John T. Ryan HOT ON THE heels of Walt Disney's SNOW WHITE & THE 7 DWARFS, Disney competitor, Max Fleischer and his distributor, Paramount Pictres (who released the Fleischer Brothers Studio product), were eager to enter the new field of the full length animated feature film. SNOW WHITE had outperformed the predictions of all. Rather than causing nausea and dizziness to viewers (as was predicted about such lengthy a dose of "cartoons"), the only contagion produced was mass enthusiasm.IN THEIR CHOICE of subject matter, Fleiscer and Paramount went with this classic story; which was almost as well known as the SNOW WHITE fairy tale. In much the same mode as Disney, adaptation was applied freely. Rather than attempting to bring the entire novel to the screen (a herculean task for sure*), this Fleischer/Paramount collaboration opted to feature only Gulliver's encounter with the Lilliputions.THE ADDITION OF a central theme of a Royal Wedding's potential to unite the Kingdom of Lilliput with Blefuscu, the romantic involvement of the young Prince and Princess and the difficulties that arose between the prospective in-laws provided plenty of fodder to support a healthy proliferation of songs, snappy or otherwise.THE RELEASE OF this GULLIVER film, though met with less than spectacular box office, was followed by MR. BUG GOES TO TOWN (aka HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN).THE ONE TRUE legacy of GULLIVER was not really any sort of sequel; but rather the "discovery" of one of its characters. That character would be the town crier. Voiced by veteran Pinto Colvig, GABBY was promoted to his own series of cartoon shorts.NOTE * Doing a literal adaptation of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS would take an effort as lengthy and ambitious as Abel Gance's silent NAPOLEON (French, 1927).

Zepfanman 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.

Neil Welch The Fleischer studios followed Disney into the uncharted waters of feature length cartoons with this adaptation of Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput.It is colourful, charming, respectful, and gentle. The moral of the original shines through.The animation is perhaps of the same standard as Disney's shorts and, maybe, falls short of the heights achieved during Snow White (there is some obvious reliance on certain movement cycles, something you often saw in Disney's shorts of the time but less so in features).The comic relief elements may seem out of place, or they may appeal - this is a matter of taste. They are fine for kids.I personally felt that the rotoscoped Gulliver contrasted a bit too much with the hand animated Lilliputians, but that shouldn't be taken as a criticism - this is a pioneering film, and a good one.

craigclay No, this isn't Madagascar, Lion King or Shrek. Not even Peter Pan or Cinderella but this film demands the respect of something created in 1939. That's right '39! Not 1989, 1979 or even '69. I'm amazed and the amount of effort that must have gone into this animation.I'm curious to know if Gulliver is rotoscoped. The little people are obviously traditional animation but there is definitely something different about Gulliver.For an excellent verion of Gullivers Travels including all of his travels (not just Lilliput) catch the made for TV version starring Ted Danson.