In the 1980s, Krzysztof Gradowski directed three Polish musical-fantasy live-action adventures featuring a long-bearded, bespectacled, magical scholar named Professor Ambrozy Kleks [or Ambrose Blot, since the English translation of 'kleks' is an ink stain or blot]. Based on a series of children's books by Jan Brzechwa, this was the middle film in that colorful trilogy -- a spectacularly crazy, over-stuffed cinematic potpourri that cobbles together strange foreign lands, villainous schemes, disparate pop culture elements, and impromptu musical numbers -- along with an absurdly convoluted plot framed as a bedtime story told by kindly Kleks to an ill, redheaded boy named Peter (who also appears as a character within the tale)... After the evil Great Electronic and his robot army invade Inventor's Island and force its scientists into slavery, his next target is Taledocia, which is preparing for its big Fairytale Competition (including cameos by Red Riding Hood, Doctor Dolittle, a naked Emperor, plus Snow White and seven children in stiff, creepy dwarf masks). The plan is to destroy Taledocia's precious ink supply, so their sultan-like ruler seeks help from Kleks, who's currently holed up in the Avalanche Mountains, competing in a martial arts tournament. Acquiring a ship and crew (including the aforementioned Peter as a precocious, Johnny Whitaker-wannabe cabin boy), Kleks sets sail -- unaware that a traitor is onboard -- with a pitstop at the health-obsessed Apothecary Peninsula, where rejuvenation pills keep everyone young. Of course, wherever Kleks ventures, residents break into song since the Professor's benevolent reputation precedes him, until Kleks eventually makes his way to Inventor's Island and battles the Great Electronic and his minions... The bloated script continually veers into surreal subplots, flashbacks and protracted musical numbers, which accounts for the film's exhausting 160-minute running time. All of the performances are suitably broad, with Piotr Fronczewski bringing enthusiasm and charm to the title role. Its production values are more of a mixed bag though (with his chintzy silver-wardrobe and matching face paint, the Great Electronic resembles a 1960s LOST IN SPACE alien), along with some decidedly low-rent special effects (when a required effect was too difficult to create in live-action, the filmmakers instead swap in cheap cell-animation). Nevertheless, its nuttiest moments gave me flashbacks to early-'70s Saturday morning series like LIDSVILLE and THE BUGALOOS. A prime example of that is when Kleks' sunken ship lands him in an undersea kingdom populated by trippy puppet creatures led by the beautiful Queen Aba (played by popular Polish singer Malgorzata Ostrowska, vocalist from the rock band Lombard), plus a calamari-based solution to Taledocia's ink shortage. Like those beloved Sid & Marty Krofft shows, despite its storytelling hiccups and chintzy shortcuts, the film offers loads of amusingly ludicrous fun for imaginative children and their stoned parents. With music by Andrzej Korzynski, who composed the soundtracks for such Andrzej Zulawski films as POSSESSION, DIABEL and ON THE SILVER GLOBE.

© 2024 by Steven Puchalski.