A Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955) User Reviews (37)

Czech version vs. American version

[nycruise-1 · 8/10 · 22 June 2005]

What a difference a few years makes (eg., this is a follow-up to an earlier post of mine).

Both the US and the original Czech versions are out there for sale these days (try ebay - and go for the DVD! The Czech version, at least, is cut from a wonderful print).

How the distributors of the US version ever came up with four boys falling asleep in the American Museum of Natural History and transgressing time via an Indian shaman statue is beyond me, but it was a pretty ingenious way of putting a domestic mystical stamp on a foreign film.

The Czech version begins with the character known as "Doc" in the US version recounting his "journey" while reviewing his diary. Before long, the four boys are seen emerging from the cave (which was supposedly located in Central Park in the US version) into the realm of the Ice Age, after which, the film proceeds as the movie we all know with a few notable exceptions: occasional shots of "Doc's" diary written in Czech, and an ending very different from what American audiences have seen - a seashore sequence in which the boys find a living trilobite, and closing shot of the narrator summing up the movie before fading out. (How the boys got back from their 4.5 billion year trip will remain a mystery until I get someone to translate the Czech dialog!) There appears to be no pontificating over how the boys had reached "creation" - and no footage to accompany it (the US version has shots of spouting lava and twisting luminous geometric shapes suggesting not only the beginning of earth but of the universe itself).

Despite extensive credit given to the staff of the American Museum of Natural History in the US version (namely, Edwin Colbert, prominent paleontologist at the time), it's apparent that, after viewing the Czech version, the Museum's input was limited to the museum sequences. The original movie is all Karel Zamen's - along with whichever Czech(s) who served as his paleo-documentarian(s).

Still a mystery, however, is why (as I stated in an earlier post) North American fossil vertebrates feature prominently in the film. The Styracosaur, the Sabertooth cat and, most notably, the grotesque Uintatherium featured are all unique to the American West.

Perhaps Zamen was not as isolated from US influences as life behind the Iron Curtain would have us think.

Unique prehistoric Aventurefilm

[psychocosmic · 8/10 · 17 June 2000]

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.

Started my life long love of dinosaurs

[BlackCat725 · 7/10 · 12 August 2009]

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! ;)

A feast for stop-motion animation fans!

[Bruce_Cook · 2 March 2002]

Originally filmed in Czechoslovakia in 1954, the American Museum of Natural History filmed new scenes in 1967 for this remarkable study of prehistoric life which uses high-quality stop motion animation.

The story goes like this: a group of young boys rent a boat at an inner-city park and enter a small cave at the edge of the lake. When they come out the other side of the cave they find themselves on a river in an uninhabited area. As they float down the river each day, they travel progressively further back into the past, encountering wooly mammoths, prehistoric rhinoceros, and numerous dinosaurs -- all of which are extremely well animated, photographed, and matted. Written and directed by Karl Zeman, who gave us the unique film `The Fabulous World of Jules Verne' (release in 1958).

During the 1960s, `Journey to the Beginning of Time' was shown in serialized form on television in some areas (Atlanta, for one), amazing animation fans like me with this unexpected treat. For about two weeks I would stumble out of bed, fix breakfast, and then choke on it while I watched each morning's episode of this remarkable little gem.

Theatrically re-released in the '70s

[predone · 7/10 · 13 April 2006]

While I also remember having seen this film broadcast on television in the '60s, I recall it having been theatrically re-released - on a small scale, as Saturday matinée fare - in the early '70s.

I was in college back then, and looking through the paper I noticed an advertisement for a film titled *Journey to the Beginning of Time* showing in several of the suburban theaters around Philadelphia. Curious as to whether it was the same film I'd caught on TV about a decade before, I gave up a Saturday morning's worth of sleep - precious to a college student! - and SEPTA'd to the nearest movie house named in the advertisement.

My suspicions proved correct. Rather badly dubbed and obviously edited in a fairly clunky fashion, with cruddy sound and picture, it was nevertheless the same interesting flick with a novel science fantasy premise and good pacing. Surprisingly, it had pretty good "sense of hazard" elements (including the river petering out in a carboniferous-era swamp too shallow to float the Central Park rental boat through) to keep the audience's attention.

Given my grandkids' present fixation upon all things dinosaurian (they've worn out every *Land Before Time* VHS tape we'd bought for them, and my youngest grandson - five years old - is presently pestering us to buy them anew in DVD), I've got two questions about this old Czech film.

(1) Why the heck hasn't a somewhat cleaned-up version been released for home viewing? There's obviously a market for it, antique stop-motion animation notwithstanding.

