On the Comet Movie Review

Lesser-known sci-fi fantasy by Jules Verne brought to life by Czech animator Karel Zeman. Wandering planetoid brushes past 19th-century Earth and takes part of the Mediterranean coast with it. Drifting through the solar system, assorted Europeans, Arabs, dinosaurs (?), soldiers, lovers, and scalawags realize their old nationalist squabbles are pointless now that they're completely alone, and there are some satirical jabs at human nature. Zeman's signature animation whimsies, combining live-action, stop-motion, and life-size cutouts, put the viewer in a storybook universe where anything seems possible. If conventional Hollywood studios tried to film this yarn straight the f/x budget would be higher than that comet. Not the easiest tape to locate, but a real treasure if you do. Dubbed in English. AKA: Na Komete; Hector Ser-vadac's Ark.

1968 76m/C CZ Emil Horvath Jr., Magda Vasarykova, Fran-tisek Filipovsky; D: Karel Zeman. VHS, Beta FCT, MRV