Two precocious pre-teen boys cut school to run amuck at an ultra-modern scientific expo. One of the exhibits is the wishing machine, a sentient machine with a female voice able to grant the patronages any wish, within reason. The two boys wish for a rocket ship to go to the moon. The machine grants them their wish, but only offers a return trip if the boys can bring the machine an object of beauty. The boys go off on a venture to find a suitable offering. Through a series of mishaps and trespasses, they wind up in a military prison and plot an escape. Director Josef Pinkava made a handful of kiddie flicks in the Czech Republic during the late 60s and early 70s, and I wonder if the rest are as bizarre, imaginative, and colorful as this one. This is from a period when kids flicks weren’t afraid to get weird and surreal. The military prison includes a singing skeleton and a bear armed with a machine gun. Surprising for a kids flick, the film has a strong antiauthoritarian undercurrent, similar to other Czech New Wave classics such as Daisies and Who Would Kill Jessie?