The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

Harryhausen films usually offer a predictable ratio of tedious talking points interrupted by glorious stop-motion setpieces. Loyal viewers know that their patience will eventually be rewarded with various dinosaurs, mutants and mythological creatures brought to life by the master's hand. But The 3 Worlds of Gulliver is an outlier in Harryhausen's oeuvre, adapting Jonathan Swift's classic story in such a way that his skills for effects work is limited mostly to optical trickery, creating giant and toy-sized versions of his lead actors as they travel to the worlds of Lilliput and Borbdingnag.

Simplifying the tale for easy digestion (one could only imagine what someone like Terry Gilliam would do with the right budget and resources), director Jack Sher keeps things decidedly kid-friendly, relying on the effects to hold one's attention. But it's a difficult task, especially for modern audience's who, though they still might marvel at Harryhausen's model work, will probably find the optical mattes used to create Gulliver's dramatic shifts in size old hat. Luckily, things get sprightlier in the third act, which features a memorable stop-motion battle between the good doctor and a captive baby alligator.

Engaged to be married but in a tiff over the finances to afford it, Dr. Lemuel Gulliver (Kerwin Mathews of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) and Elizabeth (June Thorburn) wind up aboard a vessel bound for wealth and glory. But a storm takes down the ship and separates the two lovers, with Gulliver washing up on the shores of Lilliput, an island ruled over by a petty pint-sized emperor who wants to use his new found "giant" to crush his equally pint-sized enemies. Loathe to commit violence (especially over such a ridiculous reason as which end of an egg should be cracked first), Gulliver escapes to the open sea and winds up in Borbdingnag, where he is reunited with Elizabeth, both becoming doll-size pets for the amusement of a vain and close-minded royal court.

The biggest problem with The 3 Worlds of Gulliver is its timing. The satire is spread too thin and the film's pacing seems off from the get-go. There are still some good zingers in there ("Of course I don't need a Prime Minister to declare war...but I need one to blame in case I lose," confesses the Lilliputian emperor) but too much time is spent talking in circles, stretching out the least successful elements of the film. And too much of the scenery looks the same, robbing the film of its epic aspirations. Once the setting shifts to Borbdingnag the stakes get a bit higher and Harryhausen is allowed to unleash the aforementioned alligator...and one stuffed squirrel that was better left in the attic!

But if one can resist comparing the film to previous Harryhausen adventures, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver has its own repertoire of charms, including some wonderful character actors (Basil Sydney, Peter Bull and Gergoire Aslan) and a booming score from Bernard Herrmann that bounces between childish fun and impending doom. And, of course, Harryhausen's one stop-motion creation is still a wonder to behold, imbued with a bit more personality and movement than usual thanks to his lessened workload.

Twilight Time has already done right by Harryhausen a few times before, and they come through again with a 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray that includes an isolated score track, liner notes, audio commentary from film historians Randall Cook, C. Courtney Joyner and Steven C. Smith, The Making of the 3 Worlds of Gulliver featurette, The Harryhausen Chronicles, This is Dynamation promotional piece and the original theatrical trailer. The transfer itself is colorful and bright, but with more optical effects than any film in Harryhausen's history, expect a lot of grain and visual "garbage" brought to the hi-def surface. It's a trade-off most fans are happy to make, and one any filmmaker will understand.