Review of “Czech Airlines Safety Demo” (2013)
Seen in 2018.
I saw this short twice on ČSA flights in July 2018.
Flight safety.
Informational film. On my way from EuroPython 2018 in Edinburgh to Gothenburg via Amsterdam, my initial KLM flight was delayed. I missed a connection and got rebooked on ČSA via Prague after a hotel night at Schiphol. Easily the best thing about this waste of 20 hours of my life, with an extra several hundred kg of greenhouse gas emissions from an extra flight, was this little film.
It’s done in classic Czech style, a gentle cartoon satire. In one cut, a passenger preparing for a rough landing is a crash test dummy. A kid’s teddy bear gets an oxygen mask. The entire plane transforms into a cigarette, as if the animators were trying to show they’re well aware of the unsustainable nature of air travel. At the same time, it’s perfectly clear about the actual safety instructions. In the very narrow category of flight safety instruction films, I can think of nothing better.