A Fleischer Classic: GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

Hard to imagine that this film is already 85 years old as of this writing.

But I still think this film is a classic on it's own right.

I vividly remember watching this film on a DVD my that 5th Grade teacher let me borrow from his collection.

This was 2008.... or was it 2009? 

Who cares, a lot of hap-hap-happy memories of this film lingered on for the last 15+ years since I first watched it on DVD.

Anyway, where are my manners.... this here is:

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.

A 1939 animated film based on JOHNATHAN SWIFT'S 1726 novel of the same name.

Totally not a Disney Film... 

In fact, It wasn't even made by Disney. Nor was it distributed by RKO Pictures.

But rather the film was made by Disney's biggest Competitor of the time period:

FLEISCHER STUDIOS.

And of course, Paramount Pictures.

Seriously, this film was in Fleischer's Backburner for 5 years since 1934 but Paramount's early veto of the idea prevented that.

It wasn't until the December 1937 Success of Disney's SNOW WHITE

That it finally convinced Paramount to have confidence in making a theatrical feature length cartoon on their radar.

And then came the production problems, which I'll keep to a truncated level of detail.

The first was how to portray Lemuel Gulliver himself.

I've read sources that Fleischer wanted have POPEYE portray Gulliver.

Yes, That Popeye.

But somewhere down the line, that idea was ultimately vetoed.

I don't know what was the reason for not wanting POPEYE be Lemuel Gulliver but I have a hunch that Paramount didn't want to be sued by DISNEY for casting a mascot character as a Literary Character.

Which is considering that Disney already did something like to Mickey back in 1934 in UNITED ARTISTS short GULLIVER MICKEY.

So maybe it was a smart choice for Paramount to suggest that Gulliver should be cast like a regular character as close to his portrayal in the novel.

Another production issue that's also brought up was the fights between the both the West and East Coast animators working on the film.

The film was forced to be rushed by Paramount Pictures in order to meet that December 1939 deadline.

Typically, a film can go for 3-4 years of development. 1-2 years if you're lucky.

But imagine having to be forced to do a film for less than 18 months in the late 1930s?

As a direct result, Fleischer Studios, who at the time was fresh from relocating from NEW YORK to MIAMI in order to keep everything about their studio EAST COAST, had no choice but to expand their staff to about 800 employees. 

And half of those were from WEST COAST studios from California.

Fleischer studios is known for such gems such as 

POPEYE,

Betty Boop,

 just to name a few.

But Paramount, being the West Coast studio they are, demanded that Fleischer imitate DISNEY in Gulliver's Travels.

And it absolutely shows.

Now don't take this as me bashing the film.

Remember, I have fond memories of this film since watching this on DVD when I was in the 5th Grade in 2009.

What I'm saying is just anecdotal history of how the film had to fight tooth and nail it's production woes just to earn that BOX-OFFICE SUCCESS.

But Gulliver certainly is very much a different film than your typical animated movie that tries to imitate Disney or  doesn't want to imitate Disney but is forced to by the studio who financed it.

For one, While Disney tries to avoid ROTOSCOPE as much as posible,

Fleischer was all in on ROTOSCOPE, especially for Mr. Gulliver here.

I also love the difference not just in the designs of Bombo and King Little here

But rather their personalities.

Bombo in my opinion represents the part of Fleischer that wants to stay true to it's roots and it shows with both his eyes and his Jowels.

"I refuse to let my facial design go all WEST COAST!!!"

King Little on the other hand, his design screams WEST COAST.

Both in personality and his voice.

But also is the remorse that's in BOMBO.

Such as the part after he declares WAR on Lilliput over what Anthem to sing at his son's wedding.

Sometimes, you find yourself regretting such actions and you try to make up for what you've done.

Bombo does it two times in the film.

Way to go for his cronies to spoil his remorse.

You just don't get emotional remorse in characters like this in today's animated films anymore.

Nowadays it's a NICE CHARACTER who double-crosses both the protagonist and the audience and in turn happens to be the villain. 

But I think what people are often going to remember about this film is the little HIGH-PITCHED Town-Cryer GABBY.

Hard to imagine a little guy like this somehow became popular with the crowd back in the day.

Did you know Gabby was voiced by PINTO COLVIG?

Yes, that PINTO COLVIG. The man who was the original voice of GOOFY before 1967.

What people remember about Gabby, as voiced by PINTO COLVIG, is mostly his grating high-pitched voice, and the immortal words:

"THERE'S A GIANT ON THE BEACH!!!"

Despite the West Coast feel of the film, there are certainly still some classic gags to Marvel at.

Such as the wobbly Plank scene

Apologies if the Gabby example looked normal.

Blame it on my timeline scrubbing on VLC Player when I took the screenshots.

At least I had more success with the King Little Example shown below.

Not even a West Coast KING LITTLE is immune to East Coast humor.

Some of my other favorite Gags

"Maybe it was me! LOOK I'M A GIANT!!!!"

"HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!!"

"Nobody in here but us...."

"CHICKENS!!!! *Makes chicken noises*"

Gabby's sorry excuse for a sword fight

Oh and another favorite, GABBY'S dry brushed motion blur for when he's running with a lantern on his hand.

Now that's a worthy challenge to try on TOONBOOM HARMONY.

