Létající Cestmír

Here is another very entertaining TV-series, of the kind that only the Czech - and Vaclav Vorlicek in particular - are able to make: fantasy, humor, irony, fun both for children and adults. The story is fast-paced and full of characters and funny situations, so that following the plot is pleasant and never boring. There are many occasions for laughing: it is a humor based not on clown-acting or farce, like many today's movies. It is light and subtle, instead. It is often made up of a fantastic event placed into reality as if it were the most common thing in the world, or unusual but not impossible. Funny is also the reaction of characters when they see unbelievable phenomena like flying children or children turned into adults in front of their eyes. In Vorlicec's films there is always the place for serious reflections on human beings or the problem of evil in the world, which the director succeeds in taking out of the fantastic and funny situations he depicts. Often in his movies, and also here, he ridicules the people who claim and pretend to be important and respectable, no matter if they really are so. In this series there is also the usual character who tries to steal a good idea, an invention, a new discovery to get for himself all the honor and money that somebody else deserves. But some smart children give him quite a lot to do. Special effects are not digital, but surprisingly good. Even better I daresay, if I think that everything you see is real, only you do not see everything... Thank God I know German, and I could watch "The flying Ferdinand" in this language on DVD, because in my country, Italy, the series was never dubbed nor subtitled. Anyway, it is too bad that it is no longer broadcast on TV on the prime time, or not at all, and today's children are deprived of the fun. Why? Because these series are "old". What a silly excuse!