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Karel Zeman Restored: The World of Fantasy

Many kids have grown-up with his fantasy films, making stop-motion and puppetry an indispensable element in film making.

 Karel Zeman made headwaves with his inventive adaptation of Jules Verne and fantasy novels, and his Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955), The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958), The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1961) are among the adventure classics, inspiring artists from Monty Python to Tim Burton.

These three films are now part of the project Restoring the World of Fantasy (jointly held by The Czech Film Foundation, Karel Zeman Museum and Czech Television), which aims to digitally restore (in 4k) selected films produced by Karel Zeman to the finest quality and screen them in cinemas.

 Karel Zeman's 1958 Invention for Destruction is the first outcome of the project, whose restored version premiered in the 2015 Karlovy Vary festival. It is now available as a Blu-Ray disc.

 The American expert James Mockoski will act as the supervisor of the digital restoration of all four Karel Zeman films. The restoration is being led by the chief restorer Ivo Marák at Universal Production Partners (UPP). The reconstruction of the audio portion of the films is taking place in Soundsquare under the direction of Pavel Rejholec.

journey-to-the-beginning-of-time520

Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955)

Ludmila Zeman, the daughter of Karel Zeman and an acclaimed animation director herself, is also an integral part of the restoration process.

Restoring the World of Fantasy project started in July 2014, and is expected to last three years. You can also donate to the project.

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