IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

Second Run, a boutique video label in the UK devoted to art films and classics, has announced a Blu-ray and DVD release of the Czech fantasy film Journey to the Beginning of Time (Cesta do pravěku, 1955) from director/animator Karel Zeman. The Blu-ray is due on October 7th and will be region free, so it will play in Blu-ray players worldwide.

Zeman’s celebrated fantasy films combine live-action, paper-cutouts, puppetry, stop-motion and cell animation for a unique experience that influenced numerous future directors, most notably Terry Gilliam.  Second Run has previously released gorgeous Blu-rays of Zeman’s Invention For Destruction a.k.a. The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958) and The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1961), which made my “Picks of the Year” list.

Here are the details on the upcoming release:

Journey to the Beginning of Time
(Cesta do pravěku)
A film by Karel Zeman

On Blu-ray & DVD 07 October 2019

BLU-RAY: SRBD 025 / DVD: SECOND RUN DVD 127 BLU-RAY RRP: £19.99 / DVD RRP: £12.99
BBFC cert: PG
Feature: 86 minutes; Extras: tbc minutes
Language: Czech / English; Subtitles: English

Presented from a glorious new 4K restoration, Second Run are delighted to follow their hugely popular releases of The Fabulous Baron Munchausen and Invention for Destruction by the visionary Czech animator and filmmaker Karel Zeman, with his groundbreaking work of fantasy: Journey to the Beginning of Time.

A joyous adventure that celebrates science and nature, Journey to the Beginning of Time sends four schoolboys on an epic and perilous voyage through prehistory encountering mammoths, monsters and dinosaurs along the way. Using a variety of innovative techniques (cel animation, stop-motion, puppetry and animatronics) Zeman evokes worlds of wonder and discovery to produce his most beguiling and magical work.

Described as the ‘Czech Méliès’, Zeman has been a profound influence on generations of film artists from Jan Švankmajer to Tim Burton, the Quay Brothers to Terry Gilliam and Wes Anderson. His innovations in the use of live-action and animation mark him as one of the great masters of 20th Century fantasy cinema, alongside his more celebrated Western counterparts Willis O’Brien, George Pal and Ray Harryhausen.

“An opportunity to succumb to the unique enchantment of Zeman’s purity of spirit, his boundless imagination and artistic vision” Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Blu-ray and DVD Special features:

• Journey to the Beginning of Time presented from a brand new 4K restoration of the film from original materials.
• The alternative English-dubbed version: a feature-length reconstruction of the US release cut with alternate credits, opening and end sequences.
• A new appreciation by filmmaker and animator John Stevenson, director of Kung Fu Panda
• The Making of Journey to the Beginning of Time.
• Restoring the World of Fantasy featurette.
• Image gallery.
• Trailers.
• 20-page booklet featuring new writing by film historian Michael Brooke.
• Region free Blu-ray and DVD.