(2) Why has there been no apparent interest in the entertainment industry regarding a modern-day remake of the film? Given current advances in CGI - and the lower costs of more mature special effects technologies - it could be done for a much lower budget than something like *Jurassic Park* (1993; approximately $62,000,000).

Considering the staying power of the *Land Before Time* franchise (one released theatrically and nine more direct-to-video, if memory serves), both the original Czech movie and a well-devised remake could find sales as "safe" viewing fodder for pre-teens like my grandkids.

The video sales would be just as much an evergreen, too, as I've found to my continuing sorrow as I've had to buy a copy of each *Land Before Time* movie for each of my kids' families as the grandchildren grow into an interest in Littlefoot & Co.

Great! My classic!

[meiko-richert · 10/10 · 23 August 2005]

I saw this movie on television when I was just a boy. It was back then, when we had no video recorders or even DVD players in east Germany, and the only chance to see the beloved films again, was to wait... and wait... and wait... until they would be broadcasted once again. Maybe. And now, 25 years later, I had the luck to see all the Karel Zeman movies of my youth again. Aside the "antique" technical aspects, these films are still as good as in my memories. But old-fashioned technical details do not bother me, because the stories still work. And by the way: The Zeman - style was forerunning in that time. His combinations of live-action and animated scenes were unique! I watched "Journey to the Beginning of Time" recently with my son (6 years old) - and he was excited (as much as I). If you have the possibility to watch these Zeman films again - do it, they are worth it!

Educational and entertaining

[ctomvelu1 · 7/10 · 28 August 2012]

This Czech-made gem (with additional footage for the U.S. version) is basically Huck Finn and pals travel down the river of time. Four boys on an outing find themselves o a river that travels backward in time. Along the way, they encounter everything from woolly mammoths to pterosaurs, and eventually end up at the beginning of life on Earth. Wonderfully produced and directed by director Karel Zeman, who also gave us the visually stunning "The Fabulous World of Jules Verne." Great for stop-motion fans and anyone who's sick of CGI. Hollywood never made anything like this, and never will. While the evolutionary aspects are a bit outdated today, it's still great fun. It's a fantasy , after all. For one thing, the boys could not have breathed in prehistoric times. They also would have been quick kills by any number of creatures.

A movie to excite your imagination

[pachl · 9/10 · 21 May 2005]

The irony of movie-making is that the supposedly "amazing" modern special effects often seem to rob movies of their potential charm. By trying to dazzle us with all their computer magic, too many contemporary films fail to stir our imaginations. It is like comparing prose with poetry. When special effects were more primitive, they had to be a bit more "poetic" and less literal in their presentations. The result was that these older movies stirred our imaginations better than many current ones.

This little gem of a movie is proof that limitations inspire creativity, and that the inability to graphically show anything you conceive forces the filmmaker to be more resourceful and clever with his choice of material. Nowadays, many people seem to be bored, rather than dazzled, with the flawless special effects that dominate some movies.

"Journey to the Beginning of Time" makes great use of the somewhat modest visual tools they had to work with at the time. Just as a novel like Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" is a pleasure to read, "Journey to the Beginning of Time" is great fun, and something you'll always fondly remember.

I originally watched this movie in short segments on the "Garfield Goose" TV show (mid 1960s). Each week, I could hardly wait to see another of these brief episodes. Since TV back then had poorer screen resolution, and reception was often a bit grainy, I never noticed that the actors' mouths were out of synch with the dialogue. Only after looking up this movie on the IMDb.com website did I discover that this movie was not American. It was produced in Czechoslovakia in 1955.

This movie has so much warmth and charm that it overcomes the technical limitations of the day. I just purchased a copy of this movie, and will surely watch it over and over.

Great movie for your children Mild Jurassic version Dinosaur 101

[thejcowboy22 · 6/10 · 4 November 2016]

Remember this adventure well. It's cemented in my memory for two reasons. Great story about four boys in a boat traveling back in time with all types of dinosaurs. Second, after the movie was over my friend and I exited the theater via by way of the balcony as the usher opened the doors to the fire escape. A typical February Saturday as it snowed all day as the snow collected on the fire escape. Because the white stuff collected on the fire escape landing we came up with a stupid idea of throwing snow balls at the cars below. Unfortunately I hit my Mother's car as she pulled into the parking lot in full view. OUCH! Grounded and no movies for a while. Despite my horrible circumstances I did enjoy this made in Czechoslovakia film about raptors. Honorable mention to Arnost Kupcik and Jindrich Liska for their superb stop action used with the dinosaur figures in the special effects which sold this picture. Just the perfect movie for your youngsters on a rainy day or snowy afternoon. Please put down the snow balls...

