1939-40: Gulliver's Travels

Introduction

Gulliver's Travels is the second traditionally animated feature film, American animated feature film, and animated feature film adaptation of the novel of the same. This is also the fifth animated feature film in our 100 Years of Animation series. This also the first animated feature film in the project to use previous footage as a memory.

Synopsis

The film opens up with a live-action boat travelling through either the sky or fog as the credits roll by. 

After the credits roll, the scene becomes a painting. There is a paper by Lemuel Gulliver. It reads, "I, Lemuel Gulliver, give thee a faithful history of my most interesting adventure in the south sea. On the 5th day of November, 1699, having reached reached latitude 30 degrees-two minutes south - a storm of great fury suddenly," the rest is rolled up. The scene zooms out and a globe, a burning candle, and a feather pen are shown. lightning starts and the candle goes out. 

The scene then becomes traditionally animated. Waves are shown during a night storm. A ship is shown taking on water. There is a man holding on to a rope for the sail. He is carried out to sea. He grabs onto one of the boat's poles, but his grip is not strong enough to stay on in the rough seas. He tries swimming. He is eventually taken to an island, where he stands up and then falls onto the beach, tired. He goes to sleep.

Meanwhile, a man is walking, holding a lantern. He starts singing. Afterwards, he says that he doesn't like the song and that he would rather be in bed. He accidentally falls in a puddle. Later, he complains about how he doesn't want to be there. For some reason, he hears his echo and gets scared. He then continues. He trips on the man's hand, revealing that the lantern man is small. He looks around and then runs away. He then looks back and sees the man's arm. The latern man continues to run, this time much faster. He looks back and sees the man's body. He then runs away. He runs through a town. He runs into a castle, but is stopped by the guards, who are guarding the king's throne room. The guards tell the latern man that the king has vistors and that he is signing a wedding contract. The latern man says that there's a giant on the beach.

In the throne room, the king is at the contract and another king is there with his son. The king then signs the contract and the person holding it goes over to the other king. The other king takes the pen. The marriage contract is then shown. It reads, "King Little of Lilliput does this 5th day of November, 1699 give the hand of his daughter Princess Glory to Prince David..." It cuts to show the Prince David's father reading the contract and when he does, Princess Glory goes down to Prince David. David's father finishes what the contract says, "...son of Bombo, King of Blefuscu." He then signs the contract. It then cuts to the bottom of the contract to show both names of the kings. It then fades to show the two kings shaking hands. They look to see their children kissing. Two birds look and kiss too. King Bombo says that they did it. King Little agrees. A servant of King Little comes in and tells them that the arrangements are here. The latern man comes in and yells, "There's a giant on the beach!" He is thrown out by a guard. The servant is then joined by the baker and another servant. After them is several servants with trays that have stuff that is covered by cloth. The first thing is a bell made out of flowers with flowers surrounding it. King Bombo likes it. The servant explains what the flowers are. King Bombo sniffs the flowers. King Little claps his hands and the servant takes the flower arangement away. The next thing is the wedding ring. King Bombo inspects the ring and without saying a word, asks if it is 3 karats. King Little, also not saying anything says that it is actually 6 karats. King Bombo puts the ring down and the next thing arrives, which is the cake. King Bombo says that it is a masterpiece and asks if he can taste the cake. King Little allows King Bombo to do so. King Bombo does so and itentifies it as vanilla. 

With Prince David and Princess Glory, she is singing a song called, "Faithful". King Little starts to cry and says that he doesn't want to lose his daughter. King Bombo says that King Little is not losing a daughter, but gaining a son. King Bombo then starts to cry when he realizes it is his son that he is losing. Princess Glory finishes her song. King Bombo tells King Little that the song is lovely. King Little says that it will be played at the wedding. King Bombo says that the wedding song should be "Forever". King Little reminds King Bombo that Faithful is the song that is played at all Lilliputian weddings and that it is tradition. King Bombo agrees that the song is nice, but says that Forever should be the song used. They then continue to argue about the songs until King Bombo gets so angry that he declares war. He then walks out, angrily. King Little walks to his throne, sad. the lanter man, runs in yelling, "There's a giant on the beach." Prince David walks away.

With King Little, he is thinking about the situation and the latern man tries to tell King Little about the giant on the beach. With Glory, she starts to cry.

Outside the castle, a soldier and three spies are waiting for King Bombo. He comes down the steps and tells them that there will be war.

With Prince David, he sings Forever to Glory. During this song, King Bombo remembers the good times that he has had from that day with King Little. However, when his men look at him, he keeps his composure. After his song, David walks away. The soldier goes into a carriage and the three spies remain in Lilliput.

Back with King Little, he is still thinking about the situation. Eventually, the latern man called, "Gabby" gets the message across to King Little. He then tells Gabby to bring the giant to him.

The next 15 minutes are Gabby getting men, having them tie up the giant, and having them carry him to the castle.

