Calling all families, film buffs, and just about anyone who can appreciate the spectacle of a brontosaurus stalking the urban wilds of the Czech capital.
A new exhibit/adventure walk set to debut in Prague later this year will honor Czech film director Karel Zeman, a pioneer of special effects.
The Czechoslovak fantasy adventure sees four boys time travel to the era of the wooly mammoth via canoe. The film is notable as Zeman’s first production to include actors in conjunction with stop-motion and special effects.
Twelve scenes from the film will be strategically mounted on wooden poles around the paths of Prokopské údolí and Dívčí hrady to create the optical illusion of vivid prehistoric scenes.
Installation of the 2-meter-wide backdrops is due to begin in 2018 and the exhibit should open at the beginning of summer season.
Animator, director, and special effects innovator Karel Zeman influenced a generation of filmmakers and technicians, from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam, who took some of his Monty Python animation cues from Zeman’s stop-motion work and even revisited the territory of the director’s Baron Prášil in 1988’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
A feature-length documentary about a group of Czech film students who try to recreate Zeman’s game-changing stop-motion special effects was released in 2015.