Excellent prehistoric movie from Europe

[chris_gaskin123 · 9/10 · 1 August 2008]

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.

Hmmm..

[NerdBat · 6/10 · 2 May 2018]

Okay, so I won't lie, I had no idea that this was a film from the Czech republic. Because of this, the dubbing is pretty impossible. It's extremely obvious when you watch the film that you're watching a film that was not originally in English. However, that's not always a bad thing. This film had a really good purpose, to mix fact with fantasy and to educate children while also taking them on an adventure, literally through time. Great stop motion action with a lot of the creatures in the film, and you learn a lot about prehistoric animals. It's a great film to watch with the family if you want to learn something and have fun at the same time.

I still love this movie; great story!

[ch9817 · 10/10 · 26 August 2000]

I used to watch this movie on Garfield Goose (Chicago children's program in the 1960's) and was lucky to purchase 2 copies a couple of years ago. I actually found the movie (VHS format) in a drug store in South Bend, Indiana. My six year old daughter loves the movie as I did some 39 years ago. I wish I had it when my oldest daughter was younger; at age 16, she's not interested. Finding this movie was next to impossible to locate; I've been looking several years for it without any luck. An outfit in New York released the film in 1994 and I will be glad to give you names, addresses if interested.

A Journey to the End of Time.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 4/10 · 13 June 2019]

Digging into the pile of Czech flicks waiting to be viewed,I decided to look for a title with a short and sweet run time. Recently viewing his The Deadly Invention (1958-also reviewed) I was pleased to find another Karel Zeman title,which led to me travelling to the beginning of time.

View on the film:

Flickering illustrations of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth over the opening,co-writer(with William Cayton and J.A. Novotný)/directing auteur Karel Zeman continues the distinctive blending of live action with animation,in this case well designed,detailed stop-motion animation of dinosaurs. Whilst the animation is smoothly done, the blending of live action/animation never fully clicks,partly due to the camera being angled to place the dinosaurs on the corner of the screen to the cast, and also Zeman giving the live action elements a flatness,highlighting the interest solely being in the stop-motion. Leaving Jules Verne from the opening to go for a Boys Own Adventure, the writers disappointingly give little to make each boy stand out,or to spend time building the relationships, instead going for dry read-outs of facts relating to dinosaurs encountered on this uneventful journey to the beginning of time.

enchanting prehistoric adventure film

[junagadh75 · 21 March 2002]

If you loved prehistoric life as a child, this film is perfect. The plot concerns four boys who travel down an otherworldly river and encounter the various stages of prehistoric life along the way. The stop-motion dinosaurs and numerous other prehistoric animals not usually seen on film (as far as I know, this is the only film that ever recreated the Carboniferous Age), as well as the painted backdrops, are imaginatively conceived and executed. The characters of the four boys are also humanely and realistically developed (a rarity for children's characters in films), so that _Cesta do praveku_ is equally enjoyable for adults. Unfortunately, the American version is horribly dubbed and has a ludicrous prologue to explain how the boys got to the river tacked on by the distributor; but the originality of the film still comes through, so it's worth watching if the original Czech version is unavailable (as it mostly is).

Dream logic and childhood wonder combined with sensitivity and charm

[lemon_magic · 8/10 · 17 January 2013]

I recently saw the American version of this film, which makes the odd choice of having the four adventurers fall asleep in front of a display of a war canoe manned by a wooden depiction of a shaman, and then somehow finding a magical hole through time in a Manhattan lakeside park. It's an unneeded framing sequence which puts the story on hold for several minutes and tries to ground the movie in reality before the fantasy takes over. You can tell where the Czech part of the movie takes over because the "real" movie doesn't bother to explain anything, including how the kids are able to somehow move to the beginning of time from the edge of the ocean they come down to at movie's end, or exactly how they get back from the Big Bang. It's as if the Western importers didn't trust American ability to just accept a child's adventure fantasy at face value. Still, the dinosaur models in the museum are awesome even now and I didn't really mind all that much as a result.

Now, on to the movie proper: there's a wonderfully organic feel to "Journey" as the director uses anything and everything in the way of special effects to immerse the audience into the boys' adventure - stop motion, puppets, animation, matte paintings, sculpture, and once in a while even some stock footage. Although the effects are somewhat primitive by today's standards (especially some of the animation), the story and sense of wonder are so well depicted that it just doesn't matter.

For an "adventure" story, not a lot really happens, although the kids do have a couple of close brushes with various animals (there's a genuinely startling moment with a jaguar perched in a tree and a chase scene with a prehistoric killer ostrich that is both funny and exciting). And the four characters are almost complete ciphers - aside from determination,resolve,and a certain amount of all-pull-together camaraderie there's not a lot of actual human emotion or personality on display here. (And no one seems to ever be worried about the effect their unexplained absence must be having on their parents!) The journey's the thing in this movie, but it works for that very reason.

