In this children's fantasy, four young boys visit the dinosaur exhibit at the New York city Museum of Natural History. They then row out onto Central Park Lake where they find a secret cave and paddle into a wondrous prehistoric world filled with the very dinosaurs they had just seen. As they float further into the cave, they find themselves in the Ice Age where they fall asleep. When they wake up, they find they are still in the museum and the whole glorious adventure was naught but a dream. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
lost interest.
If Journey to the Beginning of Time is not a great film, it's nonetheless a quite enjoyable trifle. Terribly dated in terms of the naïveté with which the subject matter is treated, its simplicity may inspire derisive laughter from modern audiences, but there's also something quite appealing in the innocence that fills the film. Modern audiences may also find fault with some of the many special effects and animated sequences, but at the time
Journey was made, these were pretty near top-of-the-line. Besides, the artificial nature of some of the stop-motion sequences has a certain charm of its own and does add to the unreal atmosphere of the story.
Journey is also a very placid film; although a lot happens, there's very little conflict or real danger; there's also little logic to much of the film, but given the premise, that's fairly forgivable. What works less well are the framing sequences that open and close the film, which were clearly (and unconvincingly) shot with different actors than the quartet used in the main body of the film. The English dubbing is also atrocious, among the worst one is likely to encounter in a professional film.
Karel Zeman's direction is less inspired than one might wish, but he does give the film a quiet, comfortable feeling, as well as a pleasant, muted sense of wonder. Despite its flaws,
Journey is an enjoyable and diverting trip. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide