Gulliver’s Travels – Blu Ray Review

The Film:

Say what you will about the Mouse House, but Walt was a visionary. His gamble to produce a fully animated motion picture not only started a new art form, a profitable one to this day-the animated feature, but also started an industry. Paramount was the first to follow suit in 1939, a few years after the revolutionary Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Gulliver’s Travels.

History has been kind to Snow White, a film not only recognized as a historical piece of film, but a classic, often appearing on many Top Films lists, especially from AFI. That’s a tough act to follow, and history hasn’t been exceptionally kind to Gulliver’s Travels, an updated version of the 1726 story. Luckily, we can view the film with historical bifocals, and maybe give the film its due.

Right off the bat, it pales in comparison to the Disney film. Its animation style is different, drawn lovely by the great Max Fleischer (Superman, Popeye), but doesn’t hold a candle to what Walt did, a style that essentially established future films from here on out. It’s an unfair criticism though, but I feel its something of note. The backgrounds in the film are beautiful. Despite not having that “classic cartoon look”, the rotoscoping of Gulliver is exceptional for that time, a hint of the cool art-deco Superman shorts Fleischer would go on to do a decade later. Even the songs (perhaps a product of a bygone era?) are fun and whimsical. “It’s a Hap-Hap-Happy Day” is memorable.

Modern audiences, especially kids, might be quickly bored by the films rather naivety and seemingly unsophisticated style. But digging deeper, it’s still a fun ride; quick, cheery, and nostalgic. Unfortunately, even today, the shadow of what Walt did looms large. Historically, Gulliver’s Travels is important: the first real copy-cat, competitor to Disney. As a film, it works, and is somewhat fun, but its age shows.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: The audio is superb for its age. Time and effort went into this nice, new remix. There seems to be some controversy on the image/picture. Now, the quality is decent, even for high definition. All of Fleischer’s lines are seen and animators and fans can be in awe. Unfortunately, the practice of cropping happened here for whatever reason. So expect it to be not in its original format as seen in 1939, but an “altered” framing to please us 16×9 TV owners. Sad, really, DVD or here Blu Ray can preserve the original format. I’ll let the techies debate this issue more thoroughly. Still, it’s a good presentation for a film that hasn’t seen better days.

Extras: Two Gabby cartoons are present and fun. Fleischer fans should love these. There’s also a neat little documentary, short but here showing Fleischer at work on Popeye. Give the animator a rare glimpse in archival footage working. Check it out. I do wish there was an audio commentary to help us modern viewers appreciate the film more with historical analysis. Someday, maybe.

Conclusion: I wouldn’t be quick to call Gulliver’s Travels classic, but it’s pretty decent. Modern audiences, ala kids might scoff at this, but fans of animation should rejoice at its official appearance on disc. It was long-produced from bargain studio is rather crappier conditions. It’s on Blu Ray too! Pretty neat, despite the cropping.

Rating: