Customer Reviews

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland [VHS]

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" (first published in 1905) is justly regarded as a classic among comic strips. Despite this, reltively few people (aside from comic afficianados) are familiar with the strip today. Thus, a "Little Nemo..." movie would have to draw in new viewers without alienating fans of the original. It's a tall order, but Chris Columbus' movie does the job, and earns five whole stars in doing so.

The story is simple enough for young children to appreciate without being trivial or talkng down to its audience. Nemo is an imaginative young boy who enters a fantastic world of dreams while he sleeps. He is welcomed by the king of the land and his beautiful daughter, princess Camille. The king makes Nemo his heir, on the condition that he never unlock one specific door. Urged on by a mischivious clown named "Flip," Nemo opens the door, releasing the nightmare king who is trapped inside. The Nightmare king captures the king of Slumberland, and Nemo sets off to rescue him and atone for his mistake.

Visually, the movie is a triumph. The scenes of Slumberland are truly beautiful to look at. They are filled with vibrant colors, lush landscapes and alien (but still beautiful) architecture. The scenes in Nightmare land, by contrast, are effectively shadowy and unnerving, without going over the top.

Where the movie really succeeds, however, is in the characterizations. Princess Camille is very proper and somewhat haughty, yet never seems annoying or arrogant. Flip is a classic trickster; sneaky, contemptuous of rules and prone to getting in over his head, yet he never comes across as villianous or pathetic. As for Nemo, he actually presents as a kid! He isn't coyingly cutsie, he isn't a smart-aleck nor is he so precocious that he seems like a miniature adult. Such an honest protrayal of a child character in a movie is a rarity. The fact that he is also likeable and his efforts draw the viewer in is a further testimony to this film's quality.

"Little Nemo..." is great entertainment for kids and adults alike, and that alone earns it five stars. More than that though, it lives up to the hallowed comic strip it is based on. That fact makes it more than a great film, it makes it a legend in its own right.

Though this film deserves a full-blown special edition designed with adults in mind--or at the very least a book detailing its troubled production history--the best treatment it's had to date was the 2004 TMS/Funimation/Our Time Family Entertainment DVD from 2004. That disc has long been out of print and fetching inflated prices via eBay and various Amazon Marketplace sellers.

But now it's back. And despite Amazon incorrectly listing the aspect ratio as 1.33:1 and the distributor as Platinum Disc, rest assured that this is EXACTLY the same disc content as the 2004 edition: the film is presented in ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN, with 5.1 Surround Sound (plus a basic Stereo option) plus all the extras from the original release, which are decidedly aimed at children unfortunately. You get: static-screen character profiles; a Slumberland Singalong featuring three songs from the film; a "Make Your Own Royal Scepter" craft project (text frames) and four trailers, one of which is for a computer-animated children's feature called A WOBOTS CHRISTMAS that looked so horrendously out-of-date even in 2004 that it could only be a Christian film, plus three other trailers for much better productions: the likewise computer-generated Canadian feature SANTA CLAUS BROTHERS (2001), the flat-animated short NOEL NOEL (also from Canada), and a lengthy spot for one of the early ARTHUR DVDs.

As with the Funimation edition, the packaging states the film runs 100 minutes, while the film itself actually runs 95 minutes. No big deal, and at least it's not the heavily cut version that appeared in the days of VHS.

But the real gem here is, as mentioned, the WIDESCREEN presentation of the vastly underrated LITTLE NEMO. If you're a fan of either American, Disney-style animation, or Japanese, Miyazaki-style anime, you OWE it to yourself to pick up this budget-priced release to see what you missed.

If you're looking for proper extras, your best bet these days is YouTube, where you can find several "Making of" features from around the time of the film's release (look for these ones: =mhS6jPZvURI , =IJ6f81ZYIfI) as well as Osamu Dezaki's 1987 pilot anime film (=fCLXfJFOlUY&NR=1) and the rare and spellbinding Miyazaki test footage (=fnL-6yLzgWA) that never made it to the final production once he left the project.

Fantastic to finally have this film back on DVD, and at a decent price to boot!

Reading the other reviews of this DVD it seems most people are confused as to the origins of this film...

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland was a feature film loosely based on animation legend Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" comic strip first appearing in 1905. Little Nemo: AiS had an extremely rocky production cycle with the first pilot being released in 1984, the second in 1987, and the finish film in 1989. Hayao Miyazaki was on the original creative team however due to the troubled production he left at a rather early development stage. Just as Robotech is a strange enigma of anime in America, Little Nemo: AiS stands as an odd hiccup in the history of anime in Japan. Similar to The Transformers, at its core Little Nemo: AiS was designed for the American market with an all star voice ensemble such as Mickey Rooney as Flip the Clown. However it was a film slated for the UNITED STATES although the animation work was primarly of Japanese origin. Little Nemo: AiS was Disney's first forray into grabbing troubled animation properties... (don't even get me started about how they flat out STOLE Aladdin from an early workprint of The Thief and The Cobbler and then killed the original film)

While it would have been nice to see some of the original early versions of Little Nemo (which are on the laser disc) that carried with them a more dramatic flair, this DVD sets out to be exactly what it is - a DVD release of the final film version. Considering how troubled the production cycle was we should all be glad that it even hit the theaters - let alone finally reached DVD after all these years. 5 stars for filling in a void of underrated animation on DVD.

I suggest everyone pick up "The Anime Encyclopedia" if you want to know the truth behind lots of other animation and the industry. It also had a good little backstory about Little Nemo: AiS.

