When you see Marcell Jankovics’s 1981 animated film Son of the White Mare, which has been recently restored in 4K and released in the United States for the first time, you can expect unique and dazzling visuals. You may also learn a bit about the Hungarian folk tales that the story is based on. What you will not get are strong characterizations or any real, actual interest in the characters, as they are presented as archetypes to such a degree that the film ends up a bit flat as a result.

The story involves the blond-haired hero Treeshaker, who was born of the aforementioned White Mare, a goddess who was imprisoned in a giant oak tree. Back in the annals of time, three widows of three princes decided to defy orders not to open a specific door in their castle. Once the door was opened, they unknowingly unleashed the gates of hell, and dragons kidnapped the princesses. Treeshaker, with the help of his brothers Stonecrumbler and Irontemperer and a pesky gnome, come to the rescue and bring harmony back into the world.

There’s a lot of manliness here when the brothers fight for physical superiority and Treeshaker has to beat demons in physical prowess. The brothers also occasionally spank each other when they fail at a task, which I, for one, did not see coming.

But again, the brothers are archetypes, and it takes a bit to figure out what’s going on as there are long stretches with no dialogue. Essentially, you are here for the visuals. And, boy, what visuals they are. Son of the White Mare is like nothing you’ve seen before. There is a tremendous amount of symmetry in the animation—and simplicity. It’s like artwork made by a child with blocks, if that child took a boatload of acid. The background sometimes flashes colors so quickly that the movie may need a strobe warning for some audiences. Everything is constantly in motion. If the characters are still, the background whirls and twirls like a calliope and vice versa, and the ambient musical score sounds as if Pink Floyd and the German experimental rock group Can had a baby. It too overwhelms.

In all, this is a film of sensory excess. It doesn’t make much sense, and it isn’t emotionally involving, but as a pure sensory experience, it is a must-see.