Movies

Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (1965) A beggar boy is hit by a truck and while he lies unconscious in the gutter has a psychedelic trip-out where he goes into outer space with Doctor Gulliver in the doctor's rocket ship, along with a windup toy soldier and talking dog and crow. Japanese animation going for a European look, dubbed in English with new songs of the type where a chorus of children sing about happiness. Lots of harping throughout the film on "hope" and the necessity of having it without ever explaining what it is or why it is good. Visually interesting, especially when they get to the robot planet. Excellent "Rise, robots rise!" musical number. Cinematic in-joke; in an earth-city scene, a delivery truck has written on the side "La salaire de la peur," - the wages of fear. Fairly entertaining and a perfect double feature with Pinocchio in Outer Space. 6/10

I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen (1970) Czechoslovakian time travel farce. Radiation from G-bomb tests has made women grow beards and unable to bear children. The only way to prevent it is to travel back in time and insure that Einstein is not saved from being killed by a falling chandelier. It doesn't go as planned. Deliberately ridiculous throughout and moderately amusing. I appreciated that they gave Einstein an exceptionally stupid laugh. Good production values and quite imaginative. 7/10

Movies

Tomorrow I Will Wake Up and Scald Myself With Tea (1977) Czechoslovakian time travel comedy. In the near future, time rockets take people on trips to view historical periods and events. A group of Nazis, kept young by rejuvenation pills, plot to hijack a time rocket and take a stolen miniature hydrogen bomb to Hitler so he will win the war. It would succeed except that the scoundrelly pilot who was in on the scheme choked to death on his breakfast roll and his identical twin brother, a mild-mannered engineer who designed the time rockets, envious of his brother's thrilling lifestyle, pretends it was himself who died and takes his brother's place as pilot. Then it gets complicated. The usual going back and trying to fix things ensues. A low-key, witty and inventive story, and a unique approach to the time travel film. Deserves to be more widely known. 8/10