Gilliam the storyteller in this movie laid the groundwork for his future works like 'Tideland', 'The Brothers Grimm'.
The movie is very curious and looks in one breath: all these ideas that the director stuck in there in huge amounts are surprising. The ideas, findings that few people had in the early 80s.
Wonderful camerawork, excellent fairy tale plot, though I don't know what it is about seriousness and what effect the movie had back then, but you should definitely watch it - you can find a lot of interesting things for yourself.
But the main secret is buried in the presentation-scenario - there is a huge layer of what seems to be Gilliam did not realize in 'Monty Python', and this is already a reason to look more closely for those who know.