Paramount’s response to Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this adaptation of Jonathan Swift’s 1726 satirical novel isn’t quite in the same artistic class, but it’s still a fascinating feature-animation pioneer. Directed by Dave Fleischer and produced by his brother Max – of Betty Boop fame – Gulliver’s Travels has pointed Disney elements (a perfectly proportioned prince and princess; plaintive musical numbers), but it’s most notable for the signature Fleischer touches: comic violence; irritable, oval-eyed characters; a general preference for anarchy over order. That the brothers were still able to maintain Swift’s general pacifist aim – Gulliver once again finds himself mediating between the bickering, six-inch-tall Lilliputians – makes the movie an especially impressive balancing act.
