Sur la comète / Na kometě

It has only been in recent years that I have finally seen some of Karel Zeman's sensational fantasy films combining animation and live action and they knock my socks off. I have been reading about these films for years. Zeman's animations bring to life the wonderful wood-engraved illustrations associated with artists like Édouard Riou, Léon Benett and Gustave Doré that often graced 19th century editions of great literature.
Tonight was my first viewing of NA KOMETĚ aka ON A COMET (1970) that again combines live action and animation with some dazzling experimentation with colour and apparently tinted black and white creating a surrealistic fantasy world.
The immensely enjoyable story veers a little from the original novel, but is entirely faithful to it in spirit. Our heroes are caught up in the middle of a colonial war between 19th century imperialist powers for territory in North Africa when a comet, originally assumed to be a faraway planet flying out of its orbit, tears into the Earth taking away a sizeable chunk of Africa.
The warring powers find themselves putting aside their differences when they see they face other challenges, such as dinosaurs. "What are those cattle doing here?" says the Colonel. The comedy is hilarious, especially the hysterical scenes of soldiers clanging pots and pans confiscated from the village to scare the "cattle" away.
Magda Vášáryová, adorable as Angelika, and handsome Emil Horváth as Lieutenant Servadac are the love interests.
The 19th century costumes and the sets are designed to blend in with the look of the kind of wood-engravings that decorated Verne's novels.
I see that Czechmovie has a few more Zeman's in their catalogue so I will be ordering these in due course.
I'm a bit too old now for travel, but the advertisement for the Karel Zeman Museum really makes me want to get a passport, catch a plane to Prague and Czech it out in person!

The DVD was a gift for a family member and i was very pleased with the whole process of ordering and delivery.

You will need a multi-region player to play this DVD, but I've found it well worth the minimal cost to have one. The films of Karel Zeman are unique, and radically different from the work of any other filmmaker. No one has ever used his combination of effects, animation, and live action. In this, he reminds me of Melies, another true visionary of the art form. I'd been searching for a decent copy of Zeman's Baron Munchausen (Prasil) for over 40 years before finding it at czechmovie. When I found other Zeman films, I bought some of those, too, and found in them the same magical quality. I now have 5 and all are amazing. I'll finish by saying that the service from czechmovie far exceeded my expectations. I received each movie about a week after ordering, which is pretty amazing considering I'm in California and they are shipped from the Czech Republic.