When they get to the castle, Gabby gets King Little, who upon seeing the giant, runs back to his bedroom. Gabby then instructs the men to take stuff from the giant. Some of the things they take off him are his watch, telescope, and gun. It accidentally fires, waking up the giant. Everyone hides. King Little and Gabby look out onto the balcony. The giant breaks free of his restraints. the giant grabs Gabby, who tries to beg for his life. The giant then points out Gabby's small size. The giant tells Gabby that he will not hurt him. King Little tells the giant to put Gabby down. The giant asks who King Little is and he introduces himself. King Little then tells the archers to surround the giant. The giant puts Gabby down onto the balcony. King Little yells, "Ready! Aim!" Before he can say, "Fire!" King Bombo's troops attack. They are on boat. The giant gets up. This scares King Bombo's troops and they flee. Soon, the giant introduces himself as "Lemuel Gulliver". He adds that he is at King Little's service. King Little asks if Gulliver can fight. He says that he can take on anyone his size. King Little tells Gabby that Gulliver is on their side. King Little then tells the townspeople the same thing. They then celebrate. Soon, they are repairing his clothes, shaving him, cutting his hair, and shining his nails. 

Later that evening, in Blefuscu, King Bombo gives a letter to a pidgeon to send to his spies. The letter instructs the spies to get rid of Gulliver.

Meanwhile, there is a celebration on Lilliput. Elsewhere, the spies get the letter and try to think of ways to get rid of Gulliver. They eventually see the gun and decide to use that. After the celebration, Gulliver goes to a field, sings a bit, and goes to bed. 

The next morning, Gabby tells Gulliver of his dreams of being apart of the Navy. After talking to Gabby, he sees a fire, which was started by the spies after they noticed he was coming and quickly hid the gun and douced the light with straw and a cloth. Gulliver poors water on the fire and asks if anyone is in there. One of the spies almost gives them away, but the others pretend to be chickens. 

That evening, Princess Glory is sad and goes to a spot to rest. She hears Prince David and turns to see him. She walks towards him, but is stopped by Gabby who instructs guards to try to stop him. Gulliver stops the fighting by taking David and Glory a short distance away to explain the situation to him. After they do, Gulliver has an idea. He thinks that combining the two songs will make them work. 

Meanwhile with King Bombo, he gets a letter from the spies, which tells him that Gulliver is as good as dead. He sends a letter back that tells the spies that the army will attack at dawn. The pidgeon attempts to deliver it, but gets tired and takes a drink. He is spotted by Gabby, who grabs the letter and he warns the people that Bombo is attack at dawn. The army goes towards the beach. Gabby then uses the bell to call for Gulliver. He eventually comes and Gabby tells Gulliver what is happening. Gulliver then goes towards the beach to stop what is happening. 

Meanwhile, the pidgeon arrives at the spies' hideout without the letter. The spies want to know where the letter is. Eventually, Gabby is almost at the hideout and the pidgeon points to the voice. One of the spies detours Gabby and they capture him. The spies read the letter and get ready to shoot Gulliver.

Meanwhile, Gulliver arrives at the beach. He tells Little's army to stop and tries to tell Bombo's army the same, but they won't listen. He then makes them stop by taking their anchors and dragging them to the beach. While he is doing this, Prince David notices the gun and tries to stop it. He sucessfully stops it, but is crushed by rocks. This makes the kings stop and realize what they have done. Soon, it is revealed by Gulliver, Glory, and David that he is alive and that they have combined the songs. The war is over and the wedding happens.

Much later, both kings cristen a boat and Gulliver sails away. 

Characters

Lemuel Gulliver

He was a good protagonist. He seemed like a jolly fellow and was willing to help those he thought needed it.

King Little

He seemed to be a fairly good character, who was much more a coward than a fighter.

King Bombo

While he was kind of an antagonist, he was more justified than most villians. He definitely seemed to be more of a fighter than King Little was.

Spies

The spies definitely seemed like they were more meant to be comic relief than actual antagonists.

Prince David and Princess Glory

They seemed likey they were just your typical romantic couple. While they were a big part of the plot, they were not very active in it.

Animation

Much like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the character animation is inconsistant. Most of the tiny people and a pidgeon were cartoony, but Gulliver, David, Glory, and most other animals looked like their realistic counterparts. Well, actually, David and Glory look more like dolls than people.

Oddly, unlike most animation, the characters have five fingers instead of four.

The only notable effect is when it showed the previously used footage in a memory sequence, which I liked.  

Music

I quite liked the background music and the songs.

Similarities

The first similarity is with the New Gulliver, several aspects are similar between these two films.

The second similarity is with Prince David's outfit. His outfit is similar to Prince Charming's outfit from Disney's Cinderella.

The third similarity is with Romeo and Juliet. The two families coming together aspect as well as the balcony scene are both similar to that play.

The fourth similairy is with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While the balcony scene is similar to Romeo and Juliet, it is also similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Conclusion

I quite liked this film and recommend it. Like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, if you don't like the inconsistant animation, then I suggest not watching this film.