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).
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).