Novyy Gulliver
1935 - USSR - 68 min. - Feature, B&W
AKA New Gulliver (U.S. title)
Director Alexander Ptushko
Genre/Type Fantasy, Fantasy Adventure, Fantasy Comedy
Flags Suitable for Children
Keywords daydream, escape, king, revolution, fantasy-world, phonograph, against-all-odds, sea-disaster, puppet-show
Themes Fantasy Lands, Heroic Mission
Tones Fanciful, Stylized, Atmospheric, Dreamlike
Moods Other Dimensions
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026793/
The New Gulliver is one of several feature-length animated efforts by Soviet puppetmaster Alexander Ptushko. Freely adapted from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the film is told from the viewpoint of a day-dreaming young boy. While the boy is "real," the denizens of Lilliput are all tiny animated puppets. The climax of the story is a Bolshevik-style worker's revolt against the despotic Lilliputian king, with the giant-sized boy leading the revolutionaries. Sound is used creatively throughout The New Gulliver, ranging from a demented monarch who uses a hidden record player to deliver his speeches, to lengthy lampoons of jazz bands and radio crooners. — Hal Erickson
Highly creative Ukrainian filmmaker Alexander Ptushko started out in 1927 animating puppets in short films. He later created the special effects for Dovzhenko's Aerograd. Ptushko made his directorial debut in 1935 with The New Gulliver, the first feature-length animated film to use puppets. He continued providing special effects through the Second World War and after that became a director of live-action features. — Sandra Brennan
A Marxist appropriation of Jonathan Swift, oddly enough.
If you've been searching for a Communist version of "Gulliver's Travels" featuring a cast of animated puppets and rousing musical numbers saluting the heroic proletariat, look no further-- this is the film for you! NOVYY GULLIVER ("The New Gulliver") the first major work by director Alexsandr Ptushko, is also one of the first feature-length films to showcase puppet animation. Once we get past the live-action prologue lasting about 10 minutes or so, the bulk of the film is set in an animated Lilliput consisting of 'pixilated' puppets and clay figures who often share the frame with the human actor playing Gulliver. This is not the first animated feature film-- Ladislaus Starewicz' TALE OF THE FOX (1930) predates it --but it's a milestone nonetheless, at least in its audacity.
Unfortunately, the film is a disappointment. Starewicz' animation technique was more accomplished than Ptushko's in every way: the movement of his characters was smoother, his pacing was tighter, and he had a healthier sense of humor. To be fair, however, Ptushko labored under the disadvantage of having to function as an artist in Stalin's USSR. Consequently, his version of Swift had to be adapted for Soviet consumption, and the propaganda is duly ladled on with a heavy hand. Lilliput's king is a drooling moron who giggles and scratches himself, while his ministers are all decadent sadists and cowards; meanwhile, the underground labor movement is made up of earnest, muscular (and interchangeable) workers who eventually overthrow the corrupt royalists with Gulliver's help. Stirring anthems to labor are sung at key moments.
But the biggest problem here is the draggy pacing. Despite the fact that Ptushko often has an impressive amount of action going on in the frame, nothing much happens plot-wise for long stretches, and when action does ensue, it ensues slowly. Worse, the comedy is poorly handled; most of it involves the king's evil minions, but it's all very clunky and obvious. Opportunities for gags are botched, one after another. (Perhaps Ptushko found it difficult to be comical with the apparatchiks of Stalin's Ministry of Culture breathing down his neck.) The best, funniest, and also weirdest sequence in the film is the performance given for Gulliver's amusement by the king's dancers and singers, whose solemnity is far more laugh-provoking than the forced antics of the corrupt courtiers. Also impressive is the sequence in the underground factory, where a spider-like machine and the robotic movements of the workers are suggestive of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS.
NOVYY GULLIVER is no masterpiece, but it's a must for animation buffs, and for anyone who has a taste for, shall we say, Commie Kitsch.
Novui.Gulliver.(rus).Kinoshniki.&.ShareReactor.ru.avi 
(Lots of sources)
