1958 adventure
Rating: 16/20
Plot: An inventor is kidnapped and whisked off to an island by a guy (the "last and most diabolical of the buccaneers") who wants to use him to create a weapon that will help him take over the world.
Faithful readers, I have a new favorite director--Karel Zeman. As you might recall (you don't), he was the Czech director who made The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, a movie that I just loved. Like that surrealist fantasy masterpiece, this one combines life action and a bunch of different forms of animation to create something that is definitely unique. It recalls the animation style of Monty Python with a whole lot of Georges Melies mixed in, and it's just wonderful. Steampunkish castle laboratories, roller-skating camels in a cute film-within-a-film, an inky octopus, a reconnaissance ship with flippers, great shots filled with underwater life, a terrifying shipwreck montage, the inner-workings of a submarine. There's just so much to see in this thing, so much creativity and whimsy. The opening screen boasted that this was in "Mysti-mation, a new cinematic technique." I don't know what that means, but I love it, and I love Karel Zeman, my new favorite director.
One of the things I'm most looking forward to with watching a bunch of Czech films this year--the posters. Look at these!
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