by Hal Erickson
synopsis
The New Gulliver is one of several feature-length animated efforts by Soviet puppetmaster Alexander Ptushko. Freely adapted from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the film is told from the viewpoint of a day-dreaming young boy. While the boy is "real," the denizens of Lilliput are all tiny animated puppets. The climax of the story is a Bolshevik-style worker's revolt against the despotic Lilliputian king, with the giant-sized boy leading the revolutionaries. Sound is used creatively throughout The New Gulliver, ranging from a demented monarch who uses a hidden record player to deliver his speeches, to lengthy lampoons of jazz bands and radio crooners.
characteristics
- Puppet-show
- Daydream
- Revolt
- Revolution
- Phonograph
- King
- Fantasy-world
- Escape
- Fantasy Lands
- Other Dimensions
- Heroic Mission
- Sea-disaster