Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels: Difference between revisions

'''''Gulliver's Travels''''' is the second American animated feature ever, made by [[Fleischer Studios]] and released in [[The Golden Age of Animation|1939]]. The film is an ''[[In Name Only|extremely]]'' loose adaptation of the "Lilliput" voyage of [[Jonathan Swift (Creator)|Jonathan Swift]]'s 1726 [[Gulliver's Travels (Literature)|classic]], keeping only the skeleton of Swift's story and virtually none of the harsh satire or topical allegory.

In an attempt by Paramount to have the film compete with Disney's then-largely successful ''[[Snow White (Disney film)|Snow White]]'', Swift's hard-edged story is made considerably [[Lighter and Fluffier]] by the Fleischers, and his rather unattractive and wholly commonplace protagonist is transformed into a sort of all-wise [[Mighty Whitey|Mighty Biggie]] teaching the "silly little people" of Lilliput and Blefuscu a [[Anvilicious|serious]] [[Aesop|lesson]] about getting along. (Then again, with [[World War II]] about to explode in Europe <ref>and having already exploded in China</ref>, perhaps a lesson in getting along was [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|what the nations needed]].)

The animation is an interesting blend of the rubbery, organic West Coast animation (or in laymans terms, "cartoony") style associated with the shorts of the period with the more realistic style that had been pioneered by ''[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'', which ''Gulliver'' was obviously meant to emulate. There are some extremely impressive sequences -- the binding of Gulliver by the little people is perhaps a stand-out -- and the backgrounds are sumptuous in color and detail. The plot is handled in a workmanlike fashion, though the characterization of the film seems lacking: Gulliver is a condescending know-it-all, Gabby a typical [[Small Annoying Creature]], and the Prince and Princess, whose separation is the mainspring of the action, are colorless and utterly forgettable ciphers. (It is with an effort that one remembers they are called "Glory" and "David.") The score by Victor Young and Ralph Rainger is pleasant if anodyne, and there are a number of [[Ear Worm|catchy songs]] by Al Neiburg, Winston Sharples, and Sammy Timberg, including "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" (which became something of an unofficial theme for the Fleischer Studios, rather as "Merrily We Roll Along" did for [[Warner Bros]]. cartoons) and the clever counter-point combination song, "Faithful Forever", formed from the two competing traditional marriage songs of Lilliput and Blefescu, and united at the end to symbolize the union of the happy couple and the now united kingdoms.

* [[Expy]]: Twenty years after ''Gulliver'', King Hubert in [[Disney]]'s ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' would bear an interesting resemblance to King Bombo, including threatening King Stefan with war over an imagined slight while planning the marriage of his princely son to the other monarch's princessly daughter. (Hubert and Stefan, however, compose their quarrel almost immediately.)

* [[The Jimmy Hart Version]]: "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" is suspiciously similar to the ''[[Snow White (Disney film)|Snow White]]'' song "Whistle While You Work".

* [[Meaningful Name]]: [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|King Little]]; King [[Hair-Trigger Temper|Bombo]]; [[Motor Mouth|Gabby]]