Gulliver's Travels

Rating:
Summary: Honest View of Mankind
Review: One of the great misfortunes of literature is that this book somehow got listed as a children's fable. Jonathan Swift takes a critical look at mankind in general and his observations still hold true today. Great viewing for the story line itself.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly Done DVD
Review: The image on this DVD has been cropped to produce an artificial widescreen image. It was originally shown in full screen. It's completely possible that the director didn't even authorize this change. The composition of the scenes is [messed] up by this, as tops of heads push the top black bar throughout. Also, there is no feature to watch the movie from beginning to end. The DVD producers were so incompetent that they put a break in between the first part and second instead of combining them. Oh, and they also make you sit through opening credits on the second part. How stupid is that? How about actually using the space which DVD affords you and put the whole thing as 1 movie, instead of part 1 and part 2? The only reason it was split into two was because it was shown on two different nights. But it is *one* movie. There is a nice "making of", but for all the reasons I've listed, I can't recommend this DVD. Stick with the video.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific
Review: The only flaw I see in this well told story is Steenburgen's awful British accent. Why do people try to feign an English accent when their own voice will do very well (as Danson's did in this production). Otherwise, no complaints. Entertaining, lush, Well done!

Rating:
Summary: Terrific
Review: The only flaw I see in this well told story is Steenburgen's awful British accent. Why do people try to feign an English accent when their own voice will do very well (as Danson's did in this production). Otherwise, no complaints. Entertaining, lush, Well done!

Rating:
Summary: Gulliver's Travels reviewed by Tom Brody.
Review: The special effects are on par with those found in science-fantasy and thriller movies like Indiana Jones and the Star Wars trilogy. When Gulliver strides through the city streets of Lilliput, the effects are entirely convincing. Ditto for his adventures in Brobdingnag. The flying island episode will provoke further astonishment. (Perhaps I wasn't expecting much from a movie that I'd borrowed for free from the public library.) The director does an excellent job at building the characters, e.g., of Gulliver (heroic), his son (also heroic), Mary his wife (ambivalent at first, but finally heroic), and the evil doctor who tries to take over Gulliver's family. By contrast, the Star Wars saga, to give an example, fails to make any clear distinction between good and evil. One can come away from seeing Gulliver's Travels and have the ability to define "evilness." Not so with Star Wars, or so many, many other narratives found in our pop culture. Gulliver's Travels won't leave you with the nagging feeling that "something's missing." Gulliver's Travels contains plenty of special effects dazzle and costumes to rival those in any Star Wars film. A nice feature of Gulliver's Travels is that it contains the same charming "hidden letters" episode that is found in The Color Purple.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: While I've not seen the original, I thoroughly enjoyed this version of the story. Ted Danson does a fantastic job in this movie--beyond acting. The special effects are not overdone--they never take you out of the movie, instead they draw you closer. I recommend this movie strongly.