AllMovie

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen was Czechoslovakian special-effect master Karel Zeman's follow-up to The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (60). Using Gustav Dore paintings as backdrops, Zeman (by way of 18th century satirist Rudolf Raspe) recounts the many mendacious adventures of the boastful Baron (Milos Kopecky). The film opens on the surface of the moon, where a modern-day cosmonaut confronts both Munchausen and another legendary pioneer space traveller, Cyrano de Bergerac. The cosmonaut then joins the Baron for further highlight suspect escapades. Combining live action, stop-motion animation and deliberately unreal backgrounds, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (original title: Baron Prasil) is a wonderful bouquet to the spirit of imagination--or "the spirit of man", as the cosmonaut puts it.