Streaming: ‘The Fabulous Baron Munchausen’

1962’s ‘Fabulous Baron Munchausen’ is an adventure for the ages.|

“The Fabulous Baron Munchausen”

“The Fabulous Baron Munchausen” is streaming on the Criterion Channel. Not rated. Running time 1:26. Visit www.criterionchannel.com.

Superhero blockbusters are inherently conservative pictures, safe enough to be legible for kids of all ages in any country. Karel Zeman’s wonderfully strange 1962 adventure “The Fabulous Baron Munchausen” proves that there are abundant cinematic visionaries - one just needs to find their wild creations.

The plot is pure science fiction: Baron Munchausen meets a space man on the moon and brings him down to Earth where they chase beautiful ladies through Ottoman Turkey and into the belly of a whale. Zeman’s stated goal for the film was to include everything possible in the medium - he uses drawings, cut-outs, models and live action, not to mention extensive tinting and hand coloring of each frame.

Exceeding Walt Disney in originality, Zeman’s second-to-second creativity is rarely matched elsewhere in film history. Inspired by French printmaker Gustave Doré, Zeman’s work also resembles in some ways the layered animations of contemporary artist William Kentridge. Edited and choreographed for surprise and delight throughout, “The Fabulous Baron Munchausen” is an utter pleasure, a bridge from Georges Méliès to this afternoon. As a character says of the inimitable Baron: “The force that pulls him to the stars is pure imagination.”

“The Fabulous Baron Munchausen”

“The Fabulous Baron Munchausen” is streaming on the Criterion Channel. Not rated. Running time 1:26. Visit www.criterionchannel.com.

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