Rating: 
Summary: Best version yet of "Gulliver"
Review: I personally love this sweet, sentimental old movie, as I remember it fondly from many childhood viewings on TV. I just got the new DVD, and I think the restoration is quite decent. Comparing it to the laserdisc edition of some years back, the color is MUCH more well-balanced and consistent. This was a big distraction to me on the laserdisc, where it would change from pastel to oversaturated from scene to scene. I did note a couple of instances of digital artifacts, i.e. dark backgrounds not changing rapidly enough in relation to foreground figures, but I can forgive this. Considering the sales prospects, it must have been a relatively low-budget project. Listening on headphones, I found the simulated stereo very attractive, though I can't comment on its effectiveness as surround sound. The original mono soundtrack is available on an alternate track, if this is preferred. I myself am delighted to have it, but I can see that many people are perturbed by stylistic inconsistencies, the cloying sweetness of the musical score, etc. All these "faults" which have been enumerated here and elsewhere shouldn't diminish the enjoyment of the film for people who, like myself, see it as a sweet, nostalgic souvenir of an earlier age when they, and the world, were a bit younger. Also (dare I say it?), even today some younger kids might find it amenable, if they're not too jaded.Incidentally, for those who love this film, there is a recent CD on the Marco Polo label (catalog number 8.225063) devoted to movie music by Victor Young. It contains a 16-minute suite of Young's music for "Gulliver's Travels," newly recorded by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra -- hence, the Liliputians bid a fond farewell to Gulliver with Russian accents.
Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: I was surprised that the animation movie produced in 1939 can be restored with such excellent video quality of DVD. I am wondering why not in audio part...
Rating: 
Summary: 60th Limited Edition -- Highly recommended version
Review: I will not dwell on the artistic merits of the film as previous reviewers before me have already done so, but rather on the quality of the dvd version available. The 60th Limited Edition from Winstar is highly recommended, both for price and quality. Avoid at all cost the dvd version from Alpha Entertainment--bad transfer--at a real cheap price, you get what you pay for. Have not seen the Image Entertainment release (I believe that's the version with the Hal Roach Studios on the cover). However, I have a number of dvd releases from Image Entertainment and this outfit has very good quality dvd releases. However, IE version is more pricey and lacks the bonus features you will find in the 60th Limited Edition.
Rating:
Summary: This is simply pure magic -- breathtaking!
Review: In 1939 when this movie was released, it faced stiff competition at the Academy Awards from 'Gone with the Wind' and 'The Wizard of Oz.' Nominated for an Academy Award in 1939, it didn't win. But those who love this film will always believe that is should have. By 1939, the Fleischer Studios had been crafting the finest animation around -- they actually produced the first full length animated movie (though Disney gets the credit). This is the very best that the Fleischer Studios ever produced. Its characters are every bit as rich and deep as the very best Disney, Bluth or Spielberg-Katzenberg efforts. (Anyone who hears the classic line: "There's a giant on the beach!" -- will never forget it!) For years, I have wanted to get my hands on this and remaster this movie digitally. (I do effects and compositing for a living.) It's wonderful to see that someone who loves this movie has given it the care and respect it deserves. Max Fleischer was a sheer genius, whose work includes the original Betty Boop, Popeye, the animated Superman -- and his own contributions to film include techniques of effects production that are still used today. He was a master of his craft who, sadly, has little recognition outside artists and animators. I have bought many copies of this over the years -- usually in versions so poorly recorded and transfered that they are pitiful indicators of the Fleischer talent -- and yet, everyone I've given it to, loves the movie. My personal gratitude to Winfield Hoskins, Seymour Kneitel and Thomas Reich for your tender care in restoring such a wonderful movie. Thank you. It is truly long overdue and it is a case of giving honor to whom honor is due. This belongs right alongside the best Disney, tucked right on the shelf alongside Bluth's best -- and when the young and the young at heart ask "What is this?" -- play it. My grand daugther plays it regularly and never tires of it and always quites "There's a giant on the beach" -- and she laughs. This movie is simply pure magic -- breathtaking! Many of you will watch it and will suddenly remember seeing this long ago and your eyes will light up, just as many who I have bought it for, have said to me: "I saw this years ago and have never known what it was. I love this!" And they always smile. And I always buy more copies. The soul of a true artist lives in this movie. And this is the best edition of it that you will find. Buy it...
Rating:
Summary: A Fleischer Classic
Review: It isn't Popeye.
It isn't Betty Boop.
It isn't Ko-Ko the Clown
But it IS a Fleischer classic. Gabby is HILARIOUS and Gulliver is very realistic in the shadows. My only gripe: The love story that's going on with the prince and the princess is unenthused. It sounds like a big part of the movie, hearing the plot, but they really have nothing to say about them. So they are not memorable characters...they aren't even close.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed, but a blow for the, er, little man.
