Review of On the Comet

This falls a bit short of Zeman's best works, and the shortcomings concern the plot and characters as well as the images. Plot-wise, there's little tension despite the big scale; it is more a political satire than an adventure (already a "fault" of the story it's based on), and the characters stay flat and unconvincing, more like prototypes than real men or women. As to the images, the different kinds of animation and the real-life sets don't blend as well as in other Zeman's productions; the scenes onboard the ship with the ubiquitous hatching (everybody is wearing stripes, too) look as if taken from "The Deadly Invention" while many of the outdoor scenes resemle not very good B&W movies from the 20s; the animation of the giant lizards look completely different again as do the celestial effects.

Recommended for Zeman and animation fans; on its own merits this film is a bit boring.