BEFORE: Arrgh, it's really tempting to change my plans, after watching Cate Blanchett in "Robin Hood" - I could so easily follow that film with "Elizabeth", and keep the theme of kings and queens going. But no, I'm going to make a distinction between historic(-ish?) fiction and more factual (I assume) bio-pics. No, I started a children's literature chain about two weeks ago, and I'm determined to finish it.
I should point out that it's a very personal definition of what constitutes children's lit. The Narnia books, Treasure Island, and Robin Hood - these are, of course, some of the books that I read as a kid. I discovered books like "The Three Musketeers" and "Mutiny on the Bounty" later on, so movies based on those novels will be part of a later chain. These are my rules, I make 'em up.
Linking from "Robin Hood", William Hurt was in "Syriana" with Amanda Peet (last seen in "2012"). See, that wasn't so hard.
THE PLOT: Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver takes an assignment in Bermuda, but ends up on the island of Liliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens.
AFTER: Arrgh again, I'm really kind of torn on this one. First, the positives: it's relatively amusing, it's got some heart, and Jack Black (last seen in "King Kong") is only about half as obnoxious as he's capable of being. So, if you need to amuse some kids for a while, I think you could do a lot worse than show them this film.
Now, the negatives (and you knew there'd be a bunch, right?):
First off, in the original novel, Lemuel Gulliver went to FOUR strange lands. Lilliput, Brobdingnag, the flying island of Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms. This film simplifies things by only having him visit one (OK, two, but really, one), and of course it's Lilliput, the one most everyone knows. Plus it's the one with the little people, so Jack Black can be a giant, and hilarity will ensue (that's the plan, anyway).
Then we come to the film's message - which is what, exactly? Be a man of your word? Stick up for yourself? Don't be afraid to ask a girl on a date? Yeah, I guess they all kind of coincide, but it's really muddled somehow. Jonathan Swift was a master of satire, which means everything in his novel had a deeper, allegorical meaning, even if we're not sure these days what they all were. He had a REASON for putting Gulliver in a land where people have heads like horses. It was a metaphor, dammit. By comparison, saying "There are no small jobs, only small people" seems kind of lame, and fairly off message.
Look, I realize you've got to put asses in the seats, and these days you can do that by finding a piece of classic literature, and making it accessible. But that doesn't mean you have to dumb it down and undershoot the audience's intelligence level. I think they were on the right track with references to "Star Wars", "Titanic", "Avatar", etc., even though that's parody and not satire. That's going to draw kids in, but once you've got their attention, it's time to make them think, not just make them chuckle.
In the film world, the benchmark for this thing is probably "The Wizard of Oz". There's no place like home - yeah, that's a message we can all get behind (unless your home life sucks for some reason, I guess). And even though Dorothy's time in Oz was a dream, she learned something about herself from it. (Did Dorothy REALLY go over the rainbow? That depends - did you want her to? I guess you can read that film either way.) We're supposed to believe here that Gulliver's time in Lilliput was real - I guess kudos for not resorting to "Oh, it was all a dream", but couldn't it have been? Shouldn't it have been?
Anyway, I'm left questioning whether Swift's novel really needed more ass jokes and pee jokes. And if I take Disney to task for putting talking gargoyle characters in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", then I've got to take points off this film's rating for messing with the original story also.
NITPICK POINT: And the film forced my hand, by telling me it wasn't a dream - what did Gulliver eat while in Lilliput? He's thousands of times bigger than the tallest Lilliputian - wouldn't he devour all of their land's resources in just a few meals?
Also starring Jason Segel (last seen in "Knocked Up"), Billy Connolly (last seen in "Treasure Island"), Emily Blunt (last seen in "Sunshine Cleaning"), Chris O'Dowd (last seen in "Dinner for Schmucks"), T.J. Miller (last seen in "Yogi Bear'), Catherine Tate.
RATING: 4 out of 10 life preservers
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