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Rating:  - Lovely
Most films on Gulliver's travels show Lilliputian and not much else. This movie tries to follow the book. Overall they did a good job.
The story was well done. The guy comes back after a long-time and tells people what he has seen. Of course no-one believes such stories of small people, giants, flying castles and intelligent horses. He has to prove that he is sane.
The acting was good. I liked the scene where he is explaining to the audience in the madhouse, how he was flying in the air in a castle.
Rating:  - Long way out for a short way home
Gulliver the book and Gulliver the movie are different but, after a while, the difference stops being important. In the book, Gulliver is superior to all of his adventures. He possesses a perspective on the whims and eccentricities of kings in a writing meant as a criticism of all who hold themselves superior. The movie Gulliver enjoys his status at court. His sincere explanations/justifications of England's political practices seem even more ridiculous in the telling than in the reading. What movie Gulliver finally focuses on are the relationships between himself and his wife and son. They remained faithfull to him despite his having abandoned them. The wife's defense for her husband is that Gulliver has harmed no one. The son's providing the critical piece of evidence deflects the prosecution. Gulliver discovers that everything that he left home to find was already there. The book Gulliver remains aloof from everyone.
Rating:  - Gulliver's Travels
Dear Sirs, I have not received the order so far. I only wish I have.
Perhaps, again, there is a problem with delivery.
Tatiana Rybina
Rating: - J. Swift would be proud
This is almost the perfect movie for the book. Though they invented a framed narrative that wasn't in the book, it makes the movie so much more powerful and believable. It also unifies the story under one overarching narrative.
Really memorable performance by Ted Danson. It's hard to imagine anyone else as Lemuel Gulliver now.
Rating: - Special effects almost in the same league as those in Star Wars.
The film is told by way of flash backs. Gulliver (Ted Danson) finds himself ashore in England after a harrowing nine year absence from home. Unfortunately, once back at home in England, he suffers from periodic flashbacks wherein he provides narratives about his adventures in Lilliput, Brobdingnag, on a flying island, and elsewhere. Also unfortunately, even his wife (Mary Steenbergen; wife in real life too) does not believe the contents of his flash-back narratives. For example, towards the end of the movie she is asked if she believes her husband. Instead of saying "no," she avoids the question by replying, "I believe in him."
Everybody will be able to enjoy the brightly colored pomp and fanfares found in the various kingdoms that are encountered during Gulliver's travels. The special effects are almost as good as those found in the early Star Wars movies. Unlike most adventure movies, the movie under review has a high degree of character development. The credentials of the actors, e.g., Peter O'Toole, speak for themselves. Excellent "character actors" are also found, such as the rustic wheat farmer who discovers Gulliver and displays him in a one-man circus. In addition to the special effects, the presence of a boy character (Gulliver's son) and a girl character (wheat farmer's daughter) enhance the attraction of the film for kids.
What the movie is really "about" is not tiny villagers, flying islands, or talking horses. What the movie is really about is certain bizarre aspects of the social order, found at the time of Swift's writing. For example, one goal of the Gulliver story was to protest the practice of selling (as opposed to voting) government positions. Therefore, it might be to the advantage of any viewer, or parent, to become familiar with the social/political customs prevalent at the time. A suitable book (which actually covers France, not England), is The French Revolution and Human Rights by Lynn Hunt (1996). As with the Gulliver movie, this book explains the existance of formalized upper and lower classes, and the practice of selling government positions.
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