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The New Gulliver Movie Review

The New Gulliver is a 1935 Soviet animated fantasy film directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. It’s a propaganda movie, but a very imaginative one nonetheless.

In a boy’s daydream, the working people of Lilliput revolt against their despotic king. This is a historic movie for being the first ever stop-motion film and one of the first animated pictures in general. That makes it important, though it is very quaint and archaic by today’s standards.

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It is only loosely based on ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ and of course only the first most popular Lilliput section, but it quickly abandons that iconic storyline in favor of a more communist twist on it. You see, the film portrays this land as despotic and unfair toward its citizens. The king has all the power and he is a bumbling idiot unlike no other.

The movie doesn’t really paint its characters all that deftly, including the protagonist, but this king steals the show as he’s so goofy and hilarious in his yelling and playing a fool. Most voices here are very odd, but to me they were funny in their squeaking.

Undoubtedly the fact that the king has all power and that the workers rebel against him make this movie very much an anti-capitalist, pro-communist propaganda piece that has that clear agenda that isn’t disguised in any shape or form. However, this makes it only slightly dated in my opinion as there is nothing wrong about the workers rebelling against mistreatment, so the movie is not all that terrible in its message, but this is all clearly questionable and subjective.

The New Gulliver is at its best when focusing on its craft, and oh is it is a crafty picture. The stop-motion animation at display here is absolutely incredible. What they did with these puppets is nothing short of miraculous, especially for this early era for the medium. They look and act so realistic that they might as well be real people in certain scenes.

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The direction is solid, the voice acting is pretty good and the overall production design is mesmerizing. It’s a whole world that they created here and it’s marvelous. I wasn’t crazy about the dream framing, but overall the solid pacing and short runtime made this a very enjoyable, breezy viewing experience.

The New Gulliver is a historic Soviet movie that was the first ever stop-motion animated film. It has that importance factor going for it, but it’s also a pretty imaginative and crafty picture in its own right, especially in its undeniably miraculous puppetry. It’s a very imaginative, wonderful movie that flies by rather quickly, but it is somewhat undone by its archaic anti-capitalist, pro-communist message. It’s a propaganda movie for sure, but if you discard that, it’s still a very good early animation effort.

My Rating – 4