I love this movie so much

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Redundant and unnecessary.

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

First, I should note that I've never read Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". I understand that it's a satire on human nature and society. With that in mind, it's clear that Fleischer Studios' animated movie version is on a loose adaptation (specifically, of one part of the novel). It's got a lot of the typical stuff that 1930s cartoons contained, which is both a blessing (classic animation and a lot of physical humor) and a curse (over-the-top singing). In the end, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. I figure that they had fun making it. And damned if that princess isn't a babe!I hope to eventually read the novel, especially since the most famous scene has gotten depicted numerous times (including in Sam Raimi's "Army of Darkness", the conclusion of his Evil Dead trilogy). In the meantime, this is my only exposure to it. I've recently been trying to see as many classic movies nominated for Oscars as possible (this one got nods for Original Score and Original Song, losing both to "The Wizard of Oz").In conclusion, does anyone have a pain in their gulliver? (props to "A Clockwork Orange")

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.

"Gulliver's Travels" was the second animated movie in Cinema's history, released only two years after Disney's milestone "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and right before the no-less iconic "Fantasia", "Pinocchio", "Dumbo" and "Bambi". It's easy to tell that the film was meant to counterattack Disney's growing control on the world of animation… and even easier to guess that it failed, overpowered by the mastery and incomparable magic reached by the Disney studios.Disney pushed the edge of the envelope so far, making "Gulliver's Travels" suffering from any comparison. Yet it would be very unfair to label the film as a wannabe Disney and let random trivia affect an opinion toward a film mostly made for children. My guess is whether for "Gulliver's Travels", "All Dogs Go to Heaven" or "Time Before Land", children wouldn't care much about the logo introducing the film or any technical consideration, no more anyway than the on-screen experience carried by the story, the images, the songs and naturally, the characters. On that level, "Gulliver's Travels" provides all the ingredients of the best animated classics, and it's a great entertainment for children.Now, allow me to wake up my inner child, the little one who saw the film for the first time on a crappy VHS and after that, during a nice Saturday in my uncle's home. Coincidentally, the same year, I read a comic-book involving another character who, after a stormy night, found himself on an island inhabited by little people. It was enough for me to believe that any person washed up on an island would become a giant. In my child's imagination, it had to do with drinking too much water or something like that. Pretty crazy, isn't it? But that's the way I looked at Gulliver and never thought the Lilliputians were meant to be 'little people'. Needless to say it didn't change the film's over-all effect.I remember I also loved the cute scene-stealing Gabby, the town crier, voiced by Pinto Colvig (Goofy's voice for the experts) who through his exuberance, seemed to embody the most endearing traits of the seven dwarfs. His desperate attempt to tell the Lilliputians that "there is a giant in the beach" was my favorite part, closely followed by Gulliver's struggle to get rid of the ropes fixing him on the wooden platform, quite impressive for its physical realism. And when I saw the film again, a few years ago, as soon as Gabby started to shout "All's Well", the whole music resurrected in my mind, and I could whistle the tune all the way. As for Gulliver's first stand, I understood why I was so intimidated by his look as a kid when I learned he was animated by rotoscoping, a process involving tracing live-action forage frame by frame, probably one of the film's strengths, proving that it wasn't trying to imitate Disney.Indeed, the rotoscoping creates the perfect distinction between Gulliver and the Lilliputians, and from my adult's second viewing, I remember I was in awe when I saw Gulliver's expression, noticing the screams of Gabby in the castle's dungeon and his bewildered eyes when he realized it was a little man, not to mention his suave and low-pitched voice, that's animation at best, and it's still strange that Disney never thought of that process. Disney improved the drawing of human features with time, making rotoscoping useless, but within the context of "Gulliver's Travels", it gives the film a touch of modernity that slightly surpasses "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". It also highlights one of the film's unavoidable flaws, the design of Prince David and Princess Glory, who're the only 'little creatures' that don't look comical, but still feel like archetypes of the handsome prince and beautiful princess.However, the film doesn't overuse the two lovers from rival islands and the two annoyingly cute little birds who seemed to be borrowed from the 'other studio', but cleverly uses them as the hostages of their islands' enmity, even more unbelievable since it started on a disagreement over the songs to perform at the wedding : "Faithful" or "Forever", not as memorable as "Some Day, My Prince Will Come" or even the catchy "All's Well" or "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" that became standards of Paramount studios, but performed together, they give the film the typical classic touch, deserving their Oscar nomination for Best song. At the end, children have the songs, comic reliefs with Gabby and the three spies, and Gulliver has quite an authoritarian presence and a hidden charisma that perfectly contrast with the other characters and contradicts the golden rule of a memorable villain, established by Disney. Who needs a villain with such a larger-than-life hero … literally.Now, it's easy to let cynicism cloud the appreciation of the film. Some can picture the Fleisher executives telling their animators "Listen, guys, we didn't want to make a film, but Disney proved it could work, so let's make our 'Snow White'". Then, the classic tale of Gulliver from Jonathan Swift, allows them to use similar plot devices such as a realistic person surrounded by goofy little characters, a romance, cute animals, and nice songs. But despite these similarities, "Gulliver's Travels" stands as a classic on its own, and comparing to "Snow White" is like comparing between "Bambi" and "The Lion's King". And again, would children really do such comparisons? "Gulliver's Travels" deserves in my opinion, the term of an animated classic, even by Disney standards. Granted it doesn't have the status of Disney movies from the era, nor a brighter palette of colors, something that can even be pointed out by a kid, but the second animated feature of all time, the first from a non-Disney studio deserves some credit for its nice attempt to compete with the Goliath of animation. And as far as I am concerned, within its own simplicity, all's well in "Gulliver's Travels".

A black and white film that looks like animation but is none. The film is a very, very personal rewriting of Gulliver's Travels to Lilliput. In fact the whole film concentrates on two small kingdoms in Lilliput that are planning to marry their princess and prince but the fathers have a disagreement on which of two songs will have to be played at the wedding, "Faithful" or "Forever". And that leads to war. Gulliver is going to bring peace to this part of the world by making love win and by joining, merging, splicing them together. This rewriting is just charming but that's all. What makes that film unique is its date, 1939. That was a dream of this film maker to have peace in Europe, to bring together Hitler and Chamberlain, Freedom and Fascism like he was bringing Faithful and Forever together. A dream full of naive peace-loving but also blind humanism. In 1939, due to all kinds of mistakes for at least twenty years the war had become inescapable, unavoidable. But it is always refreshing to go back to the great idea that peace is possible in this world provided we accept to respect the other and to look for a reasonable compromise. But what happens when such a reasonable compromise is no longer possible? We look for Weapons of Mass Destruction, of course.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines