The Great Land of Small

I do understand how movies can be loved if you see them at a right age as a child - but lets truly discuss this as a family movie - it is awful - long slow sequences where nothing happens - just long wide shots of bad actors walking through fields. Bad special effects, terrible script - the director was Czech and couldn't speak English and it shows. But once the kids are taken to this "magical" land of Small - it is such a joke - it looks like a bunch of Cirque De Soleil cast offs are performing in front of a closed down museum - that's it. And then people slide down a chute into a hole and a slow deformed blob rises up (Slime-O) and demands more people. There is no connection between the kids and any of the characters and I can see why some people comment that the movie scared them as kids - the "man-dog" is creepy, Fritz is kind of creepy, lots of filthy carny looking people, etc. And the kids do that bad kid acting thing where EVERY line is delivered with the same enthusiastic sing-song. Man - what a disaster - this makes The Peanut Butter Solution look like Spielberg.

I can't believe how many children from the late eighties were freaked out by this movie. The scene of the people being swallowed by the "slimo" monster haunted me since I was a little kid, until I wasn't sure if it was actually from a movie or something I dreamed! So glad this bizarre movie actually exists. Not sure if I will show it to my kids though . . .

My sister and I watched this movie as children. With it's colorful, comic events and adventure, it became our favorite. Now we have children of our own and have been wanting to share this magic with them. We've spent the last couple years searching the internet for this title, but have made a mistake. We've been leaving out the word "Great" in our searches. Well, I've finally found it and I plan to share it with my children ASAP! I strongly recommend this movie for children of ALL ages. It's absolutely captivating!

From the same "Tales for All" series which mentally scarred Canadian children for life with the infamous Peanut Butter Solution comes yet another trippindicular kids film bound to disturb anyone under the age of 12.

The Great Land of Small tells the story of Jenny and David, two fairly bratty kids who appear to work in the circus with their mom. The fatherless family takes a vacation to spend some time with Granny and Gramps in countryside, where the kiddos encounter Fritz, a diminutive denizen of the Land of Small, a realm existing in "innerspace" on the other side of the rainbow. Fritz goofed up in the woods by dropping his magic dust, allowing a sinister tavern owner to chance upon it. Fritz lets the bad guy take the dust with a warning, taking the opportunity test human responsibility. Of course things go wrong, so Fritz and the kids have to team up to set things straight. Their journey takes them over the rainbow to the titular Land of Small, where things get really whacked out.

For those of you who are purely reliant on plot and spectacle, The Great Land of Small will wear out its welcome pretty quickly, but if you have a taste for this sort of thing, I think you'll dig it. The camera-work is actually rather nice for a kids film, so it was no surprise to see that this was a French-Canadian/Czech production. The music is fun too -- lots of ultra-saccharine, twinkly synth-pop for kids.

It's not a high-budget film by any means, but it's full of quirks and peculiarities, which reach a climax when the kids go to the Land of Small, which is like a low-rent version of Little Nemo's Slumberland. The set is actually (I'm pretty sure) the stadium Canada built for the '76 Olympics, which is a very '70s futuristic all-white building with lots of sloping curves. Add lots of fog, populate it with brightly festooned Cirque du Soleil performers, and film it with some Dutch angles and you've got the Land of Small. This loopy land is ruled by Fritz's twin brother, played by Twin Peak's Michael J. Anderson in a dual role. His queen is played by the same actress that plays David and Jenny's mom, which is really weird. Hanging out in the Land of Small ain't so bad until the trip goes sour and David and Jenny attend a bizarre ritual. The Smallians start chanting "Slimo", summoning an ugly, moon-like creature out of a foggy crater. A dwarf and a giant are sacrificed (willingly?) to Slimo by sliding down a chute into a squishy pit. Slimo spits some gold dust into the pit and these folks are reincarnated into butterfly people. David and Jenny narrowly avoid the same fate. Long story short, this scene is really creepy and Slimo kinda looks like the scary moon from the game "Majora's Mask".

Anyways, if you are the kind of maniac like me that enjoys weirdo kid flicks with awkward dubbing, imaginative sets and more than a dose of creep factor, check it out!

I was 7 years old when this movie came out, and I was taken to see it with my best friend by his mother. The memories of this film still haunt me to this day. Something about the strange imagery of the film caused it to fuel more nightmares for my childhood mind than freddy krueger or any other ghoul could ever hope to do. For that reason, I don't know whether to endorse the film or not. The imagery in the movie was potent/bizarre/creepy enough to etch itself permanently into my seven year old consciousness, so if you're interested to see what kind of film can do that to a child, I'd have to recommend it.

If not, stay away, especially if you're a kid or have a kid with an (over)active imagination.