O Pequeno Nemo

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.

Little Nemo is one of the unusual cartoons. The reason is a combination of Japanese animation and American script and English borrowed voices. Originally, Nemo was actually a comic created in 1905 (yes, it's so old) by author Winsor McCay and followed the unusual adventures of Nemo in his dreams where he would usually wake up in the last picture of the comic. He used his son Robert for the template for Nemo and drew a comic that came out, intermittently, for over 20 years. The animated version went through problems, the script changed like the screenwriters and in the end we got the aforementioned combination where we have a Japanese director, an American screenwriter and English actors. Even the great Miyazaki participated in the beginnings as early as the first half of the 80s, but he leaves because of disagreements and himself later declares that this work was one of the worst experiences of his life. Side note: the script eventually went to Chris Columbus who is best known as the director of the first two films Home Alone and the first two films of Harry Potter. The film was originally released in cinemas in Japan in 1989, and after 3 years in America. He received mixed reviews and did not earn close to what was expected, however, later on by going on VHS he gained a lot of popularity and today enjoys a cult status with a certain audience.

In the film, we also follow the boy Nemo who goes to Slumberland in a dream, meets various characters such as Professor Genius, King Morpheus, Princess Camille, clown Flip, and is always accompanied by Icarus, the flying squirrel. All characters have appropriate names. I can say that this is by no means an easy cartoon. Nemo reflects reality in his dreams (which is logical), he often wakes up and we can't always be sure what a dream is and what isn't, at least not while watching. We have a situation where something unusual happens, so we know that it is a dream, but then Nemo wakes up, but strange things start happening again, which means that the second dream has started, that is, that Nemo dreams while dreaming. I remind you that this is a cartoon for kids and that Inception comes out a full twenty years after. There is one more thing I have to mention. When the nightmare starts and we meet the Nightmare King (I said the names are appropriate) quite intense, scary and dark scenes appear. Whoever watched knows what I'm talking about. Since I was 5-6 years old when I first watched those scenes, they were the scariest thing in my life, we have nightmares myself (haha ingenious when you think about it) because of the King of Nightmares. When I looked at him again as an adult, I can absolutely understand why this was scary for me (and I believe many other children) to watch. A nightmare is a de facto nightmare. I have to commend this film for its courage and determination to insert a little more serious themes into the children's cartoon, making it a little more complicated than the average cartoon. That is why I think that it is unique and that it can offer something to adults who watch it together with children. They will not be bored or monotonous for sure.

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.

It was very unexpected to stumble upon my childhood's cartoon at my 32. Now, when I was watching it, it was just interesting, but suddenly, I remembered how much it impressed me in past... and scared me. Along with "FernGully" and "Once Upon a Forest" it was one of the most exciting cartoon for a child with its dense dark atmosphere time to time.

"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".