Three Fantastic Journeys

A one-of-a-kind silver-screen illusionist, Czechoslovak filmmaker Karel Zeman devoted his career to transporting viewers to realms beyond their wildest imagining. The deft, breathtaking combinations of live-action and animation techniques that he pioneered in the postwar years earned him comparisons to legends such as Georges Méliès, and an array of followers that includes Jan Å vankmajer, Terry Gilliam, and Wes Anderson. Presented here are three of Zeman's most enchanting fantasies-a boys' adventure into the mists of prehistory, a Jules Verne—derived flight of fancy, and an exotic eighteenth-century tall tale-all of them treasure chests of wondrous sights, tactile textures, and headlong yarn-spinning that helped put Czechoslovak cinema on the international map.