This typically amusing Emile Cohl cartoon -- known in English as "The Achievements of Will-o-the-Wisp -- is a Munchausen-like effort as Feu-Follet appears on a stage to offer Cohl's usual engaging topological transformations, turns into a balloon which floats to the moon, then sinks into the sea, to be swallowed, Jonah-like, by a whale. The stench of his pipe makes the whale vomit him up and he returns to the stage for a last bow.
In fact, that series of events pretty much sums up Terry Gilliam's THE ADVENTURES OF BARON VON MUNCHAUSEN -- albeit leaving out a couple of scenes; the balloon to the moon, being swallowed by a whale, getting out by smoking his pipe... Gilliam's movie bears an only occasional relationship to the Raspe book. I have long attributed that to the astonishing amount of pastiches and homages and tall tales. Now it appears this is a more direct ancestor... and worth knowing on its own terms.
In fact, that series of events pretty much sums up Terry Gilliam's THE ADVENTURES OF BARON VON MUNCHAUSEN -- albeit leaving out a couple of scenes; the balloon to the moon, being swallowed by a whale, getting out by smoking his pipe... Gilliam's movie bears an only occasional relationship to the Raspe book. I have long attributed that to the astonishing amount of pastiches and homages and tall tales. Now it appears this is a more direct ancestor... and worth knowing on its own terms.
