A different way of telling a story

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is a feature-length animated film loosely based on the Swift novel and produced by Fleischer studio. There will be spoilers ahead:Fleischer studio decided to follow Disney's lead after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and produce a feature-length film. They chose to do an adaptation of Jonathan Swift novel, albeit very loosely. Parts of the plot work very well and parts don't work well at all. What works is more or less the Gulliver material and some of the added characters (Sneak, Snoop and Snitch work well, for example). There's a romantic subplot which doesn't really work because it's under-developed with a couple of characters who are cardboard in Prince David and Princess Glory. The who war subplot is just silly, but it at least leads to some nice animation.The musical score is very good, with several songs which are enjoyable, such as Faithful/Forever and It's a Hap Hap Happy Day. The animation is nothing short of breathtaking in spots, particularly in the opening sequence when Gulliver is swept overboard and winds up on the beach. The rotoscoping on Gulliver is beautifully done. The film comes to life whenever Gulliver is on the screen. The two best sequences are when Gulliver is being tied down and removed from the beach and later on when the Lilliputians make Gulliver a new outfit.The single most annoying aspect of the film is a character named Gabby. He's the town crier and he's a whiny, annoying jerk and cry baby. Fleischer actually took the character and made eight shorts starring him and the character is still an annoying twit in those. End of sermon.This film is available on a beautifully executed Blu Ray done by Thunderbean Animation and is well worth getting. Recommended.

My assumption is that the Fleischer Studio was working on "Gulliver's Travels" for a very long time before it finally debuted in 1939. In fact, they were probably working on it long before the first full-length cartoon, "Snow White" debuted in 1938. I say this because had they seen just how inferior their product was in comparison, I doubt if the Fleischer project would have ever gotten off the ground. In every possible way, the story pales when viewed side by side with "Snow White". The story is dull, the characters dull, the animation dull and the songs, SUPER-dull in comparison. In fact, comparing the two full-length films is like comparing a Yugo to a BMW. Yes, they are both cars and have four wheels but after that, the differences are huge.The number one problem with "Gulliver's Travels" and other films made since on the same topic is that they usually take a minuscule portion of the famous Jonathan Swift novel and bring it to the screen. And, in the process, they focus on the obvious while ignoring all the metaphor and political allegory intended by the author. So, while Swift intended the Lillipution portion of his story to be an attack on the monarchy and other small-minded individuals, here in the Fleischer story it is just a superficial story--with TONS of Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy sort of tunes tossed in to boot. As a result, it has no depth---none. And so you are left to appreciate the film only on a superficial level--and in this sense, it is also a dismal failure. Terrible songs, adequate animation and little in the way of character development, I could see why kids never grew to love this film like they grew to love "Snow White"...and why the Fleischers soon gave up on the idea of making more full-length films. At best, adequate.

Paramount's animation department never got the same acclaim as Walt Disney's or Warner Brothers or MGM. But Max Fleischer who created the Popeye cartoons for Paramount made his bid for immortality with this animated version of Gulliver's Travels with radio announcer Sam Parker voicing Gulliver and radio singers Lanny Ross and Jessica Dragonette as the Blefuscuan prince and the Lilliputian princess who in fact are a love match and would like to rule peacefully if they're fathers can keep from reuniting old animosities.In the Jonathan Swift book it was which end of the eggs do you crack, the big or the small end. Here it is the song with the same music and the same lyrics save for one word, Faithful for Lilliput and Forever for Blefuscu. Mankind does go to war stupidly over some trifles and sad to say still does.The song sung by Ross and Dragonette received one of the two Oscar nominations for this film for Best Song. The songs were written by Paramount contract team, Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger. The scoring of the film netted the second Oscar nomination for Victor Young.I have a feeling had this been done over at Disney or Warner Brothers some additional zip would have been in the film. It moves way too slowly. The closest treatment of Swift's satire to what he had in mind is probably in the film that Ted Danson did as Gulliver back in the Nineties.

The Fleischer studios followed Disney into the uncharted waters of feature length cartoons with this adaptation of Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput.It is colourful, charming, respectful, and gentle. The moral of the original shines through.The animation is perhaps of the same standard as Disney's shorts and, maybe, falls short of the heights achieved during Snow White (there is some obvious reliance on certain movement cycles, something you often saw in Disney's shorts of the time but less so in features).The comic relief elements may seem out of place, or they may appeal - this is a matter of taste. They are fine for kids.I personally felt that the rotoscoped Gulliver contrasted a bit too much with the hand animated Lilliputians, but that shouldn't be taken as a criticism - this is a pioneering film, and a good one.