The Fabulous Baron Munchausen

Ethan Colburn4.0

I have never seen a movie that looks like this.This is genuinely one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The hand-drawn sets are spectacular and pull you into this fantastical world. While many old movie sets can fall into the uncanny valley, the sets are so cartoonish and fantastical that your mind fills in the rest. There was so much effort put into the beauty of each frame, with you constantly wondering how they pulled it off.The characters were a bit dry at times, and I felt like if they spent a little time bringing depth to the people, I might have connected with this more emotionally, however it is nonetheless spectacular.Thank you to the incomparable Austin Lord for the rec! FOLLOW THIS MAN! You won’t be disappointed :)

Josh Lewis4.0

Storybook surrealism. The stylized combination of live-action, matte paintings, and animation is genuinely jaw-dropping. The lighting and filters especially! Just wow.

Stephen Gillespie5.0

This endlessly inventive and freewheeling narrative is paired with endlessly inventive and freewheeling visuals. The whole film is a blend of styles, with more being consistently added throughout the duration, that include live action, stop motion, traditional animation and smart colourisation. The way aspects blend is never not incredible.This still holds up as a wholly unique work, influencing animators (especially, but also filmmakers in general) going forward. The narrative is the tallest of tall tales, consistently hyperbolising itself but always matched by the visuals. This pairing turns silliness into a complete delight and ridiculousness into spellbinding artistry.The most obvious child of this film is Terry Gilliam, his animated aesthetic clearly matches what is on show here - but so does his narrative sensibility. It is no surprise that he would go onto make his own Munchausen.Yet, this still sits unparalleled. And, as the wonderful Jack 🧠 said in his review (a great follow and musician - and the person who introduced me to this) the brilliance of this film is in not knowing how it was made and therefore wanting to know but, at the same time, wanting the wizardry to stay as wizardry.