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{{quote|''"[[Broken Record|There's a giant on the beach!]]"''|[[Motor Mouth|Gabby]], the [[Butt Monkey|Town Crier]]}}
'''''Gulliver's Travels''''' is the second American animated feature ever, made by [[Fleischer Studios]] and released in [[The Golden Age of Animation|1939]]. The film is an ''[[In Name Only|extremely]]'' loose adaptation of the "Lilliput" voyage of [[
In an attempt by Paramount to have the film compete with Disney's then-largely successful ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'', Swift's hard-edged story is made considerably [[Lighter and Fluffier]] by the Fleischers, and his rather unattractive and wholly commonplace protagonist is transformed into a sort of all-wise [[Mighty Whitey|Mighty Biggie]] teaching the "silly little people" of Lilliput and Blefuscu a [[Anvilicious|serious]] [[Aesop|lesson]] about getting along. (Then again, with [[World War II]] about to explode in Europe <ref>and having already exploded in China</ref>, perhaps a lesson in getting along was [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|what the nations needed]].)
The animation is an interesting blend of the rubbery, organic West Coast animation (or in laymans terms, "cartoony") style associated with the shorts of the period with the more realistic style that had been pioneered by ''[[Snow White and
This film is in the [[Public Domain]] and can be [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nxPYA5zdiE viewed for free] on [[YouTube]] (It can also be seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=988iuXXMCvs&wide=1 here], though the part where Gabby first sings "All's Well", discovers Gulliver, and dashes back into town is cut out for some reason).
This film also spawned two short lived [[Spin
Despite not being the big hit Paramount expected, ''Gulliver'' was a modest success at the box office, but not enough to cover the overhead, resulting in the Fleischers immediately starting work on [[Mr. Bug Goes to Town|their next and last feature...]]
{{tropelist}}
* [[Animated Adaptation]]
* [[Animation Bump]]: The opening storm, and the entire sequence where Gulliver is bound and carried off into the village.
* [[Attack of the 50
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Prince David pulls this on the spies, just when they're about to kill Gulliver with his pistol.
* [[BFG]]: Gulliver's flintlock pistol--although it's only big in comparison to the lilliputians.
* [[Black Cloak]]: Sneap, Snoop and Snitch, King Bombo's spies, wear these.
* [[Butt Monkey]]/[[The Chew Toy]]: Gabby, his luck wasn’t any better in his own theatrical series.
* [[Camp Straight]]: King Little.
* [[Cape Swish]]: Bombo does one after he declares war on King Little.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: A literal example--Gulliver's pistol is used later as part of the Spies attempt to kill him.
* [[Color Failure]]: Gabby's face is flushed white in frustration right before it [[High
* [[Conjoined Eyes]]: Sneak and Snoop, but only in a brief, [[Off
* [[Construction Is Awesome]]: The ''very'' lengthy sequence where the Lilliputians build an elaborate slab to bind Gulliver to and drag him off to the village.
* [[Cool Boat]]: The stunning sailboat model used in the opening credits, and the boats seen in the movie itself are nice, too.
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* [[Disney School of Acting and Mime]]: No surprise, since the film used a number of ex-Disney animators, including [[Grim Natwick]] and [[Shamus Culhane]].
* [[Ear Trumpet]]: One of the Lilliputians has one.
* [[Expy]]: Twenty years after ''Gulliver'', King Hubert in [[Disney]]'s ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' would bear an interesting resemblance to King Bombo, including threatening King Stefan with war over an imagined slight while planning the marriage of his princely son to the other monarch's princessly daughter. (Hubert and Stefan, however, compose their quarrel almost immediately.)
** King Luna from the Casper short "Boo Moon" is an obvious one of King Bombo.
* [[Flat Character]]: Glory and David are barely more than animated plot devices. They don't even have an actual line of non-singing dialogue until just near the end of the film!
* [[Foe Yay]]: During the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe_7cwy3SJk "Forever"] song (a love song), the king reminisces about being with his former friend and fellow king.
* [[Follow the Leader]]: While Max Fleischer had the idea of making a feature length animated film in his head for a while, it wasn't until the unprecedented success of ''Snow White'' that Paramount gave the greenlight to such a project.
* [[Gentle Giant]]: Gulliver is nothing but gentle and compassionate to all of the Lilliputians.
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* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: Snitch carries an impressive number of weapons beneath his cloak.
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: When Little finally hears Gabby tell him about '''THE GIANT ON THE BEACCHHHHHH''' and promptly chastises him for not telling him earlier.
* [[The Jimmy Hart Version]]: "It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" is suspiciously similar to the ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]]'' song "Whistle While You Work".
* [[Leitmotif]]: An instrumental version of "I Hear A Dream" for Gulliver.
* [[Lilliputians]]: Of course!
* [[Madness Mantra]]: Gabby during the scene where wakes up the whole town to tell them '''THERES A GIANT ON THE BEACH!'''
* [[Meaningful Name]]: [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Off
* [[Oh Crap]]: Bombo when he first sees Gulliver.
* [[Public Domain Animation]]
* [[Rotoscoping]]: Used to animate Gulliver.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: Some of the background and layout work is very well done and almost compensates for the uneven animation.
* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: King Little when he sees Gulliver.
{{quote|
* [[Shaming the Mob|Shaming The Nations]]: Gulliver in the films ending. See [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]].
* [[Silly Reason for War]]: One of many changes made from the original story is that instead of a holy war over which end of an egg should be broken, King Bombo declares war on King Little for ''not playing the song he wanted to play at Glory's wedding''. In theory the Fleischers could have kept a touch of the original novels [[Satire]] by at least pointing out how utterly contrived and ridiculous this is, but the film instead plays it like something that were supposed to be ''taking seriously''.
* [[Small Annoying Creature]]: Gabby. No bigger than a pin, has an obnoxiously shrill voice, and a personality as lovable as a mosquito, he has permanently etched the word '''"THERES A GIANT ON THE BEACH!"''' into the minds of many animation fans forever. Its certainly a surprise that he was popular enough to warrant getting his own [[Spin
* [[Smoking Is Cool]]: Gulliver with his pipe during the "I Hear A Dream" sequence.
* [[Spin
* [[Stock Footage]]: Footage of King Bombo was recycled by [[Famous Studios]] in the 50's as King Luna for the [[Casper the Friendly Ghost]] short "Boo Moon".
* [[Super Speed]]: Lilliputians are capable of this when frightened.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: What Gulliver suggests at the end to end the quarrel--merge the two songs together.
* [[Terrible Trio]]: Bombo's spies, Sneak, Snoop and Snitch respectively.
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Given by Gulliver to the dueling kingdoms after Prince David is apparently killed saving Gulliver from being shot, but it ends on a high note:
{{quote|
* [[This Means War]]: What the argument between King Little and Bombo literally amounts to.
* [[The Twelve Principles of Animation]]: A result of the Fleischers trying to compete with ''Snow White'' was beefing up their animation considerably, as well as attempting to adapt to these principles. Unfortunately, much of the animation in the film is ruined by sloppy inbetween work and terrible inking, giving the drawings a mushy, floaty feeling to them. This was undoubtably a result of Gulliver's tight deadline for production, as well as the studio have a mix of East Coast and West Coast animators who were constantly at odds with each other and their approaches to animation.
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[[Category:The Golden Age of Animation]]
[[Category:The Great Depression]]
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[[Category:Western Animation]]
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