – these are the most convincing dinosaurs we’d see until Jurassic Park four decades later. The great lengths to which Zeman would go applied not only to his creatures, but our immersion into the world: he’d blend location shots, cutouts, miniatures and perspective, matte paintings, and constructed sets into single scenes to make the boys’ prehistoric journey feel as real as possible.
Three years later Zeman returned with Invention for Destruction, a movie more directly adapted from the works of Jules Verne, namely his novel Facing the Flag. The story involves pirates kidnapping a scientist to construct a super-weapon, but it’s secondary to the movie’s otherworldly visuals. Where Journey was set in prehistoric times, it still felt linked to our world, and was imbued with a sense of realism. Invention for Destruction on the other hand is pure flight of fantasy, set in a world that looks like old book illustrations come to life. The actors were shot on meticulously-painted backdrops, appearing as if they’re the only three-dimensional objects in a flat world, and once again it’s incredible how well everything blends together. This is combined with cut-out animation to give the film a look that’s unlike any other movie’s – it’s no surprise that Terry Gilliam was a huge fan, as his cut-paper animation for the Pythons was clearly influenced by Zeman’s work. Invention for Destruction became a huge hit internationally in various re-dubbed, re-edited incarnations; it’s widely considered the most successful Czech movie of all time.
It’s a bit funny that, if you trace the trajectory over the three features presented in this set, Zeman’s worlds become more and more disconnected from reality. Where his dinosaur time travel movie, Journey to the Beginning of Time, placed its fantastic creatures within a world that resembled our own, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1961) is a journey through pure fantasy. Based on the fabled character’s adventurers, Munchausen travels with a native moonman to Earth, where he rescues a princess from a Turkish despot, travels with pirates, is swallowed by a whale, and becomes the lead advisor to an eccentric king at war with his neighboring kingdoms. Munchausen continues the 3D characters within a two-dimensional world style of Invention and takes it even further, mixing in even more animated elements and painting the world in incredibly eye-catching monochromes, with frames that resemble the hand-tinted, French stereoscopic diableries of the late 19th Century. It’s a feast for the eyes and ears, so flawlessly married to its musical score that it would rival Fantasia in terms of its synchronization of visuals to music. It’s a whimsical, bold, and adventurous – it’s also the druggiest-looking film of the collection, seeming tailor-made to accompany a live score by the Flaming Lips.
Criterion’s three-movie boxed set is as packed with extra features as you’d expect. Each disc includes short documentaries by the Zeman Museum that demonstrate the special effects; there are also two different featurettes about Zeman himself, one of which contains gushing tributes from famous admirers like Tim Burton and the aforementioned Gilliam. Most exciting are the inclusion of four of Zeman’s early shorts, including the charming holiday bit A Christmas Dream (1945) and the gorgeous Inspiration (1949), which appears to make delicate glass miniatures spring to life.
Fittingly, the three discs are housed in a fold-out case with pop-up decorations. Three Fantastic Journeys comes with a high recommendation for any fan of animation, Czech film, or whimsical fantasy.
(www.criterion.com/boxsets/2880-three-fantastic-journeys-by-karel-zeman)
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March 16th 2020
9:04am
Hey! At 99papers company (it is service for cheap paper writing) everyone love this song