Season at the ZOO

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1989

Production year

1989

Premiere

1 September 1990

Runtime

89 min

Category

film

Genre

children, comedy

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Dva lidi v zoo

Czech title

Dva lidi v zoo

English title

Season at the ZOO

Summary

In 1989, beloved comedy director Marie Poledňáková combined a relationship and generational-based story with some very cute animal protagonists – the inhabitants of a zoo, where certain unfair practices are afoot. Twins Honza and Martin (siblings Jan and Martin Morávek) find themselves in an environment full of adventures. For fun, the lads pretend that just one of them – Martin – has arrived for a visit. But their grandfather Montelík is nowhere near as exuberant. He is battling against a greedy zoo management that wants to raise funds by selling off certain animals. Intern Emilka won’t accept such an outcome – and so the boys start subtly “helping out”. Miroslav Macháček and Jiřina Jirásková, most often seen by the public in more serious roles, play grandfather and grandmother Montelík.

Synopsis

When a giant gorilla demolishes the equipment of the zoologist Monty's house, his wife Josefína moves from the ZOO to her sister living in a prefab flat. Monty is fine with that, he got used to her leaving "forever". Their daughter leaves for a tour with her husband and brings over their two restless twins, Honza and Martin, for babysitting as agreed. The grandmother forgot about this before her quick departure and the granddad does not know anything about any such agreement. He is busy in the ZOO and also ocassionaly works as a vet for the neighbourhood. Monty would take one boy at maximum and the twins thus begin to pretend that only one is staying with him. There is a lot of disorder in the ZOO, but the young intern Emilka does not want to accept it. She secretly hides a young orang-utang Amos so that the incompetent and greedy management could not sell it. Josefína recalls babysitting her grandsons but she meets only Martin in front of the school. She takes him to her sister's but the boy runs away to the ZOO at night. The boys alternate at school and also alternate their results. František Kroužil returns from jail where he was sentenced for fighting in a pub caused by his pointless jealousy of his wife. Emilka writes a complaint to the ministry because the ZOO director wants to sell more animals. The boys read Emilka's letter and begin helping the animals. Their interventions are, however, rather unlucky. The grandfather finds out that both boys are in the ZOO. Josefína returns home. František is shocked at discovering the orang-utang Amos in the pram instead of his son; the child was of course replaced by the twins. The ZOO faces a mass escape of the animals but the boys will hopefully bring them back.

Film online

Cast

Miroslav Macháček

zoolog Montelík zvaný Monty

Jiřina Jirásková

Josefína, Montyho žena

Jan Morávek

dvojče Honza

Martin Morávek

dvojče Martin

Marta Sládečková

Voice by Zlata Adamovská
inženýrka Emilka

Jan Hartl

ošetřovatel Jára

Ladislav Mrkvička

ošetřovatel Šimon

Zdeněk Srstka

ošetřovatel Evžen

Petr Kostka

ředitel ZOO

Jana Štěpánková

hlavní zooložka

Helena Růžičková

krmička Burdová

Jaroslava Kretschmerová

Veruna, dcera Burdové

Jitka Smutná

Květa Kroužilová

Jiří Krampol

recidivista František Kroužil, Květin manžel

Roman Skamene

družstevník Valda

Zdena Hadrbolcová

listonoška Růžena

Jan Faltýnek

poručík VB

Uršula Kluková

družstevnice v hřebčinci

Adolf Kohuth

Voice by Miloslav Štibich
družstevník v hřebčinci

Marta Boháčová

Voice by Eva Jiroušková
učitelka Mráčková

Vilma Cibulková

Voice by Simona Stašová
kuchařka Jiřina Součková

Igor Smržík

příslušník VB

Aleš Procházka

nadstrážmistr VB

Pavlína Mourková

sestra v jeslích

Josef Veselský

ošetřovatel Pepino

Pavel Svitalský

orangutan Ňunák

orangutan Ámos

slůně Frigo

slůně Charlie

nosorožec Pomněnka

medvíďata Tom a Jerry

pštros Taťulda

gepardi Cheeta, Maun a Tanzi

doga Agáta

gorila Tadeo

tygr Borneo

hroch Kulihrášek

zebra Princezna

divoké prase Filip

Crew and creators

Second Unit Director

Eva Kadaňková

Assistant Director

Jan Vaculík, Jan Drbohlav

Continuity

Irena Klausová

Director of Photography

Jiří Krejčík ml.

Second Unit Photography

Václav Helliman

Camera Operator

Bohumil Vodička

Production Designer

Jindřich Kočí

Assistent Production Designer

Libor Fránek

Set Designer

Tomáš Dosoudil, Karel Kočí, Milan Šefrna

Costume Designer

Libuše Pražáková

Assistant Film Editor

Růžena Hejsková

Sound Designer

Jiří Kříž, Antonín Jedlička (zvukové efekty)

Special Effects

Ivo Houf, Radek Houf, Milan Zajíček, Helena Štáchová

Production Manager

Jiří Beránek

Unit Production Manager

Tomáš Baloun, Vlasta Synkulová

Unit Production Manager

Rudolf Jelínek, Bára Jelínková

Consultant

Ing. Josef Vágner, CSc., RNDr. Ing. Ivana Hašková, Bořek Voráč, RNDr. Dana Holečková, Ing. Zdena Jeřábková, MVDr. Josef Šafařík, MVDr. Petr Skalka, MVDr. Jiří Váhala, MVDr. Martin Ptáček

Cooperation

Ivana Mrázová (klapka), Alice Sotonová (klapka), Miroslav Jirsa (fotograf), Rudolf Friesz, Milan Ťoupalík, Roman Siegel, Pavel Svitalský, Jiřina Beránková (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatelka orangutanů), David Nečas (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel slůňat), Pavel Král (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel nosorožců), Miroslav Kachelmaier (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel nosorožců), Jaroslav Kaňa (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel medvíďat), Tomáš Weber (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel pštrosa), Dana Holečková (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatelka gepardů), Zora Špinková (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatelka dogy), Libuše Vrabcová (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatelka gorily), Ivan Ringel (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel tygra), Olga Ringelová (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatelka hrocha), Jiří Děd (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel zebry), Jiří Červinka (práce se zvířaty – ošetřovatel divokého prasete)

Music

Music Composed by

Petr Hapka

Music Performed by

FISYO (Music Conducted by Jan Frank)

Songs

Zpěv beze slov

Song Composer Petr Hapka
Singer Petr Muk

Levandulová

Song Composer Petr Hapka
Writer of Lyrics Michal Horáček
Singer Hana HegerováPetr Hapka

Production info

Original Title

Dva lidi v zoo

Czech Title

Dva lidi v zoo

English Title

Season at the ZOO

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

children, comedy

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1989

Production Year

1989

Production specifications

withdrawal from distribution 30 June 1995

Premiere

premiere 1 September 1990 /suitable for youths/
gala premiere 5 September 1990 (kino Lucerna, Praha)

Creative Group

2. tvůrčí skupina, Josef Císař (vedoucí 2. tvůrčí skupiny)

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

89 min

Original length in metres

2 572 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech