The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960)

One of my all time favorites.

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I never read Gulliver's Travels or saw any other movies based on it but I can't imagine that the original story is this bad.It starts in England where very few people have British accents.Oddly, in the other two worlds he visits most of the people do have British accents.So his girlfriend gets mad at him,dumps him and runs away because he wants to go on a voyage with some ship captain.Then it just cuts to him on the ship and she has stowed away to be with him.What?A storm hits and they get tossed overboard and end up washing up in different lands.He lands in Lilliput where he is a giant and they want to kill him.He proves he's a good guy by blowing some storm clouds away.Why would the clouds be smaller or closer to Earth just because the people are smaller?Weak.He says that he will help them grow crops if they build him a boat.Why would he let all those tiny people take forever to build him a boat?That's extremely stupid.After telling them he wants his boat finished in the morning, the Lilliputians get mad at him and start chasing him.As soon as he steps out of the fortress it's daylight and his boat is done.Weak.Not only is it done but it's old and the paint is chipping off.WEAKER.He ends up where his girlfriend landed and in that world they are tiny.Plus in that world they make him dress like Sinbad and her dress like every girl in every Sinbad movie.At the end they try to explain it all in thirty seconds but it's too little, too late.Anyway, the only special effects(other than a green screen to make people look small and/or big) is two minutes of a stop motion alligator.A very disappointing film all around.Nothing to see here.

The reteaming of Kerwin Mathews, Bernard Herrman and Ray Harryhausen after the success of THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD may not be the classic we were hoping for, but instead is a kiddie-orientated version of the classic Jonathan Swift tale GULLIVER'S TRAVELS with enough ingredients to make it enjoyable for adults too. Sure, at times the film is sentimental and goes overboard in promoting a strong moral message, but this is never offensive as in recent productions. In retrospect, it all seems rather charming and a little dated, but that's what makes it unique. This is a colourful and lively romp which is fun for adults and children alike.I'm sure the classic tale is familiar to most readers so I won't bother readdressing it, other than that this film concerns solely on the two kingdoms of Lilliput and Brobdingnan, ignoring the other minor lands of Swift's tale and concentrating on the most well-remembered ones. The first half of the film concerns Lilliput, and is boosted by some fine effects from Harryhausen which involve lots and lots of back and forward projection which is never less than convincing. Indeed the classic scene of Gulliver being tied down by the little people is present and as realistic as you could ever want it. The characters are interesting, the story good and bolstered by the likable presence of Kerwin Mathews, one of the most naturally charming of fantasy actors from the period who always lifted any movie he appeared in (another good one is JACK THE GIANT KILLER).The second half of the film, concerning the land of the giants, isn't quite as good, but again the special effects of the miniature Mathews and Thorburn are better than average. Although it drags a little at times, the characters are interesting if not likable, and thankfully some stop-motion animation is interested by Harryhausen to enliven the proceedings. The creations include a briefly-seen but genuinely impressive giant squirrel which abducts Mathews, miniature animals kept in cages, and a miniature crocodile which then proceeds to battle Mathews in a fight to the death, a classic action moment which comes as a reward to those looking for Sinbad-style monster action.THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER is a film worth watching for the talent involved alone. As well as Mathews, the quality cast includes the lovely June Thorburn as the love interest and a whole host of familiar British character actors - including Charles Lloyd Pack in a meaty role for a change as an evil wizard - playing the miniature people and the giants. Bernard Herrman's score is also lively and always entertaining, whilst Harryhausen seamlessly integrates the large and small people so that you never for a moment doubt the quality of his effects. Not a classic, but a fine, friendly, old-fashioned adventure, as heartwarming and cliffhanging in equal measure as you could want. A TV-movie adaptation (with lots of unnecessarily-added extraneous scenes) with Ted Danson followed in the mid 90's.

In 1699 England, handsome doctor Kerwin Mathews (as Lemuel Gulliver) is set to marry pretty June Thorburn (as Elizabeth), but worries about supporting her in poverty. Hoping to make his fortune, Mr. Mathews joins a treasure-seeking ship's crew. After a stormy shipwreck, Mathews washes up on the sands of Lilliput, a surreal land inhabited by tiny people. Due to his large size, the Lilliputians fear and distrust Mathews. However, he negotiates a release from bondage and finds allies with little Lee Patterson (as Reldresal) and beautiful blonde Jo Morrow (as Gwendolyn)...Mathews begins to build a large boat, hoping to return home and find his fiancée. But there is big trouble in Lilliput for their newest citizen. Mathews is caught up in local politics when the Lilliputians enlist his help in their war with another island of tiny people. The people of Blefuscu crack open their eggs at the larger end, in direct conflict with the Lilliputians method of opening eggs at the shorter end. The yolk's on war (as noted in writer Jonathan's Swift's original work). Later, Mathews' "Gulliver" finds his world turned upside down in a land of giants... This is watered-down Swift, but it's still a great adventure for children of all ages.******* The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (11/30/60) Jack Sher ~ Kerwin Mathews, Sherry Alberoni, Lee Patterson, June Thorburn

This pleasant yet dated little 1960 family movie arrives is part of Columbia TriStar's "Ray Harryhausen Signature Collection." However, unlike Jason and the Argonauts, First Men in the Moon, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and 20 Million Miles to Earth, there's not much here to thrill the average Harryhausen fan. Other than a quick battle with a giant alligator and a dino-sized squirrel that's more mirthful than menacing, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver doesn't depend on Harryhausen's famed stop-motion monsters to menace our hero. Instead, it features cinematic effects that make seafarer Dr. Lemuel Gulliver (7th Voyage's Sinbad, Kerwin Mathews) a skyscraper-tall behemoth on the isle of Lilliput and a doll-sized castaway "witch" in the court of Brobdingnag. The script is just a wire hanger for the "giant/tiny" effects scenes, but the story moves briskly (even a pair of treacly song-breaks don't get much in the way), and it should particularly appeal to the under-10 set who haven't yet become jaundiced to anything pre-dating modern CGI gloss. Mathews is plenty wholeseome and likable in a role first offered to Danny Kaye and (no kidding) Jack Lemmon. And Gulliver's fiancé/wife (June Thorburn) is perfunctory but not too much of a drip. Look for Peter Bull, Dr. Strangelove's Russian ambassador, in a small role. Of course the script is loosely based on the first half of Jonathan Swift's ribald 1726 novel, Gulliver's Travels. While the book remains one of the hardest-biting social satires ever to draw blood from the pompous and the political, few of those teeth remain in this truncated adaptation. Nonetheless, the Lilliputian social order and its Emperor's single-minded war against a neighboring island - fought over an absurdly trivial matter inflated to genocidal levels by unbending ideological fervor - are still recognizable targets. Visually, Harryhausen's tall/small effects are well done, though a viewer accustomed to more recent breakthroughs should expect to see the seams showing and hear the floorboards creaking. For a good number of fans, Bernard Herrmann's fine score is the chief appeal here.