I'm a huge fan of Karel Zeman's films so it's hard for me to say which one I think is best, although I have a real weakness for BARON PRASIL and JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME. I finally got to see this and it has good characters and it seems to anticipate the kind of comedy that Monte Python would later end up doing. Based on Verne's story, it involves factions fighting one another who end up on a comet joining forces to survive. As someone else said, the comet looks enough like Earth that if they didn't tell you they were on a comet and the comet didn't have dinosaurs, you'd think they were still back on Earth. When the dinosaurs finally show up, they come in herds and they look pretty good. It's some fine stop-motion animation but it seems kind of tacked on. Photography and music score as usual are top drawer and even the characters are likable if somewhat silly. Overall, there is just no tension or suspense. It's a comedy pretty much so you never really believe anyone is in danger. The animation is excellent as it always is in Zeman's films but this is definitely not his best work. I still think his best work is BARON PRASIL.
5 Reviews
Quirky as expected, but not very captivating
IndustriousAngel12 April 2018
This falls a bit short of Zeman's best works, and the shortcomings concern the plot and characters as well as the images.
Plot-wise, there's little tension despite the big scale; it is more a political satire than an adventure (already a "fault" of the story it's based on), and the characters stay flat and unconvincing, more like prototypes than real men or women.
As to the images, the different kinds of animation and the real-life sets don't blend as well as in other Zeman's productions; the scenes onboard the ship with the ubiquitous hatching (everybody is wearing stripes, too) look as if taken from "The Deadly Invention" while many of the outdoor scenes resemle not very good B&W movies from the 20s; the animation of the giant lizards look completely different again as do the celestial effects.
Recommended for Zeman and animation fans; on its own merits this film is a bit boring.
Recommended for Zeman and animation fans; on its own merits this film is a bit boring.
Jules Verne's greatest science fiction failure turned into a cinematographic dream
clanciai13 October 2021
This second animation of Karel Zeman's of the fantastic world of Jules Verne's is not as efficient and ingenious as the first one, twelve years earlier, "Face au drape", mainly because the story here is more absurd and unrealistic. It is based on Jules Verne's most extravagant science fiction novel, "Hector Servadac", his most absurd novel about a fragment of earth being cut off from earth by a comet, a confrontation which in reality no one and least of all earth itself would have survived. But Hector Servadac does with a bunch of other people around the western Mediterranean, but Karel Zeman makes up a story of his own with smugglers, Arab freedom fighters, a lovely girl at the centre of things turning it all into a romantic love story, dinosaurs, sea monsters and what not. While "Face au drapeau" was replenished with splendid humor and great cinematography in black and white, this one is in color with a rather boring lack of humor and with concentration on metal utensils constantly being wrecked and spread in havoc all around making a lot of noise. Karel Zeman makes Jules Verne's most extreme science fiction extravaganza turn into a dream, and that partly saves the film from the blatant absurdity of the novel.
Zeman and Vernes Marvel
wayne-963-82951714 November 2017
For some reason, I've watched this movie more times than any other! I had an English VHS that ran LP and it didn't matter. This movie is just so much fun. Zeman seems to have an endless bag of tricks that fit the story to a T.
It's a perfect sci-fantasy flick in just about every way done in Zeman's immersive imaginative way. A young "foreign legion" officer finds himself in a sea of conflicts as he tries to help the "girl of his dreams". All the while the world is facing cataclysm from a "close approaching" comet. Zeman is the master of what I would call, "impressionistic cinema" where surrealism adds immense detail to the story somehow.
The score is lavish and simple at the same time and pulls you in with it's odd orchestral intensity and has it's own surrealism. The action is packed with visual finesse. The actors are comical in the reactions to their situations and there lays a wealth of social commentary. Like the young officer's pointing out to his "lady in distress" a strange creature making evolutionary transformations before his eyes, only in the reverse order... Lot's of great "sight gags".
I've lost my VHS copy... too bad!
It's a perfect sci-fantasy flick in just about every way done in Zeman's immersive imaginative way. A young "foreign legion" officer finds himself in a sea of conflicts as he tries to help the "girl of his dreams". All the while the world is facing cataclysm from a "close approaching" comet. Zeman is the master of what I would call, "impressionistic cinema" where surrealism adds immense detail to the story somehow.
The score is lavish and simple at the same time and pulls you in with it's odd orchestral intensity and has it's own surrealism. The action is packed with visual finesse. The actors are comical in the reactions to their situations and there lays a wealth of social commentary. Like the young officer's pointing out to his "lady in distress" a strange creature making evolutionary transformations before his eyes, only in the reverse order... Lot's of great "sight gags".
I've lost my VHS copy... too bad!
Light on Animation - Heavy on Absurdity
swagner200110 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Having seen Zeman's excellent rendition of Baron Munchausen, I decided to watch ON THE COMET, expecting a similar mind-bending trip. Unfortunately, there's less animation in this film, and far more silliness, and confusion.