Review: It's part of human nature to sympathise with the losers, the underdogs, the creative Davids in the face of corporate Goliaths; and the Fleischer Brothers' 'Gulliver's Travels' has taken a beloved place in film history as the nearly-was that challenged Disney's pre-eminence. There's something knee-jerk in us that makes us automatically assume that 'Gulliver' is somehow superior, morally and artistically, to Disney's monster hit of the period, 'Snow White and the seven dwarves'. It has to be admitted, however, that 'Gulliver' is very flawed, and, faced in the 1930s with a choice between this and 'Snow White', I would have gone with the latter. It is unreasonable to expect a cartoon aiming for a mainstream, juvenile audience to remain faithful to Swift's original, bleakly coruscating satirical vision, but once you have reduced the book's four sections to one, have removed the politics, philosophy and anything that might be deemed 'unfit' for family consumption (Gulliver's notorious fire-extinguishing is considerably sanitised), there's not a lot left. So the first problem with 'Gulliver' is its lack of plot. there are lengthy set-pieces where nothing happens in the narrative, such as the engineering feat of tying up Gulliver, that can be boring for a young audience. A related problem is character. Unlike 'Snow White', which was scrupulous about naming and characterising all its players, 'Gulliver' has no-one to root for - the romantic couple are dull; Gulliver guffawingly bland; the comic relief irritating. Add to this some ghastly operetta interludes, part of an unaccountable trend that also blighted the Marx Brothers' MGM films, and you don't have to look to the complete neutering of Swift's vision to complain. There is equally much to astonish, which makes it tragic that the Fleischers didn't get another chance to improve on this noble failure. If the film is weak in close-up and detail, it offers some magnificent, wider compositions, such as the patterns of firelight scurrying around Gulliver's beached body, or the alarm-wakening of a sleepy community. The book's point of view is completely reversed, so that Gulliver is the stranger observed through the eyes of the 'normalised' community. Some of Swift's darkness is allowed to remain, especially in a late 1930s context, in the story of two egomaniacal, ultra-nationalistic rulers forcing a war. The story, influenced by 'Snow White' is given a Gothic, dark fairy tale landscape, increasing its visual beauty, while there is an extraordinary, Surrealist scene, where a King waltzes with a giant hand.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent restoration of a classic
Review: Please get this DVD! It is outstanding for the price. The restoration of this beloved classic is incredible. Our family had an older VHS that was grainy and discolored and the sound was poor. This DVD has fixed all that, to an amazing extent for a 60 plus old cartoon. The music is so pretty and sounds totally new and enhanced on the DVD. These folks should be commended for doing such a wonderful job. I can't believe that I found this DVD locally for [so little], I thought it was a misprint. Definitely worth the Amazon.com price and more! Get it for your children. Get it for yourself!
Rating:
Summary: A POOR MAN'S "SNOW WHITE"
Review: Producer Max Fleischer was Walt Disney's biggest competition in the 1930's and produced this animated feature in response to the success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Unfortunately, Fleischer's unit at Paramount didn't have the sophistication and artistic vision of Disney and their product ends up playing like an extended cartoon short. Fleischer seemed to be more in his element with shorts, as can be seen with the perennial popularity of Betty Boop, Popeye, Felix the Cat and Superman. Fleischer's shorts sometimes have more panache than Disney's Mickey Mouse shorts, which are almost insipid by comparison. But in the field of animated features, Disney had and seems to have kept the edge all these years. Good try Max. The DVD print beats the public domain prints of "Gulliver" which are barely watchable. A piece of trivia: Gabby, the little lillipet man who sings "All's Well", had his voice provided by the same guy who did one of the munchkin mayor's cohorts in "Wizard of Oz", made by MGM in the same year.
Rating:
Summary: A POOR MAN'S "SNOW WHITE"
Review: Producer Max Fleischer was Walt Disney's biggest competition in the 1930's and produced this animated feature in response to the success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Unfortunately, Fleischer's unit at Paramount didn't have the sophistication and artistic vision of Disney and their product ends up playing like an extended cartoon short. Fleischer seemed to be more in his element with shorts, as can be seen with the perennial popularity of Betty Boop, Popeye, Felix the Cat and Superman. Fleischer's shorts sometimes have more panache than Disney's Mickey Mouse shorts, which are almost insipid by comparison. But in the field of animated features, Disney had and seems to have kept the edge all these years. Good try Max. The DVD print beats the public domain prints of "Gulliver" which are barely watchable. A piece of trivia: Gabby, the little lillipet man who sings "All's Well", had his voice provided by the same guy who did one of the munchkin mayor's cohorts in "Wizard of Oz", made by MGM in the same year.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding for it's time.
Review: The music and footage are imbedded throughout our video culture. If you have ever seen a clip and wondered where it came from, this is the source. Outstanding.
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