The international trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus arrived online last Friday, but most of us were too busy mourning John Hughes to notice. So, because I’m a diehard Gilliam fan and because most of the good reactions are hitting the web today, I’m going to just pretend this post is called “The Last Four Days in Bloggery.”

I am a huge defender of Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen so I’m seeing a lot of similar stuff I like here, even if the visuals are a little too computer-generated to exactly have that Georges Méliès feel. But the hot air balloon really clinched it for me. And I’m definitely in agreement that this colorful, CG-rific Lewis Carroll-esque fantasy film looks better than that other one starring Johnny Depp (I’ll take a premature guess that I’ll like it more than that other one starring Parnassus‘ Lily Cole, too).

I can’t say I believe the trailer is going to bring too many people in. It’s very rushed, both in visuals and exposition, and even with the credits it should confuse unknowing viewers regarding the four-actors-in-the-same-role thing. Plus, with my appreciaition in the minority, I wonder if it’s going to be a bad thing that this looks like Gilliam’s biggest financial flops. Will “Academy Award Winner Heath Ledger” help fill seats?

Check out four days’ worth of film blogger responses to the trailer after the jump:

• Gabe at Videogum has trouble understanding what the movie is about:
  

  COME ON. Even just the mostly straight-forward voice over narration is a total mind-fuuuuuuuuck…I thought I was following, but then I totally wasn’t following. What traveling show? Beyond whose imaginations? Forget it, Jake, it’s the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus Town.

• Lauren Davis at i09 also notes the lack of comprehensive exposition:
  

  The first trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus explains little more about the plot behind Heath Ledger’s final bow. But it does offer glimpses of the flying jellyfish, neon motels, and Christopher Plummer-shaped balloons filling Gilliam’s world.

• Vince Mancini at FilmDrunk comprehends one aspect of the plot (incorrectly I think?) that at least one person will find appealing:
  

  In related news, R. Kelly wants to know where he can get a piece of this immortality-in-exchange-for-a-16-year-old-you-love deal.  “I get immortality and replace a girlfriend once she gets too old?  What’s the catch!”

  Also, if R. Kelly made a deal with the devil, would the contract be signed in blood or urine?

• Josh Tyler at Cinema Blend sees the plot pretty clearly:
  

  Visually, as everything Terry does, the film looks stunning. It may be his most beautiful work yet. The story is also becoming clearer. Christopher Plummer is Dr. Parnassus, a man who sells his daughter to the devil in exchange for immortality. Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Ferrell all play the same character, a mysterious figure who joins Parnassus’ traveling show and attempts to save her.

• Niki Stephens at JoBlo.com compares the trailer to a whole movie from her childhood:
  

  While I was watching this trailer I literally felt like a kid again. I felt the same way watching this as I did when I saw LABYRINTH for the first time. I am in constant awe of Terry Gilliam. He makes this film look truly enchanting and haunting all at the same time.

• Sean at Film Junk doubts the accessibility and points out that it should be competing more with Burton’s Alice in Wonderland:
  

  Gilliam has never been the most accessible director and this certainly looks like it could be a little too trippy for mainstream audiences…My only question is, why wasn’t it shot in 3-D?! Move over Tim Burton, there’s another rabbit hole in town.

• Renn Brown at CHUD.com compares this to the Alice in Wonderland trailer:
  

  I enjoyed the Alice In Wonderland trailer well enough, though I definitely wasn’t thinking about it more than five minutes later. This first look (of any length) at The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam’s newest and possibly wildest film, has taken over my whole day.

  Jam-packed with the “What the… oh shit, that’s cool!” imagery that Gilliam excels at, the trailer moves beyond the simple quirk of Wonderland and ends up at creatively-fisting-your-brain. Also, Tom Waits.

• Kurt Halfyard at Twitch is also more interested in this than Wonderland:
  

  It is hard to tell from this trailer whether humpty dumpty could be put back together after the death of its principle star, but I must say I’m more excited by the visuals here than in Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland.

• Adam Rosenberg at MTV Movies Blog is looking forward to this after being turned off from Gilliam over his last two movies:
  

  With “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” however, it looks like Gilliam is back…you’ve still got what looks like another delightfully twisted fantasy adventure, sort of like a cross between “12 Monkeys” and “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.”

• The Playlist is not liking the look of it:
  

  It’s also incredibly “hey, wacky!” and you kind of expect Howard The Duck to waddle in, midway through. It’s like many have said before, was it Vulture? It sounds like/looks like a hodgepodge mish-mash of everything Terry Gilliam has done in the past, crammed into one overwrought kaleidoscope of color and un-subtlety. It kind of reminds us of that “Mr. Show” skit where the host says in a goofy ass tone, you can do it if, “you imagineer it!“

• Lane Brown at Vulture thinks there’s something a bit wrong with the marketing:
  

  …it seems less like an ad for a movie and more like a random assemblage of footage from video games, Falco videos, and other Gilliam movies (Baron Munchausen, especially), like something you’d dream after eating some bad clams and falling asleep in a sauna…we hope whoever cuts the American trailer realizes that “Nothing is permanent — not even death!” might not be the smartest tagline for a movie featuring Heath Ledger’s last-ever (?) performance.

Now here’s the trailer so you can judge for yourself: