Gulliver's Travels (1939)

In 1937, Walt Disney released “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” creating the first animated feature film in cinematic history. And with this movie there were hundreds of animated films to follow in its footsteps. One of the next animated movies to follow “Snow White” was 1939's “Gulliver's Travels” made by Max and Dave Fleischer. This film is notable as the first animated movie to be released by a different studio other than Disney. And while not a cultural impact was made with this movie like the Disney masterpiece was, it still is interesting. Based off the novel by Jonathan Swift and using the first section of the book, the movie is perfectly aimed at family audiences. However, it focuses mainly on the characters rather than the actual story. “Gulliver's Travels” is a nice animated film, but falls short when compared to “Snow White”.

The story has Lemuel Gulliver being shipwrecked on an undisclosed island after a terrible storm. He then falls asleep, stranded on the beach alone. Soon, Gulliver is found by Gabby, the town crier of Lilliput, and sees that Gulliver is like a giant to him. Gabby then orders everyone in the kingdom to capture and bring Gulliver to the king. Here, he wakes up and finds that the people of Lilliput are incredibly small. The king of Lilliput sees Gulliver as a possible secret weapon, as Lilliput is now at war with their neighboring nation of Blefuscu. All because both countries cannot decide on which song to be performed at the royal wedding. So, Gulliver becomes the peace treaty and must cease the senseless fighting before it is too late.

“Gulliver's Travels” is a very well done animated movie.

The reason behind this is because the Fleischer studio was traditionally making animated shorts that were very popular towards the general public; mostly the Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons. So, in doing an animated feature film here was kind of a big deal for them. And the work pays off extremely well.

The animation is especially different than that of Disney as Max and Dave Fleischer headed toward a more bizarre and twisted style than the cute and cuddly nature of Disney. It definitely has a the style of a cartoon, and flows like one, as well. You can definitely see that a lot of effort went into this movie, and it paid off pretty well. And while the story doesn't cover the whole book, the section where Gulliver meets up with the little people is still impressive. Plus, the technique of rotoscoping Gulliver (filming an actor and animating over him), is still very impressive to this day. This is a feature dedicated to animation fans like myself.

The sound aspect and musical aspect of this movie are also a major plus, here. With the sound, we get classic cartoon effects, with a lot of bangs and booms thrown in for good measure. As for the music, the orchestrated score is handled very well, and the songs are memorable in their own right. The filmmakers try to incorporate how the songs are used within the context of the film, and it does work.

There is also the big message at the very end of the feature. It is a strong message about the ability to make people think before they act. A lesson that not a lot of current animated features use.

But that's not saying much; there's still the issue of what is wrong with the movie.

The entire production feels a bit rushed, as Paramount decided to make a an animated feature film right after “Snow White” premiered. The only moment of slowing that slows down is when the citizens are tying Gulliver up, and even then, it moves very slowly.

Finally, the characters are somewhat boring as they are round, flat, and stock characters. Everything is laid out before them, and they don't have distinct personalities. The only one with a personality is Gulliver himself. But for the others, they're just blank slates. This is especially true with Gabby, as he can be a bit annoying and most of the attention is surrounded on him.

Overall, “Gulliver's Travels” is a good movie, but not without its flaws. When viewed next to “Snow White” it does not hold up very well. But the film is its own product and is enjoyable for all families to see how the animated feature film went beyond the Disney border.