One choice that firmly convinces me of the strength of the director's vision is the couple minutes at the end of the film that depict the actual "beginning of time" - instead of trying to blow the audiences mind with some titanic depiction of a Creator or the Big Bang, the Beginning is depicted with soft, indistinct, glittering shapes that leave almost everything up to the imagination. Brilliant.

I had never heard of this film before I saw it as part of a research project, and now I want to see everything this director has done.

Delightful fantasy adventure

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 11 November 2021]

Four young boys are magically transported back in time to a magical prehistoric world. Director Karel Zeman does a nice job of astutely capturing a lovely sense of child-like awe and wonder as our likeable protagonists encounter all kinds of cool creatures from the long distant past. Moreover, the neat matte paintings, nifty puppets, and funky stop-motion animation all possess a certain quaint old school practical charm. Better still, this film proves to be quite educational as it provides a wealth of illuminating information on the assorted exotic ancient creatures. A sweet and charming little treat.

A great childhood memory

[robcat2075 · 8/10 · 16 January 2009]

I think I was probably about 8 or 9 when this film came thru White Bear Lake Minnesota. It seemed to have been ceaselessly promoted on local television and my friends and I had been playing out the scenes we saw in the commercial for weeks beforehand in the wooded vacant lot next to my house.

Dinosaurs, mastodons, Pterodactyls... this movie had it all. When we finally saw it in the theater we loved it and it remained one of the top 2 or 3 pictures that really stand out from those years. But I only saw it that once. I often wondered about it over the years, but was never sure of the title. Maybe I just dreamed it?

Finally seeing "Journey" again on DVD 40 years later, I'm aware of many lapses and shortcomings in the film that I never noticed when I was 8. The grafting of the New York City bookends onto the original Czech film is a marvel of economy and Ed Wood style film-making, but what the hey... it worked for me when I was 8.

I have no idea what a child today would think of this film. I would hope they'd enjoy it. I would hope they would find excitement in identifying with the boys in the film. But I don't know... you can't count on today's kids to make allowances for the production standards of 1950's Czech film making.

My biggest complaint is that the (pirate?) DVD i watched has a whole scene with the dialog wildly out of sync. Not just careless dubbing out of sync, but WAYYY out of sync.

Really good for a 10 year old!

[Jim-500 · 8/10 · 8 July 2012]

I do remember seeing this as a little kid sometime in the 1960s. And a good thing, too, as I was in the middle of the dinosaur kick that most little kids go through. I really only remember two things. A great dinosaur fight, after which I asked my dad how they made the dinosaurs bleed so realistically, to which he replied that there were men inside the models with buckets of red paint. I also remember the end, where the boys wake up in the Museum of Natural History, and we're supposed to wonder with them whether it was all a dream.

I'm happy to know about this film again, and to know others remember it, too. And I just read an article in a fanzine called Prehistoric Times that rates the dino fight as one of the top 10 dino fights ever filmed!

Superb special effects but a subpar story.

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 5/10 · 30 August 2018]

The plethora of pioneering special effects that bring 'A Journey To The Beginning Of Time (1955)' to life - including on-set and in-studio animation (stop-motion, cut-out, puppetry and otherwise), in-camera matte-paintings, in-camera double-exposures, in-camera perspective trickery and extensive set-design - are, essentially, as impressive as they can possibly be. They cement each long-extinct creature in the same world-space as our characters, making even the most obviously maquette-like 'monster' still seem wholly believable and, evidently, endlessly charming. Where the picture falls apart, though, is in its almost complete lack of any real narrative, aside from the most basic of 'say what you see' plots. It's this that makes the movie crawl by at a snail's pace, lacking the depth or development required to evoke an emotional connection. It was conceived as an educational feature with the intent of informing children of our Earth's history. While the scientific validity of its contents were thoroughly researched enough that it can be considered 'education', it doesn't really work as a narrative film and it should since that's what it's presented as. The lack of any entertainment probably means that kids won't want to watch it, either - its age notwithstanding. So, in essence, its educational value is as moot as its worth from an enjoyment perspective. Still, there is a sense of cinematic history in the special effects; they truly are impressive. It's these effects, and these effects alone, that keep you watching until the credits. 5/10

Childhood memories

[doktorf · 30 December 2005]

My father is a film maker, an American who has lived in Prague for more than 40 years. He would bring back things from Eastern Europe in the early '60's. One of them was a 16 mm print of a film titled "Lost River". It had poor English dubbing but the stop motion animation of the various prehistoric creatures was pretty spectacular for the time. This was not the English language version of Cesta do praveku that was distributed as Journey to the beginning of time in the States, but just a dubbed version of the original Czech film.

