Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A worthy tribute to the legendary comic strip, September 3, 2005
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Truth About Little Nemo's Production, March 21, 2005
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.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful movie, bland DVD, October 12, 2004
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.
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