Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman

Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman

A one-of-a-kind silver-screen illusionist, Czech 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 Švankmajer, 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.

Films In This Set

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
  • U.S.-release version of Journey to the Beginning of Time from 1960
  • Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack for Invention for Destruction, and the opening sequence of the 1961 U.S.-release version
  • New programs with animation filmmaker John Stevenson and special-effects artists Phil Tippett and Jim Aupperle discussing director Karel Zeman and his complex visual trickery
  • Four early short films by Zeman: A Christmas Dream (1945), A Horseshoe for Luck (1946), Inspiration (1949), and King Lavra (1950)
  • Film Adventurer: Karel Zeman, a 2015 documentary about the director, featuring filmmakers Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, illustrator Ludmila Zeman, and others
  • Short documentaries produced by the Karel Zeman Museum profiling the director and detailing the production and effects of all three films
  • Restoration demonstrations and an interview with restoration supervisor James Mockoski
  • Trailers
  • New English subtitle translations
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, along with (for the Blu-ray) deluxe pop-up art

New covers by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

Films In This Set

Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
  • U.S.-release version of Journey to the Beginning of Time from 1960
  • Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack for Invention for Destruction, and the opening sequence of the 1961 U.S.-release version
  • New programs with animation filmmaker John Stevenson and special-effects artists Phil Tippett and Jim Aupperle discussing director Karel Zeman and his complex visual trickery
  • Four early short films by Zeman: A Christmas Dream (1945), A Horseshoe for Luck (1946), Inspiration (1949), and King Lavra (1950)
  • Film Adventurer: Karel Zeman, a 2015 documentary about the director, featuring filmmakers Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, illustrator Ludmila Zeman, and others
  • Short documentaries produced by the Karel Zeman Museum profiling the director and detailing the production and effects of all three films
  • Restoration demonstrations and an interview with restoration supervisor James Mockoski
  • Trailers
  • New English subtitle translations
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, along with (for the Blu-ray) deluxe pop-up art

New covers by Eric Skillman