Gulliver's Travels (1939)

Great Film overall

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Captivating movie !

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Ratings out of 10: Movie 8, Video 9, Audio 8, Extras 9This 1939 classic feature film cartoon is still widely reproduced and you can read plenty of reviews of the film online, so I will focus on the technical details of this 2014 Blu-ray release. I received this in the mail yesterday and have watched most of the content, but I probably do not have as discerning an eye as others, nor have I ever written professional Blu-ray reviews. As a final introductory note, the DVD and Blu-ray contents are virtually identical (other than the higher quality of the latter); I will note a couple of differences in the extra features. Steve Stanchfield, chief archivist on the project, has written a detailed review of the restoration and embedded (through his YouTube account) a 2-minute sample of 1080-quality video highlighting each title on this release. http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/gulliver-comes-to-bluray/VIDEO: With a few minor exceptions, the visual quality of the feature and shorts on this disc are excellent. I am accustomed to Kino and Criterion Blu-ray releases of films from the first half of the 20th century; the high quality of this Thunderbean release deserves to be compared to both of these larger companies. The only obvious problem I noticed was a small green blotch on the left edge of the screen for about three minutes, starting at the 30-minute mark. The 8 shorts are of varying quality, but they were not cleaned up as well as the Gulliver feature.AUDIO: Most likely as good as these releases will ever sound. I don't know if any noise-reduction editing was done, but there is minimal hiss and all the content on these discs sound about average for most films I've seen restored from this era. I noticed at least twice a shift in the sound for a few seconds (one at 40:17). I assume this is probably a transition between film reels; the video is consistent, but there are significant blips in the sound.EXTRAS: There are at least two hours of extra video and audio material on this disc. It is a wealth of Fleischer content. My only (very minor) complaint is the reduced navigational ability of the Blu-ray compared to the DVD on the audio content. I could not fast-forward through the Decca audio content, and some of the image galleries required the use of the Play button instead of the track-advance button.Cartoons (54:34 total): - Modeling (1921) - In My Merry Oldsmobile (1931) - Is My Palm Red? (1933) with Betty Boop (I believe this should be "Read") - The Little Dutch Mill (1934) Color Classic - The Paneless Window Washer (1937) with Popeye - Ding Dong Doggy (1937) with Pudgy - Two for the Zoo (1941) with Gabby from Gulliver - Swing Cleaning (1941) with Gabby from GulliverBonus Features: - Production Artwork (at least 80 images) - Decca Album (8-tracks, featuring Victor Young and His Orchestra and Max Terr's Choristers, audio with photos of each album side) - Guy Lombardo (Decca single of "Bluebirds..." and "It's a Hap...", audio with photos of each album side) - Trailer (2:20) - Books and Publications (43 images) - Publicity Material (43 images) - Radio Broadcast (23:43, Good News of 1940, 12/21/39) - Popeye & Gulliver Pencil Test (0:27) - Toys & other Merchandise (20 images)Booklet (12-page b&w insert), includes various essays on these releases. - Liner Notes by Steve Stanchfield (order of The Paneless and Ding Dong shorts switched in this description) - Gulliver's Travels Notes by John McElwee - The Miami Gamble by Ray Pointer - On Gulliver's Travels by G. Michael Dobbs - Gulliver's Travels: Music to My Ears by Chris BuchmanSUMMARY: This is the first Blu-ray release from Thunderbean and it is clearly a labor of love. The video and audio restoration of Gulliver in particular are the best these releases have ever been on home video, and the wealth of extras alone make this an invaluable set of discs to add to your collection.

Fleischer's Gulliver might be the cartoon I have enjoyed most in my life; not only a masterpiece of the Fleischers—but of the old cartoons, as well. It ain't for nothing that Fleischer is still so highly regarded. So let us try, for our readers' sake, to give a balanced account of the accomplishments and faults of this flick. This schmaltzy cartoon made by the Fleischer team (well, produced by one and directed by the other) 72 yrs ago is very loosely based on Lemuel Gulliver's storyline; we're plunged directly into schmaltz and dire triteness—a dwarf from Snow—White and a marriage—the hallmark of nicety and prettiness, plus a lot of harmless romance, the epitome of blandness, a Gulliver operetta—which is fine, if that's what you wish to settle for. Otherwise, yeah, the kitsch is thick enough to be enjoyable—to be more than palatable. The craftsmanship is impressive. This might be—what—the 4th cartoon I'm reviewing for IMDb (a Japanese one—a parable—a Hänsel …--you see, not all of it was garbage, not all of it …--that parable looked a tiny bit under—populated and even under—drawn …); what can I say, Fleischer as a cartoonist is kitsch enough, is schmaltz enough—even the gist of schmaltz. Basically, the same bland, tame buffoonery, because here the team has to supply for everything and, though done with undeniable, commendable craftsmanship, 'Gulliver' amounts to a roller-coaster of gags and niceties—which is way less than the required. The nuisance is, even apart from the couple of singing lovers, Gulliver himself, cast here as a simpleton and a soft-head. Lemuel Gulliver cast as the blandest, amidst the colorful dwarfs. So, yeah, a bit of a 'Snow—White' rip—off, instead of the cunning midgets of the original. Despite the prettiness and the dreadfully unlikable arias bellowed by the characters, Fleischer's Gulliver looks like an ancestor of the Spielberg/ Lucas flicks—it's all an American fashion—a clownish roller-coaster, as already described by the underwritten reviewer. Anyway, I took a little, unexceptionable pleasure in charming and lulling you with my prose …. (2) But then again, 'Gulliver' as retold by the Fleischers is an eminently likable yarn. So, it is simultaneously lurid, enjoyable, and bland, tame, schmaltzy, derisory, petty. Bland schmaltz. But then again—concomitantly lurid and tame, quite disconcerting; it will be enjoyed presumably more by the kiddies, which is only well, given that the adults' craze for cartoons is rather uncanny. Almost no relations whatsoever to the womanizing (or, possibly just repressed) Irish clergyman's original writings—yeah, but what a fairy tale! Gulliver suggests a fellow who can be gulled; and we also remember the surgeon from the Jack Ripper tale—the surgeon Gull, see 'From Hell'.

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.