And this is where I sort of wrap up this Blogpost for the time being.

This film, unlike it's later successor MR BUG, is in the public domain.

So that means the film has been a staple on many cheap VHS or DVD copies, often with little to no restoration of the film material.

Multiple attempts to restore this beautiful picture had been made at the past...

to mixed results.

The Aforementioned DVD I talked about in the beginning of this blogpost was an E1 Entertainment DVD my 5th Grade Teacher had.

The issues with these early DVDs however is because of the film's public domain status, the distributors just toy with whatever tools they have and call it a day.

It wasn't until THUNDERBEAN got their hands on a TECHNICOLOR 35MM print of the film in 2013. After careful restoration, THUNDERBEAN finally released a Blu-Ray of the film in March 2014.

And the THUNDERBEAN print is what I'm using for many of my VLC Screenshots.

None of that AI upscaling I'm seeing on a lot of Non-Disney Cartoons littering the internet.

(I'm looking at you FLEICHER'S SUPERMAN.)

This is pure 35MM Restoration at it's finest. I can see the corners of the film frames and some bits of film grain, or hair that somehow slipped past the restoration.

Clash of the wardrobes-Doug Funnie Vs. Seth Brundle

I've made some comparisons between DOUG FUNNIE's vs. Seth Brundle's wardrobe in the past.

I feel I need to elaborate more on that a little.

If you remember my Late December 2023 post I did about CARTOON WARDROBES, then you'll know that many a cartoon or anime character is bound to have a wardrobe of clothes that won't change no matter what.

I also mentioned in that post that Live-Action films and Real-Life is exempt from the identical wardrobe problem because we don't have identical outfits like you see in animation.

But there is a Live-Action film that sort of subverts that.... and one that's about to turn 40 in 2026.

That film I'm talking about is THE FLY.

This 1986 film is David Cronenberg's crowning achievement in 1980s filmmaking. 

Pretty sly for a film that's a remake of a 1958 Film, also titled THE FLY.

But the 1986 film is more remembered by most people, especially my generation because unlike the 1958 original, which was released during the height of the HAYS CODE, the 1986 remake is free from all the censorship problems and can allow for the more graphic gore to permeate the film.

That and it has JEFF FREAKIN GOLDBLUM in it.

Every movie is better with Jeff Goldblum in it.

But now it's not the time to talk about the graphic PLASTIC, SILCONE gore made by Chris Walas.... or about the best actor of the 80s or 90s.

What I'm talking about is Seth Brundle's Wardrobe.

In the film, Seth is being asked by Veronica on why his wardrobe is so identical.

The answer according to him is "I GOT THE IDEA FROM ALBERT EINSTEIN."

While Einstein sure as hell didn't really have identical sets of clothes in real life, my guess is Brundle was just looking for an excuse to be lazy so he doesn't have to focus his menial mental thinking on what shirt, jacket, pants, or loafers to wear.

Doug Funnie's wardrobe on the other hand is a different story.

I don't the whole backstory on why JIM JENKINS chose to have Doug wear a white shirt underneath a green sweeter vest, Khaki shorts, and red shoes.

Frankly, he just wanted something recognizable for his character.

But then Nickelodeon broadcast the episode DOUG EN VOGUE on November 7 1993.

It's a rather hilarious but classic episode from the Nick era where Doug's friends decide to dress like him,

Much to his chagrin,

so then he proceeded to reveal his wardrobe of identical outfits.

When Disney bought Jumbo Pictures in 1996 and made their version of DOUG, the art department redesigned his outfit.... sort of.

Aside from a flatter scalp, and different voice due to Billy West's departure over a salary dispute with Michael Eisner, Doug now wore longer sleeves, his sweater vest's collar was simplified, and his khaki shorts had longer sleeves.

Here he is from the BRAND SPANKING NEW Intro showing off his updated outfit.

All without saying a word...

But even in the original Nickelodeon version, Doug still wore pants during the Winter in tandem with his standard outfit.

And here are some photos from Nickelodeon's 1993 Christmas episode where he does were pants instead of shorts. Makes sense since it's winter in this episode.

"Thanks mom, dad. But Porkchop is my dog, and best friend. 

I believe I should save him myself."

But back to Doug's outfit, You might think Doug finally changed his shoes when he moved to the Mouse House. But in my opinion, those are the exact same shoes from his SLIME FACTORY days. Just that the Red has now faded into grey.

Fierce Dedication to his shoes?

I guess he really took Sky Davis' 1991 advice about childhood shoe preservation really seriously.

"Yes, I convinced Doug to keep his shoes even when he changed Networks."

But regardless, Doug still likes to keep his wardrobe identical no matter what Network you're with or whether you're inspired by celebrities.

And my guess is during Doug's early childhood in BLOATSBURG, VIRGINIA, he probably saw THE FLY with his sister Judy so maybe he might have been inspired by actor Jeff Goldblum.... who knows.

But then again, both series depict his sister JUDY as being absolutely picky about what she watches on TV, Cinemas, etc. which has resulted in fights with Doug over what to watch. So I highly doubt they both watched THE FLY in Cinemas or VHS together in 1986.

Just don't introduce Judy Funnie to SIDESHOW BOB from THE SIMPSONS.....