1970s

Although Western films were shown during the Soviet era in the Communist Bloc, American publicity materials were banned, allowing the state-commissioned artists to operate with total creative freedom from the demands of the big Hollywood studios, offering quirky and sometimes surreal interpretations which often had little reference to the film.

Unfortunately it is not yet known who created this psychedelic phantasmagoria for the first Czech release of Walt Disney's 1941 animation Dumbo, with it's surreal swirling elephants in pastel-hued hallucinogenic homage to the film's famously bizarre Pink Elephants On Parade sequence, as the eponymous elephant becomes accidentally inebriated with champagne. Other than this nightmare inducing interlude, the simple and bittersweet story of the shy circus elephant who discovers that his abnormally oversized ears allow him to fly, reminds us to believe in ourselves and celebrate rather than mock each other's differences. 

Condition

Excellent (A-)

Backed on linen in the European style with no restoration whatsoever, with two light horizontal folds remaining faintly visible. Image and colours excellent. Light undulation to linen.