Review of Gulliver`s Travels

Introduction

The story of Gulliver and his travels is well known and documented. The story has been told many times with varying degrees of success, both as animation and as real live action, with a smattering of computer effects.

This is one of the earliest adaptations of this story for the silver screen, using animation, and a lively score. The viewer expecting to see animation of the quality of today`s Disney and Pixar movies will be disappointed, as this is old fashioned cartoon, some would say the good old days of animation.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the first release, the movie has been restored and released so that a new generation can marvel at the skills and expertise of the people who produced this film for release in 1939.

Video

Although the picture has been restored, there is still a lot of dirt and noise evident. Of course, this is an extremely old print to work with, so the quality must have been dreadful pre restoration.

The colours are best described as traditional. They are not in your face bright bold shades, but more pastel in their presentation, displaying the era in which they were produced.

For all its faults, it`s still watchable and will hopefully entertain another few generations of children and their parents.

Audio

A Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has been introduced for this release and while not the most involving of experiences it does show a nice effort from the producers to put out the best possible example.

Animation is such a forgiving environment for a soundtrack, much more can be made of rear and side effects, but unfortunately, this one does feel a little flat.

Features

There are a nice amount of features on this disc apart from the usual menus and scene access.

Production notes are included, long with a complete history, many stills, vintage articles and poster art.

There is also a demonstration of the restoration process.

Conclusion

A timeless classic of a story presented in a classic style of animation.

This is an absolute joy to watch, as long as you aren`t expecting top quality computer generated graphics.

To say much more would only be filling space. This disc speaks volumes for itself and deserves to be at the top of the best sellers lists.