Gulliver's Travels (1939)
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Director: Dave Fleischer
During the initial release of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs there was no other studio that had
put near time, effort, or finances into an animated production before. The Fleischer
Studios was their closest competitor, yet was a distant second when it came to
quality. Producer Max Fleischer had long wanted to produce a full length
animated feature himself, and with the success of Snow White he was given the finances for what would be the second
hand drawn animated feature in an adaptation of the Jonathan Swift tale Gulliver’s Travels. Like Snow White this picture was shot in rich
Technicolor and captures a fairytale story, but lacked the quality that was championed
by its chief competitor.
Gulliver’s Travels is an
animated feature of a man that shipwrecks on land populated by tiny people and
his attempt to stop a war between these little villagers and their rivals. Set
in the year of 1699 Gulliver (voiced and modeled by Sam Parker) awakens after a
shipwreck in Lilliput, a place where Gulliver appears as a massive giant over
the population that resides there. After their initial fear of Gulliver, the
Lilliputians welcome the giant as fiend and protector of their land from their
chief rivals. Gulliver learns that their war is over the silly spat of which
song was to be sung at the wedding of the two king’s children, a trivial issue
that Gulliver resolves by having the two songs combined. With that the two
kingdoms are married together in happiness as Gulliver sets sail onward in his
travels.
The plot is a bit overly simplified and frankly surrounds how many gags
the studio can animate surrounding this fanciful story of a man appearing as a
giant in a land of tiny people. This feature appears to be inspired by the
model structure of an animated feature set by Snow White, copying a similar structure. What stands out the most
in this feature is the lack of timing and tight quality control that was seen
in the first animated feature. Being that Gulliver’s
Travels was only the second such feature ever to grace the silver screen it
was still a massive achievement of its time. In a matter of just a couple of
years Fleischer Studios was able to release a daunting production that could
only be compared to only other full length animated feature ever made. |
| Rotoscope mimicked life-like visuals in animation. |
The Fleischer Studios was one of the most successful animation studios
in the motion picture industry. With famed characters such as Popeye the Sailor
Man, Betty Boop, and the screen version of famous Detective Comics superhero
Superman, the Fleischers, brothers Max and Dave, were seen as the premier
animators of cartoons predominantly focusing on human characters and not anthropomorphic
animal creatures. To achieve life-like movements the Fleischer’s invented
rotoscope which was animating by film live individuals and tracing its
characters around movements of live actors on animation cells. With this look
the human characters, such as Gulliver in this feature, had a bit of a shaky,
yet life mimicking movement.
Max Fleischer had the dream of animating the first full length feature back
in the mid-1930s, but costs and risks of not knowing how audiences would react
to such a long cartoon financiers were not willing to back such a production.
With the immense success of Disney’s Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs suddenly a full length feature was seen as
possible dollar signs and Paramount Pictures would finance Fleischer’s effort
at his own picture.
Fleischer Studios was given the finances to build a brand new studio,
but in the unconventional city of Miami, FL. This was done so to give the
studio space to expand, as it would dramatically increase in size in time, as
well as avoiding the unionization of the industry that was taking place in New
York, the original home of Fleischer Studios where they experienced a strike in
1937. The feature would go into full swing quickly as the studio pushed for a
Christmas release date in 1939, packing their facilities to overflowing in
order to meet the deadline.
Pulling from a section of the Jonathan Swift novel where Gulliver
visits the land of Lilliput, the Fleischer’s found a story were they could mix
both their rotoscope, used primarily for Gulliver, as well as the two love
interests of the princess of Lilliput and the prince of Blefuscu, while the
rest of the tiny characters were very animated in the usual playful cartoon
manner. Some might mirror this style with Snow White as Snow White, the Prince,
as well as the evil Queen were inspired by rotoscope, while the Dwarfs were
goofier caricatures animated in more traditional forms. Gulliver’s Travels would be filled with gags and plot they relied
heavily on the size of Gulliver compares to the villagers, as well as a number
of very simple cartoon songs like “It’s a Hap, Hap, Happy Day” and a love story
with little to no actual emotional connection to the audience.
Despite these weaknesses it is important to remember that this was only
the second such endeavor to reach the screen as animation was usually seen as
silly fodder at the movies that ran sometime earlier in the bill when one attended
the movies. The picture does feel a bit more like that of a child’s story as
the visuals and gags are entertaining, but pointless, and the drama is severely
lacking.
It difficult not to compare Gulliver’s Travels to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as they
were the only two such features of their kind. It would be a glaring contrast
as one would critique the two. Walt Disney took his time with his first feature
writing, re-writing, testing, animating, cutting, and re-animating various
parts of the picture to perfect the story and the quality. Fleischer in less
than two years had built a new studio, hired animators, wrote the story, and
animated the full picture, which is nothing to point your nose up to. However
the film feels like it was rushed as it remains a bit rough along the edges,
including ill-timed comedy and frankly poorer animation in general moments that
appear to could have been cleaned up a bit more if they had more time.
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| Gabby was voiced by Pinto Colvig |
Providing the voice and modeling for the title character of Gulliver
was a voiceover talent by the name of Sam Parker. His actions, although small
and subtle were filmed and become the literal model for the character, however
the actor would not do much work in Hollywood otherwise. Pinto Colvig would a
more recognizable name in the animation world, providing the voice of Gabby,
the character that discovers Gulliver and helps lead the charge of the village.
Colvig would be best known as the first voice of Disney’s character of Goofy among
other voices throughout animation history.
Supplying the voice of the King of Lilliput, among others in the
feature, was voice actor Jack Mercer. Mercer was best known as the voice of
Popeye the Sailor. Interesting to note that in the initial phases of writing Gulliver’s Travels it was considered to
put Popeye in the role of Gulliver, but Max Fleischer would decide against it
to make the film a more legit tale instead of attempting to bank of a character
from their shorts.
Gulliver’s Travels would be
decent success at the box office, perhaps predominantly from the draw of it
being a full length animated feature. The picture was actually nominated for
two Academy Awards, for Best Original Score and for Best Song for the romantic song
Gulliver marries in the movie “Faithful Forever.” Apparently the song was a
problem for the filmmakers as the tune, which is two songs overlapping, never
meshed well to Fleischer’s liking.
Fleischer Studios would not last much longer as the box office numbers
were not very strong for their next
feature film, Mr. Bugs Goes to Town.
The two brothers’ relationship would greatly clash causing the two to break up
and sell their shares to Paramount, effectively ending the second best
animation studio in the business, although Disney claimed his second tear men
were far better then what the Fleischer’s produced. Looking back, Gulliver’s Travels is buried by the
other great animated films put out by various studios as well as Disney, but
this picture is remembered for being the second attempt at a medium that many
thought would never work as this Technicolor cartoon would continue to entertained
younger audiences for many years.
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