SYNOPSIS: "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) is an animated musical fantasy film produced by Fleischer Studios and directed by Dave Fleischer. Based on Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel, the film follows the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver, a shipwrecked sailor who washes ashore in the kingdom of Lilliput, inhabited by tiny people. Gulliver's enormous size initially frightens the Lilliputians, but they soon realize he means no harm. He becomes a mediator in a feud between Lilliput and the neighboring kingdom of Blefuscu, who are at odds over the correct way to crack eggs. Gulliver's intervention helps bring about peace and unity between the two kingdoms.

The film is notable for its lush animation and vibrant musical numbers, with songs like "Faithful/Forever" and "All's Well" adding charm to the narrative. Gulliver's kind and gentle demeanor endears him to the Lilliputians, and his efforts to foster harmony highlight themes of understanding and cooperation. The film's humor and imaginative visuals make it a delightful adaptation of Swift's satirical tale, suitable for audiences of all ages. "Gulliver's Travels" stands out as a classic in the early history of animated feature films, showcasing the creativity and ambition of Fleischer Studios during a time when Disney's dominance in animation was undisputed.

PLOT Spoiler Alert: "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) begins with Lemuel Gulliver, a sailor, embarking on a voyage that ends in disaster when his ship is caught in a storm and wrecked. He washes ashore in the fantastical land of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are only a few inches tall. Initially, the Lilliputians are terrified of the giant Gulliver, but after he saves the town crier, Gabby, from a dangerous situation, they begin to trust him. Gulliver is tied down by the Lilliputians, but his calm demeanor and gentle nature eventually convince them of his good intentions.

Gulliver soon learns that Lilliput is embroiled in a bitter feud with the neighboring kingdom of Blefuscu over the correct way to crack open boiled eggs. This seemingly trivial issue has escalated into a full-blown conflict, threatening the peace and stability of both kingdoms. Amid this turmoil, Princess Glory of Lilliput and Prince David of Blefuscu have fallen in love, dreaming of a future where their kingdoms are united.

As tensions rise, both kingdoms prepare for war. The Lilliputian King Little and the Blefuscudian King Bombo are determined to fight, each convinced that their way of cracking eggs is the only right way. Gulliver, seeing the absurdity of the conflict, decides to intervene. His immense size and strength allow him to effortlessly thwart the preparations for battle, seizing the cannons and other weapons from both sides and rendering them powerless.

During a pivotal night, a Lilliputian saboteur sets fire to Gulliver's camp. With quick thinking, Gulliver extinguishes the flames, further endearing himself to the Lilliputians. As he becomes more involved in the politics of Lilliput and Blefuscu, Gulliver devises a plan to bring lasting peace. He orchestrates a grand celebration and convinces the leaders of both kingdoms to reconcile their differences.

The climax of the film centers around the wedding of Princess Glory and Prince David, a union that symbolizes the end of hostilities and the beginning of a new era of harmony between Lilliput and Blefuscu. The film concludes with the kingdoms united, the people celebrating, and Gulliver continuing his journey, having left a profound impact on the tiny inhabitants.

"Gulliver's Travels" is renowned for its pioneering animation techniques and vibrant musical numbers, such as "Faithful/Forever" and "All's Well," which enhance the narrative's emotional depth.

The film's themes of understanding, cooperation, and the absurdity of conflict resonate strongly, making it a classic tale of adventure and reconciliation.

PRODUCTION: The production of "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) was a significant undertaking for Fleischer Studios, marking their first foray into feature-length animation. The project began in earnest in 1938, spurred by the success of Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), which demonstrated the commercial viability of animated features. Directed by Dave Fleischer, the film involved an extensive production process that required the talents of over 700 artists and technicians. The animation team worked meticulously to bring the world of Lilliput and its inhabitants to life, utilizing the studio's unique rotoscoping technique to achieve more realistic movement, a method pioneered by the Fleischer brothers.

The storyboarding and character design phases were particularly elaborate, as the team had to create a consistent visual style that would work for both the tiny Lilliputians and the giant Gulliver. The backgrounds and settings were intricately detailed to capture the whimsical and fantastical elements of the source material. The film's score, composed by Victor Young, was another critical component of the production, with songs and musical interludes being carefully integrated to enhance the storytelling.

Shooting the animated sequences involved painstaking frame-by-frame work, with animators producing thousands of individual drawings to ensure fluid motion and expressive characters. The production was highly coordinated, with departments focusing on various aspects of the animation process, from inking and painting cells to synchronizing the animation with the recorded dialogue and music. This collaboration was essential in meeting the project's ambitious schedule.

"Gulliver's Travels" was completed in approximately 18 months, a relatively short period for an animated feature of its scope at the time.

