Little Nemo: les Aventures au pays de Slumberland

Nemo (Gabriel Damon) is a young boy who's prone to vivid dreaming and sneaking pies. After a circus comes to town he's told by his father that he might be too busy to go to the circus. When Nemo's next dream comes he's visited by Professor Genius (René Auberjonois) so he may be the playmate of the princess of Slumberland. Once there Nemo explores not only the wonders of Slumberland, but must also contend with the nightmares of Nightmareland after he breaks a promise not to open a forbidden door.

Produced over a period of roughly a decade and adapted from the comic strip by Winsor McCay, the movie became infamous for its revolving door of writers, directors, and producers that resulted in the creation of THREE different pilot films (One of which has never been released) before its final version was released. The movie was met with mixed reviews and lackluster box office, but did eventually manage to turn a profit thanks to healthy VHS sales. The movie is very beautiful to look at, but it's most likely far short of where the creative team wished to take it.

The movie's real star is the visuals and animation. The line work is very clean and the opening sequence where Nemo flies his bed is simply breath taking. But the movie runs into the problem of sticking too close to its source because the fact that everything happens in a dream makes much of the following film feel kind of hollow. There are some attempts to try and tie what happens in the dream to Nemo's real life with a forced parallel between his promise not to sneak pies and a promise not to open a forbidden door, but this connection is so tenuous that on its initial release it was edited out of the American version and no one really noticed. After the opening dream sequence the movie doesn't have much of a plot as Nemo basically stumbles around Slumberland playing around with the various sets and characters who are all patterned after the circus in one way or another, and because there's that theme around Slumberland it doesn't lend itself to much surprise so Slumberland feels much more mundane than it should.

In many ways an actual plot doesn't take place until about 40 minutes in where Nemo has to go to Nightmareland to rescue King Morpheus from a nightmare he accidentally released, but even this plot is rather lacking and disjointed because whenever Nemo is backed into a corner he'll "wake up" back in his bed but still be in the dream. This is done twice and further undermines the story of the movie because if it's a dream why should we care?

Despite the rather thin narrative the movie does have some merits. Even if there's a flabby mid section with not much substance, the opening and ending of the movie are really well done and filled with effectively built up atmosphere that is conveyed with striking animation and visuals. Even years after I'd seen this film the flying bed sequence and the desolation of Nightmareland with its deafening silence that served as the penultimate crescendo still play clearly in my mind. Little Nemo is a heavilly flawed movie, but it's also one that strives for greatness and has clear effort put in. It doesn't quite stack up to the sum of its parts, but it doesn't fall flat on its face either.

"Little Nemo" is not easy to watch, but then again neither are the original comics by Winsor McKay easy to read. He had a wild and unconstrained (sometimes nightmarish) imagination, and the movie mirrors that general feeling. However, the imagery of this film is a striking tribute to a master of imagery. I wonder if Miyazaki of "Spirited Away" and "Castle in the Sky" was influenced by McKay. His flying machines, architecture, lighting and characters remind me of those seen in the "Little Nemo" comics and his casual cross-disolves from fantasy to reality and back are highly reminiscent of McKay's work. The film's major failing is its attempt to maintain a coherent, disney-like story arch in the midst of the rampant near-madness of MkKay's imagined world. Also, the squirrel was a mistake. Over all though, if you're familiar with McKay's work, I recommend you see this film to get a feel for what a McKay movie might have been like if he had persisted beyond his fledgeling attempts at animation. To see his actual attempts, I recommend the DVD "Animation Legend: Winsor McCay".

Ever rent a movie out of curiosity because, although you've never heard a good thing about it, you want to see it anyway because you thought it looked good? That happened to me with "Little Nemo"; I rented it one summer and felt as if I had struck gold.

The thing that got me with this movie was that the animators managed to imitate the original Windsor McCay illustrations so closely. Being an illustrator myself, that completely won me over and that alone would be cause to recommend it. But this is also one of the most visually inventive animated films I've ever seen. I will not spoil the surprise by describing anything, but the way this movie depicts Slumberland is surely the best thing about it. This is definately worth hunting down.

I remembered this movie that I used to watch when I was little. There was a parade, a squirrel, a little boy, a big man and a big key. There was a lot of black goo at one point and an evil guy. I had no idea what the movie was called and I had no idea if it was actually real, because when I told people about it (which I did a lot because I wanted to find out what it was called so I could see it again) no one had heard about it.

I started thinking that I had dreamt the whole thing. That it was one of those dreams that you have several times. I had tried googling it, I had asked my parents and my sibling, who should've known what I was talking about seeing as I probably couldn't just pick it out and put it on myself as a little kid.

Years passed, yes, years. I just thought that it was a dream. I didn't really believe that it was, but maybe...? A year or so ago, I remembered it again; the squirrel, the little boy, the key, everything. I decided to google it again, but this time I used different search words and I found it. I was so happy. You have no idea! I had been thinking about this movie for years!

I watched it again and it's a cute and sometimes scary movie. I was just happy I had a chance to find it again (:

My sister and I used to go to this daycare where we watched a movie a day. We watched a lot of movies more than once and this was one of them, because everyone loved it so much. About a month ago, I remembered so little about the movie that I thought I had dreamed about it (kinda ironic, don't you think?). Then I looked it up on IMDb and realized it was a real movie. I got it for my sister for Christmas and having just watched it, I'm glad I did.

Nemo is a fun-loving boy who dreams that he goes to Slumberland, a magical kingdom that contains everything any kid would ever love. This place becomes a sort of reality for Nemo and he is entrusted as King Morpheus's heir and given a key to every door in the kingdom- however, he is asked to not open the door that has the key's symbol on it. Of course, he ends up opening it (with a little encouragement from a troublemaker named Flip) and the Nightmare King ends up kidnapping the king.

The movie is not an intricate masterpiece storywise, but the plot and characters are so much fun it really doesn't matter! The real joy here is the animated backgrounds and effects- this movie is a visual stunner.