I saw this movie at the theater in the mid-late '60s. I spent years and years trying to find out the name of it based only on my memories of a few of the scenes. I finally tracked it down and got a VHS copy and watched it with my husband and son. My son (11) was totally cracking up the whole time, spoiled by all the movies he's seen. Yes, the dubbing is hokey and horrible, and the stop action primitive compared to today, but to an 8 yr old in the '60s it was wonderful! I may have to hunt down an original copy without the extra US storyline that was put in. I'm just glad that I found this movie, prove to my husband that I'm not crazy and it did exist and can now move on with my life! ;)

This is surely a unique film. Although I possess only the US-version with the added scenes where 4 kids are visiting the Museum of Natural History and as they wander through the halls of giant prehistoric skeletons one of the boys stops by a "model" of a native indian and starts dreaming the very journey the original Czechian film is about.

With a boat they find by the shore of a river they journey downstream and to their astonishment they find that the wildlife on the fastland is prehistoric. The longer they travel the more ancient the animals. Its a kind of an educational kiddie movie without any melodramatic plot,but the whole business is fascinating as the kids who are trapped on the "river of evolution" must from time to time seek shelter on land. They confront a mammoth and a lurking caveman. From the Tertiarian Age they are attacked by a Diatryma bird and see a living prehistoric world exhibited in a way very unusual from other prehistoric adventures. The special effects are invented by the director himself, and works very well and the atmosphere of living prehistory is still unsurpassed, I think.

As they travel further down the river they meet dinosaurs and pterosaurs and finally they are forced to cross a Carbonian swampland infested by amphibians and insects until they reach the end or should I say, the Beginning: An endless Ocean where Life started. This plot was reprised in the british film Land That Time Forgot (`74).

A warm and educational movie (although we know more about Evolution today), I can recommend to everyone with that timegazing eye.

I recently obtained a VHS copy of Journey To The Beginning Of Time from E-Bay and was certainly pleased I did.

4 boys visiting the dinosaur exhibit in New York Natrual History Museum hire a boat and they end up going back in time. This takes them through Prehistoric times and then to the time when Earth began. After their most interesting journey, they end up there they had started...

The dinosaurs in this movie include a Brontosarus, Stegosaurous, Styracosaus and Creatosaurus. We also get to see several prehistoric mammals including Wolly Mammoths. All the creatures were done in stop-motion and look excellent.

Journey To The Beginning Of Time is certainly worth checking out. Excellent.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.