Despite the challenges, the team managed to deliver a film that showcased the Fleischer Studios' innovative techniques and creativity, setting a new standard in the animation industry and expanding the possibilities for future animated features.

RELEASE:"Gulliver's Travels" (1939) was released during the holiday season, premiering on December 20, 1939. The film's release was a major event, coming at a time when animated features were still a novelty, and it was the first animated feature produced by Fleischer Studios. Paramount Pictures, the studio's distributor, saw the film as a direct competitor to Disney's animated features, particularly "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

The premiere took place in Miami, Florida, where Fleischer Studios had relocated to take advantage of the favorable climate and tax incentives.

The film's debut was met with much fanfare, including a parade and other celebratory events to mark the occasion. The timing of the release was strategic, aimed at capitalizing on the Christmas holiday moviegoing season, which typically saw higher audience attendance.

Following its Miami premiere, "Gulliver's Travels" was rolled out to theaters nationwide. The film was widely marketed, with extensive promotional campaigns that included posters, newspaper ads, and merchandise tie-ins. The success of the promotional efforts was evident in the strong box office performance, as audiences were eager to see the new animated feature.

The film's release was notable for its use of Technicolor, a relatively new technology at the time, which allowed for vibrant, full-color animation that captivated viewers. The positive reception helped establish Fleischer Studios as a significant player in the animation industry, even if only for a short while. "Gulliver's Travels" also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, highlighting the film's achievements in both animation and music.

Overall, the release of "Gulliver's Travels" was a landmark event in the history of animated cinema, demonstrating the potential for animated features to be both commercially successful and critically acclaimed.

In 2014 Steve Stanchfield, chief archivist at Thunderbean Animation, supervised the restoration of this film.

CAST:

• Sam Parker as Gulliver (voice)

• Lanny Ross as Prince David (voice)

• Jessica Dragonette as Princess Glory (voice)

• Pinto Colvig as Gabby (voice)

• Jack Mercer as King Little (voice)

• Tedd Pierce as King Bombo (voice)

CREW:

• Director: Dave Fleischer

• Producer: Max Fleischer

• Writers: Edmond Seward, Dan Gordon, Cal Howard, Tedd Pierce, Izzy Sparber  (screenplay),  Edmond Seward (adaptation),  Jonathan Swift (novel)

• Cinematography: Charles Schettler

• Music: Victor Young (score), Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin (songs)

Production Company: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: December 22, 1939
Country of Origin: United States
Running Time: 76 minutes
Budget: $700,000
Box Office Return: $3.27 million

IMDB Rating: 6.6 / 10

TRIVIA:

• "Gulliver's Travels" was Fleischer Studios' first animated feature film.

• The film's release was rushed to capitalize on the holiday season, leading to some last-minute production challenges.

• Pinto Colvig, who voiced Gabby, also provided the voice for Disney's Goofy.

• The character design of Gulliver was based on the appearance of actor Gary Cooper.

• The film's success helped solidify Fleischer Studios as a major competitor to Walt Disney Studios in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

• This was the first animated film in which any actor's voice is credited. Disney did not give screen credit to any of the actors who voiced the characters in their animated films.

• The character of Gulliver was "rotoscoped," a method devised by the Fleischers where the drawing was achieved by tracing over the movements of a live actor.

• This was the first American animated feature from a studio other than Disney and only the second overall, the first being "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937).

• To produce this feature film, the Fleischer studio had to nearly triple in size, from about 200 artists to nearly 700. Max Fleischer had a 32,000-sq.-ft. plant built in Miami, FL, to accommodate the new personnel, as well as to take advantage of that city's tax exemptions on film studios. The fact that unionization had not taken hold in Florida was also a consideration, as there had been a long struggle to organize the Fleischer animators, culminating in a strike in 1937.

• The town crier Gabby subsequently appeared in a series of eight short films from 1940 to 1941.

• The film was released in December 1939. Rival producer Walt Disney was reportedly dismissive of its quality, but he pushed back the release of his own animated feature "Pinocchio" (1940) by two months (to January 12th, 1940) to avoid direct competition with "Gulliver."

• Even though the film was a box-office success, it never managed to recover its enormous cost, which went nearly $500,000 over budget due to the relocation of the Fleischer studios, transportation of film for processing, and the cost of training new artists.

• Due to the mass overtime the Fleischer staff put in to complete this movie, many of the animators drew cartoons that reflected the strain they were under. One showed the entire staff behind the walls of an insane asylum, singing "We're all-l-l-l together now!"

• After viewing it, Walt Disney reportedly said, "We can do better than that with our second-string animators."

• This film was originally released in 1939. It was such a success that it continued to have theatrical bookings into the 1960s. In the later years, the bookings tended to be part of double features or for special kiddie matinees.

• The song "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" was used extensively in the scores of subsequent cartoons by Famous Studios, Fleischer Studio's successor.