Bradbury and Giraud's influences are obvious. The story is filled with goodwill and heart without being sentimental or maudlin. Little Nemo breaks a promise and unleashes the Nightmare King's powers against his friends in Dreamland, and must face his terror to rescue them. The images of Dreamland are breathtaking. The jester-goblins are endearing. Flip's character is a mischief and has many faults, but not of cynicism. There is no adult subtext, no disparagement or side cracks, no misplaced self-consciousness anywhere in this movie. It would appeal to lively, intelligent, creative children, and it would engage their parents' interest and fancy too. I hope it is re-released soon.

Around a three years ago, I remembered a movie from my childhood. It had a flying bed, a magical sceptor, and a terrifying villian known as the nightmare king. I just couldn't remember what it was called!

I was so frustrated, that I decided to consult with my friends. Turns out, they too had a vague recollection of that "amazing movie" they had seen as children. It wasn't until a few years later that I remember the protagonist's name- Nemo. I Google searched that sucker til I found this gem.
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I just finished watching it myself, and I'm floored. All the nostalgic moments are breath-taking. I felt all of the excitement from my childhood. I am definitely bringing this over to my friends' house next week.

With amazing animation, a trippy story, and a memorable cast; I recommend this for the grown ups that want to revist their childhood, or the toddlers that want to see a great fantasy adventure.

It amazes me that none of the previous reviews mentions the comic by Winsor McCay! This is truly one of the most faithful adaptions to the ideas of any work that I have seen. Winsor McCay would be proud.

Mickey Rooney does a fine job as Flick, the shifty and miscievous imp. I have read that French artist Jean Giraud (aka Moebius), and Ray Bradbury are both involved with this film. It shows.

This movie has an interesting plot, fascinating characters, and beautiful animation. As with most good films, there are occasional scenes which may frighten younger viewers (anyone remember the witch from Disney's Snow White?) but do not let this dissuade you from giving this film a try if you can find it.

My only complaint was the superfluous character, Icarus. At least this time the "cute animal" was relatively low key and did not distract from the rest of the film.

I hope that it is re-released post-haste!

I was so excited to see this released, that I pre-ordered it. I was a little surprised in its presentation on DVD. First off, it is anamorphic widescreen(though that is not mentioned on the packaging) and there are no foreign language options at all (no subs either, not even english). This is strange as the film was made by a rather international group of people (from Japan as well as the US).
The disc has no real "extras" of the sort that adults would enjoy, and even kids probably won't think much of them (there is a little craft project, and the incantation to dispell bad dreams).
So, for true fans, all you get is the movie. A shame since this is a real cult classic of animation. The plot is rather slow to develop. The movie starts so strongly, and then kind of lags for about 40 minutes until the Nightmares start to enter Slumberland.

However, the film is well done. Maybe i just feel it drags because I've seen it so many times. This was an interesting film made in a rather busy time for animation. It was released in 1992 during Disney's reassertion of power (Little Mermaid in 1990, Beauty and the Beast in 1992). The team that made this film, headed by Chris Columbus, went in a decidedly different direction. The movie starts out darker than most Disney fair, seeming to borrow from Don Bluth's style. however, there is a very obvious Japanese feel to the production as well. It is a great "hybrid" in a sense, and the effect is engrossing. Perhaps one of the main complaints is that everything in Slumberland is so light and pastel that it becomes bland and dull looking. Only during the nightmares does darkness ever enter the pallete of the film.

The film is uneven in parts, but overall is a wonderful achievement. It would have been nice to see something that looked at the history and the production, but being that it was a huge flop at the box office, I am glad to have it at all on DVD.

As the title of this review suggests, watching this movie is like visiting old friends. It's got beautiful animation, a creative and hypnotizing score, and it's a lot of fun. I watched this movie religiously when I was very young, and I just popped it into the VCR recently, and bam! I felt like I was 7 years old again.

This is a story about facing your fears, and finding new friends. It's a great film for children as well, however it must be said that this movie does have a few scary bits in it. Mainly they occur when Nemo is in Nightmare Land. These scenes are a bit spooky, but not very violent, just dark and forbodeing.

However, it is a classic, and in my opinion, a collectable, and it deserves to be bought and cherished for the beautiful piece of art that it is.

Based on the comics, this production directed by Japanese animators and the screenplay written in part by the director of "Home Alone" really brought good memories of when I first watched it in 1992. It came out the same year as Disney's "Aladdin". While "Little Nemo" is not as humorous and entertaining as "Aladdin", I found that this film was more engaging and I cared more for the characters. The storyline shares ideas from the comics and reminds me of "Alice in Wonderland". While Slumberland is not as strange and exotic like Wonderland, the setting still perfectly fits the storyline. The backgrounds I found impressive even today considering the advances in animation. The characters to me were well realized with some minor flaws (Icarus did irritate me in the beginning). And I forgot that the movie had songs, but they don't distract from the storyline and make you wait for the next number like "Aladdin"(While "Aladdin" was really good; the songs and Genie overwhelmed the story). I would recommend this if you really like "Fantasy-Adventure" based animation like "Spirited Away".

Hello to all of you! I have to start by saying that at this moment I am 20 years old and still fascinated by Disney movies and similar. But till this day I could not forget images of a movie I have seen years ago (seems like forever). Little Nemo is a movie I have seen 12 years ago and although I don't even remember what it was about and what the name was, I couldn't forget this movie and was sure that it had something to do with "Nemo". Now that I've found it, I just have to tell you: this is a great movie worth seeing over and over again, no matter how old you are (I think I remember my parents enjoying the movie with me!)!