My brothers and I ran that film time and again and that as well as repeated viewings of King Kong was responsible for giving me a lifelong interest in both dinosaurs and stop-motion.

First movie I ever saw.

[hlehmann-1 · 8/10 · 2 October 2008]

I can honestly say with some certainty that this is the first movie I ever saw in my life. My family pretty much *never* went to the movies when I was a kid, but when I was about 8 years old my dad dropped us off at the theater on a Saturday afternoon to see this film. That was about 42 years ago, yet I still remember the scenes in the museum, and especially the passage through the tunnel from Central Park to the Ice Age. The movie was far more impressive back then of course, and I'm sure I never noticed the horrible voice-overs or even the fact that the actor's faces weren't even visible until after they emerged from the tunnel. To an eight-year-old that was not yet jaded by Hollywood, this was simply spectacular.

Chicago TV Standard

[markconlon · 8/10 · 22 November 2006]

Chicago has always had a rich tradition of children's programming. In the days before Sesame Street and the Electronic Company, as a child growing up in the 60's in Chicago, there were multiple shows to watch when coming home from school in the afternoon. 'The Three Stooges', 'Dick Tracy', 'BJ and The Dirty Dragon', and others would regularly draw us away from our homework to the TV set to fascinate us with cartoons, jokes, skits and the like.

This movie, split up into a serialized segments, was played quite often on the afternoon WGN TV show 'Garfield Goose and Friends'. Host Frazier Thomas would introduce the day's serial by having us look into 'The Little Theatre Screen' and we would sit raptly, following the adventures of four time travelers.

Fun stuff, and the stop-animation is terrific. It's not 'Citizen Kane', but good storytelling nonetheless.

Dated but still interesting temporal-travelogue

[jamesrupert2014 · 8/10 · 23 March 2023]

After visiting the American Museum of Natural History, four boys rent a rowboat in Central Park only to pass through a mysterious tunnel that takes them to the 'river of time', on which they paddle further and further into Earth's prehistory. This is an Americanised version of the Czech sci-fi/fantasy film 'Cesta do praveku' (which starts and ends differently) and is likely best remembered for some good model work and effective 2D and 3D animation of assorted antediluvian beasts, including a mammoth, a deinotherium, and a phorusrhacos (one of the South American 'terrorbirds') from the cenozoic; a sauropod, a stegosaurus, a hadrosaur and a ceratosaurus from the mesozoic; and a primitive amphibian and a meguneura (giant 'dragon-fly') from the paleozoic. The film was intended to be educational so there is no real plot and one of the boys, nicknamed 'Doc', carefully explains what the other three are marvelling at, so the dialogue is a bit stilted and artificial sounding (likely not helped by the English dubbing in the version I watched). The animated animals are very well done (considering the age of the film) and, as a typical dinosaur-obsessed boy in the early 1960s, I would have been 'glued to the screen' watching 'real' dinosaurs (as opposed to lizards and baby alligators with fins glued to their backs). Worth watching if only for the ambitious attempts at depicting a variety of primaeval Earths. Looking for a subtitled version of the Czech film might be worth the effort but the dubbed version available on YouTube (as of this writing) is watchable. Some of the special effects (notably the fight between the stegosaur and the ceratosaur) resurfaced in 1961's 'Pathfinders to Venus', a British 'educational' science-based adventure show for kids.

Jules Verne style journey

[v-56289 · 9/10 · 13 December 2020]

I always loved Jules Verne style adventures. The movie for its age is very well done, exciting and educative.

Really evokes a feeling of being in the ancient world

[painter_dr · 29 November 2001]

*CONTAINS SPOILER* I wish I could have seen this Czech fantasy film when I was a kid, because I know I would have loved it. A group of boys under the age of 16 find themselves on an unexpected journey by rowboat down a river of time that takes them deeper and deeper into "deep time" the more they row upstream. The boys are portrayed in a refreshing way and not as either a bunch of precocious smart-asses or total dweebs. In fact, they all seem to have been in the Czech equivalent of the Boy Scouts, because they handle their situation well. The viewer really gets a feel for what it would be like to be the only human beings around during the Tertiary period, the Carboniferous, etc. The environments are as difficult to traverse as any real-life wild place would be. In addition they are neither paradise nor horrifying. We have learned a lot since the 50s about the ancient Earth and know now that the boys would not be able to breathe the early Precambrian air. That's a minor problem.