• An early plan was to have the role of Gulliver written for Popeye.

• The world premiere of this film was on November 18, 1939, at the Sheridan Theater in Miami Beach, FL, because the Max Fleischer Studio was in Miami. The New York City trade-showing premiere was two days later, and the national release date followed that by two days.

• All of Prince David and Princess Glory's dialogue is sung except for a single spoken line each near the end.

• Writer Cal Howard served as the live-action model for Prince David. He recalled that he had to have padding on his legs because they were so skinny.

• The development of the film began in the spring of 1938, and it had to be ready for a December 1939 release, which meant that it had to be produced on a timetable that was one-third of that of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), which took 3-1/2 years to complete. Additionally, the film had to be made at a budget of $700,000, which was almost half of that of "Snow White."

• Inspired by the findings of social workers and juvenile courts that scores of young black children had never seen a motion picture, producer Max Fleischer teamed up with movie theater owners Mitchell Wolfson and Sidney Meyer to ensure the under-privileged children of Miami's black community were able to see the movie - with Fleischer donating prints and Wolfson and Meyer donating their Harlem and Ritz theaters for the screenings. This made "Gulliver's Travels" (1939) the introductory experience to a motion picture for thousands of under-privileged children.

• The original novel "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) was a political satire, written by the Irish clergyman Jonathan Swift. Lilliput was created as a satire of the Kingdom of Great Britain, while its rival Blefuscu was a satire of the Kingdom of France. Their long-standing geopolitical rivalry was a satire of the recurring wars between England and France.

• When the studio moved to their new animation facilities in Florida for this film, it affected their later short subjects. When the studio was located in New York, their short subjects, especially the Popeye cartoons, had an urban feel, or "New York edge." The cartoons would be set in metropolitan areas in tenements, ghettos, barrooms, and docks. After the move to Florida, the locales became more picturesque with individual houses with white picket fences.

• During pre-production, one of the options considered was to combine a live-action Gulliver with animated Lilliputians. Possible Gullivers included Bing Crosby and Gary Cooper.

• Despite its commercial success, the film started the series of financial difficulties encountered by the Fleischer Studios in the early 1940s. First, Paramount held the studio to a $350,000 penalty for going over budget. Second, the contract did not allow the Fleischer Studios participation in the foreign earnings.

• Behind the scenes photographs showing Sam Parker in costume as Gulliver revealed his naturally dark hair was dyed a lighter color for the rotoscope modeling despite Gulliver having dark brown hair in the feature. This was done to make the tracing and detail of the hair easier for animators to work with in post-production.

• Sam Parker, who voiced and played Gulliver, appropriately had a natural love of the sea and had been a US Navy Quartermaster prior to joining radio station WIOD in Miami, where he was serving as an announcer at the time of winning the role.

• Sam Parker was chosen from over 500 applicants to be the voice and live-action model for Gulliver.

• The film takes place in 1699.

• "Gulliver's Travels" and "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941) would be the only Fleischer feature-length films as Fleischer went bankrupt in 1942.

• In the Spanish version titled "Gulliver en el país de los enanos," the songs of Princess Glory and Gulliver were sung by Mercedes Ruffino and her husband Ignacio Ruffino, founders of The Ruffinos.

• In the original novel, Gulliver reaches Lilliput on the first of his voyages. The second voyage has him living with the giants of Brobdingnag, the third voyage has him reaching the flying island of Laputa (and a number of neighboring islands), and the fourth voyage results in him living with the sentient horses of the Land of the Houyhnhnms. By the time he returns to England, he has trouble acclimating to his own homeland. The film chose not to adapt the rest of Gulliver's voyages.

• The film places Lilliput somewhere in the South Sea. "South Sea" or "South Seas" as a geographic term refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean which is south of the equator.

• In the original novel, Lilliput is located on the Pacific Ocean, "northwest of Van Diemen's Land." Van Diemen's Land is an old name for the island of Tasmania.

• In the film, Gulliver arrives in Lilliput on November 5, 1699. November 5 is celebrated as "Guy Fawkes Night" in the United Kingdom and its colonies. The assassin Guy Fawkes was arrested on November 5, 1605, having failed to assassinate James I of England. The anniversary of the event is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks displays.

• One of the main points in the film is the war between Lilliput and Blefuscu over which national song, Lilliput's "Faithful" or Blefuscu's "Forever," would be sung at the royal wedding. In the end, both are sung together. The composers worked for several months trying to blend the songs into "Faithful Forever" but were never completely successful.

• After being shipwrecked on the shores of Lilliput, Gulliver does not awaken until 38 minutes into the 76-minute film.

“Gulliver's Travels” remains a notable early animated feature, showcasing the technical and artistic talents of Fleischer Studios, and continues to be appreciated for its historical significance in the development of animated cinema.