Lucky Four Serving the King

Lucky Four are the comic book heroes of my childhood. I loved it for many years and when as an adult I found out there was going to be a feature film about them, I was obviously very happy. And trust me, I really struggled when I saw product placement in otherwise pretty good fairytale in such a way I’ve never seen in a fairytale before. It was really sickening and that is the reason I am not sure whether I will play this film to my children one day. I went to see the Lucky Four, not a fucking lollipop or children’s champagne commercial. (12/24/2015)

I'd always hoped that the movie version of Lucky Four Serving the King would reach back to the beloved 1988-1990 series of double-sided books, back to the time when the legendary scrapbook stories first made it onto the pages of standalone books. Some of the stories are still among the best Jaroslav Němeček has ever illustrated. However, by the time it was time to move definitively towards film, the interest was primarily in Lucky Four traveling to the time of Rudolph II - and even this branch of travel has always had its tradition. Lucky Four has been meeting Rudolf II quite regularly since 1976, and the main story is a sequel to the first stand-alone book. There were still many changes to be made to the film script, and the journey to the end result was extremely challenging, but to my personal amazement, the result is well worth it. There is a whole bunch of annoying product placement, partial inspiration from recent Narnia -type phenomena, but in a way it holds together. In the end, then, Lucky Four Serving the King is a fun and exciting children's film that readers of the comics will appreciate. Of course, not all casual readers will find things in it they like. Those who expect a Pixar story will not get it, but neither will they get Goat Story, although both the Goat and Lucky Four do teach children something elementary about Czech history in a non-violent way. I'm very glad that this particular film is one I will have no problem watching repeatedly. The second 50th anniversary film isn't bad either. (10/31/2013)

An hour and a half long ad for yoghurt, lollipops, shampoo for children, a toy shop, a post office... Am I forgetting something? And only a complete ignoramus of everything he does (or did?) can let Bobík speak in Bohdan Tůma's dull voice. The animation is, quite incomprehensibly, originally a kind of 3D that was gradually converted to 2D, which the filmmakers mask in the Movie About the Movie with phrases like "We wanted to use the most modern process possible", when the truth should be "It was easier this way". The story is also outlandish, and the humor must seem awkward to anyone over the age of ten... Why the filmmakers did not reach for a proven adventure by Ljuba Štíplová (for example, “Jak se chodí do pohádky") remains a mystery. But I liked the dubbing (except for Bobík, of course) and Soukup's music. (10/03/2013)

I hope that "Four-leaf clover in the service of the king" is not the future of Czech animated film. When one realizes that we had great authors in this direction (Jiří Trnka, Zdeněk Smetana, and even Jan Švankmajer), one must ask themselves what happened, that now we will go to something like "The Goat Story" or precisely "Four-leaf clover". I like this comic and I wished for a film adaptation, but definitely not in this execution, in this form. It's a pity because I doubt there will be a sequel. Although, it is true that the cinema was definitely not empty... (11/19/2013)