Verdict
Summary
A startlingly beautiful animated movie from Hungary, Jozsef Gemes’ Heroic Times looks quite unlike any other animated film ever made. The film is composed of hand painted images and unique illustrations that come to life like a museum exhibition of medieval paintings in motion, but there’s no dialogue, only narration by the Toldi character. Based on an epic Hungarian poem, this film is wondrous to behold, but it may not be for everyone, as it is presented like a living painting: all images, no sound effects or dialogue, just narration and score. I enjoyed it very much, and I have a feeling hardcore animation aficionados will greatly appreciate it as well.
Plot:
A super strong peasant becomes a knight and then an outcast.
Review:
A peasant, Toldi is an unusually strong lad with a brother who becomes a knight in the king’s battalion. Traded into servitude, Toldi grows up resentful at his brother and in a fit of rage, Toldi murders a man when he could’ve just as easily chosen to curb his temper, but Toldi’s conscience plagues him over the matter. Now condemned, he has to make a choice: To redeem himself or be executed. After proving his strength by taming a raging bull (with his bare hands and brute strength) that terrorizes his village, Toldi’s good deed is ignored, and so he puts on a knight’s armor and slays the king’s enemy in a one-on-one battle, which gets the king’s attention. Granted his life in return, Toldi is finally knighted, joining the king’s ranks. When Toldi lays eyes on the princess, Toldi’s heart and soul burn with longing for her, but she has no love for him, and so he spends years as a single, unloved man, burning with resentment. Another rash moment changes the course of Toldi’s destiny: He murders another man, and this gets him thrown out of the king’s ranks, where he watches the king’s wars and crusades from the sidelines. Toldi’s strengths are wasted as he ages away, and when he dies, he is completely alone, with no one to mourn him or to even remember that he was born.
A startlingly beautiful animated movie from Hungary, Jozsef Gemes’ Heroic Times looks quite unlike any other animated film ever made. The film is composed of hand painted images and unique illustrations that come to life like a museum exhibition of medieval paintings in motion, but there’s no dialogue, only narration by the Toldi character. Based on an epic Hungarian poem, this film is wondrous to behold, but it may not be for everyone, as it is presented like a living painting: all images, no sound effects or dialogue, just narration and score. I enjoyed it very much, and I have a feeling hardcore animation aficionados will greatly appreciate it as well.
Deaf Crocodile brings Heroic Times to Blu-ray in a vivid presentation (it’s full-frame, not widescreen) with gorgeous clarity and sound. Bonus features are aplenty, and on the whole, this is a keeper in every way. I’m grateful to have been given the opportunity to watch and review it.
Bonus Materials
- New 4K restoration of HEROIC TIMES by the NFI – National Film Institute-Film Archive in Hungary
- New commentary track by film historian Samm Deighan
- New essay by film historian and professor Jennifer Lynde Barke
- 3 rare animated shorts by József Gémes: “Koncertissimo” (1968, 3 min.), “Parade (Díszlépés)” (1969, 5 min.), “Funeral (Temetés)” (1970, 3 min.)
- New video interview with HEROIC TIMES animator Sándor Békési, moderated by Dennis Bartok of Deaf Crocodile
- New video interview with György Ráduly, Director of the National Film Institute-Film Archive on József Gémes and the history of Hungarian animation, moderated by Dennis Bartok
- Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion.