ON THE COMET is set in North Africa (presumably Morocco) in the year 1888. The French military have occupied the region, and are on the verge of war with the local Arabs. There's a Spanish diplomat who serves as a moderator between the two nations.
The story's main character is a French Lieutenant who falls off a cliff while surveying land. He lands safely in water, and is rescued by the girl of his dreams.
Can you follow any of this? This is just the beginning...
There's a giant moon on the horizon which looms larger and larger. Fortunately, the French Lieutenant is knowledgeable about such strange astronomical matters, and explains to us that the strange sphere is NOT a planet, not a moon - but a comet - heading directly towards Earth! Meanwhile, the Spanish diplomat attempts to blow up the French militia. And it is this MASSIVE explosion which catapults an entire city, along with all of its inhabitants up into the atmosphere - and they land, soundly onto the comet.
Now, never mind the fact that comets are balls of rock and ice, rarely more than 50 kilometers in diameter (according to wikipedia.) Oddly enough, this comet - the surface - looks IDENTICAL to Earth! Gravity remains the same. There's no extremely curved horizon. The only way the audience knows the characters are on a comet, is because they continually say that they are on a comet!
The rest of the film makes fun of the absurdity of war. It shows high officials acting like complete imbeciles. A French Captain pounds a desk whenever he complains. With each strike of the desk, powder from a crumbling ceiling lands on his head. Does he ever decide to move out of the way? No. He continues his habit, propping an umbrella above his head.
None of these antics are terribly funny. They are merely silly.
At one point, animated dinosaurs appear, seemingly out of nowhere. The French Captain orders his cavalry to attack. They are frightened of the reptiles, but due to the tame tone of this film, you know they are not in any real danger. Shooting guns at the dinosaurs prove ineffective. "I told you our calvary was in no shape to fight" snorts the Captain, in disgust.
Why are dinosaurs roaming a comet? I have no idea. But, common household utensils turn out to be the weapon they fear most.
This movie consists of silly people running away from enemies who are absurd and not scary. And then running some more after an inconvenient kidnapping. None of this action appears to take place on a comet - even though everyone claims that's where they are.
The bulk of this film is shot in monochrome - that is, black & white, with a very strong yellow tint (or should we say black & yellow?) The effects shots have various colors in them.
ON THE COMET is pure absurdity. Fun, I guess, if you can make any sense out of it.
ON THE COMET is set in North Africa (presumably Morocco) in the year 1888. The French military have occupied the region, and are on the verge of war with the local Arabs. There's a Spanish diplomat who serves as a moderator between the two nations.
The story's main character is a French Lieutenant who falls off a cliff while surveying land. He lands safely in water, and is rescued by the girl of his dreams.
Can you follow any of this? This is just the beginning...
There's a giant moon on the horizon which looms larger and larger. Fortunately, the French Lieutenant is knowledgeable about such strange astronomical matters, and explains to us that the strange sphere is NOT a planet, not a moon - but a comet - heading directly towards Earth! Meanwhile, the Spanish diplomat attempts to blow up the French militia. And it is this MASSIVE explosion which catapults an entire city, along with all of its inhabitants up into the atmosphere - and they land, soundly onto the comet.
Now, never mind the fact that comets are balls of rock and ice, rarely more than 50 kilometers in diameter (according to wikipedia.) Oddly enough, this comet - the surface - looks IDENTICAL to Earth! Gravity remains the same. There's no extremely curved horizon. The only way the audience knows the characters are on a comet, is because they continually say that they are on a comet!
The rest of the film makes fun of the absurdity of war. It shows high officials acting like complete imbeciles. A French Captain pounds a desk whenever he complains. With each strike of the desk, powder from a crumbling ceiling lands on his head. Does he ever decide to move out of the way? No. He continues his habit, propping an umbrella above his head.
None of these antics are terribly funny. They are merely silly.
At one point, animated dinosaurs appear, seemingly out of nowhere. The French Captain orders his cavalry to attack. They are frightened of the reptiles, but due to the tame tone of this film, you know they are not in any real danger. Shooting guns at the dinosaurs prove ineffective. "I told you our calvary was in no shape to fight" snorts the Captain, in disgust.
Why are dinosaurs roaming a comet? I have no idea. But, common household utensils turn out to be the weapon they fear most.
This movie consists of silly people running away from enemies who are absurd and not scary. And then running some more after an inconvenient kidnapping. None of this action appears to take place on a comet - even though everyone claims that's where they are.
The bulk of this film is shot in monochrome - that is, black & white, with a very strong yellow tint (or should we say black & yellow?) The effects shots have various colors in them.
ON THE COMET is pure absurdity. Fun, I guess, if you can make any sense out of it.
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