It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

A Major Disappointment

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

This humorous puppet-movie is divided into four episodes (tales). All the original tales were written by one author - Jan Werich, but each tale was filmed by another director. Balej and Klimt represent the "greenhorns" of Czech animation, Pojar and Pospisilova are the "vets" here. Interesting fact is, that there is a huge difference in work of the older directors and the younger ones. The Czech animation veterans made brilliant and juicy stories, whereas the young directors tried to bore us almost to death. My favorite story is "Palecek" - directed by Mr.Pojar, art-concept masterfully made by Czech artist Pavel Koutsky. This story has wonderful sense of humor, funny 2D sequences, lot of wise crack and everything works together. If you want a real laugh, wait for this episode! 10/10"Tri sestry a jeden prsten" - made by Mrs.Pospisilova has also absolutely delightful artistic concept (the artist - Petr Pos is well known from short film "Az opada listi z dubu", which was a part of Fimfarum 1). The story is well focused on the point. Juicy and funny... It's the traditional old school of Czech animation. 9/10"More, strycku, proc je slane?" has a good atmosphere, but the story is filmed at an average. I personally dislike the puppets from this film - they all have silly faces, every figure looks like an idiot. Those "idiotic" puppets were made by the director himself. Balej wants to be funny at all cost, but I'm more or less immune to his attempts for a joke... 5/10Klimt's film "Hrbaci z Damasku" looks like it was made under the time pressure. The main humorous point is completely lost (why???), the story is long, boring and lacks ending. The end of this film feels like the story was longer, but the end was lost somewhere in the cutting room. I like the art work of Martin Velisek, but this time it was a bit shoddy. For example: the desert town is just one big house, no people in the streets, no camels or other animals, no extra puppets. Klimt's and Velisek's cooperation has much better result in Fimfarum 1. 5/10Conclusion: Pojar's and Pospisilova's stories are absolutely brilliant (both veteran directors have more humor and juice than the younger ones). 7/10