Review of Gulliver`s Travels

Introduction

This is based upon the book written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726. It`s a political satire of tall tales, a land of giants, a flying island and a land ruled by the Houyhnhnms (talking horses to you and me) and where the humans are savages. Lemuel Gulliver (Ted Danson) works as a ships` surgeon trying to earn extra income for his family by having to travel around the globe. After a 9 year absence, when he was deemed never to return, he finally makes it back home to England. He relates these wonderful tales and is institutionalised in a mental asylum from where he continues to tell of his adventures to anyone that will listen. He tells a bewildering and frightening story which sails dangerously close to home in the tellings of the ridiculousness of human behaviour, all the while making him question his humanity.

This modern adaptation, written by Simon Moore (Under Suspicion, The Quick and the Dead, Traffic), manages to take the essence of Swift`s masterpiece and squeezes it into a three hour costume drama. The script, replete with excellent performances, great costumes and seamless special effects is as I`ve never seen before. This is without doubt the best adaptation of the book so far.

Video

Presented with a 1.66:1 widescreen letterbox transfer, it`s difficult to see why this aspect ratio was chosen. 1.85:1 would have presented a far better canvas for the exceptional production design and it would look great anamorphically produced too. This looks like it was filmed with an open matte cropped to 1.66:1. What`s here is good, especially for NTSC, with vibrant and lively colours throughout maintaining a good level of detail too. The sumptious, lavish sets with well produced effects give this a very distinct look and feel. It`s very in keeping with the original story and works very well.

Audio

There`s just the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack here which is a bit of a shame. However what`s here is good, loud and clear and without distortion, but I can`t help but feel more could have been done with the other channels in play. Even if it were just for ambience, the rears could have played a part, particularly with some of the more fantastical scenes. I feel this is a missed opportunity.

Features

There are 24 cast and crew bios covering the principal cast and members of the crew. Sadly nothing on the director, Charles Sturridge. What`s here is informative without going into too much detail. Next is "Ted`s Excellent Adventures: The Making Of Gulliver`s Travels". Running at just 24 minutes, it proved to be quite insightful in covering the production difficulties and the vision that was created on the printed page brought to reality by the director. Production Notes are several pages covering what you might expect and is an interesting read. Lastly there`s a quiz game where you have to get Gulliver back home by answering a series of multiple choice questions. Get one wrong and you go back a step...

There are no subtitles on this disc.

Conclusion

I absolutely love watching this and I`ve never tired of seeing it time and again. Ted Danson turns in such a performance as I`ve never seen and is mesmerising. The stellar supporting cast too play very well. Where else would you get cameos from James Fox, Shashi Kapoor, Omar Shariff, Mary Steenburgen, Ned Beatty, John Gielgud and Peter O`Toole amongst others? As small as their parts are, they certainly make their presence known.

The casting isn`t the only area where the film excels. The production and costume design too is simply stunning. Add to this the well made and good looking sets and it all adds up to a very high quality production, oozing lavish colour in every pore. This is nothing less than one would expect from director Charles Sturridge (Longitude and Shackleton) and it exhibits his quality hallmark.

Gulliver`s Travels always leaves food for thought and is never dull with even handed pacing throughout. Even in today`s modern world much can be found to draw parallels, and this is one of the reasons why I think the story still works. The irony being of course that author Swift probably didn`t realise his jibes at society back in 1726 still have as much validity today, even more so perhaps. It`s a classic story.

I`m a fan of the book with its fantasy, satire, imagery and sheer scale, so seeing this adaptation was a pleasure. I think it manages to captures the spirit of the story very well by condensing it down to a mere 187 minutes. If you want more you can go and read the book.

This DVD is available on regions 1 and 2 and it looks identical in terms of features. At just £7.99 (Play) I think it`s a bargain and something well worth having. I like the book and I think this adaptation is good, really good! Highly recommended.