Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
Click here to show this review. The visuals in "Little Nemo" are terrific but the English vocals, sound effects, and music are awful. Why am I recommending this movie again?

The story follows Nemo (voiced by Gabriel Damon), a young boy who is brought to slumberland to become the heir of King Morpheus (Bernard Erhard) Slumberland is the land of good dreams and a place where nearly anything can happen. It is populated by happy citizens and ruled by its benevolent king and his daughter, Princess Camille (Laura Mooney) Nemo's job as the heir is to guard Slumberland against the Nightmare King (Bill Martin), the terrifying demon-like ruler of Nightmare Land. When Nemo is distracted from his royal duties by Flip (Mickey Rooney), the most notorious and mischievous outlaw of Slumberland, they accidentally unleash the Nightmare King. Now Nemo, along with his newfound friends must save the kingdom.

The visuals of the film are truly dazzling. There's a lot of imagination in the different settings and a nice contrast between the real world (which is New york in 1905), Slumberland, and Nightmare land, who all look unique and distinct. There's also a wide variety of different characters, with mostly humans populating Slumberland but a variety of animals in that realm too (ranging from dinosaurs to flying ostriches) and in Nightmare land, the frightening goblins that plague our heroes range from bat-winged creatures that resemble flying monkeys to aquatic fish monsters. The crowning achievement in the creature design is the Nightmare King, who looks genuinely frightening and takes on a couple of forms that are a real sight to see. At first, he creeps through the doorway between the worlds as a black mist with red and orange lights, crackling through the curves, oozing around the floor. The scenes where he attacks Slumberland in this form are spectacular. The movie is worth seeing just for the wonderful effects used to create these images. When he is seen in his true form, he's just as imposing.

Although the lead villain is the one you'll likely remember best of all, all of the other characters are distinct from each other and well designed. The models for the main characters are consistently drawn and their movements fluid. The film is also peppered with visual gags that deliver a good amount of laughs (my personal favorite being the montage where Nemo is trained in the royal ways, which include fencing, dancing, horseback riding, and reading, all at once) The animators deserve praise for their work.

What hinders the movie is the vocals and the music. It's not that the voice actors are particularly bad, but often they're just not given anything to do. For long stretches of the film Nemo's dialogue consists only of "Wowee!" "Woah!" "Oh No!" and "Woohoo!". Despite being the main character, he really doesn't have that much to say so you never get to actually know him. As for the Nightmare King, the voice he is given doesn't match the power of the visuals and feels underwhelming. Looking at the film itself you're very impressed but you're instantly let down the second the characters open their mouths to talk. The only one who shows the real potential the film could have had is Princess Camille. Despite her limited screen time, her dialogue is sharp, funny and successfully builds up her character. You'll wish the story focussed more on her.

In general, the sounds in this film are not particularly good. Sound effects (most notably when there are large crowds) feel muted and underwhelming. The songs are not well written or memorable. It feels like the English version of the film was rushed and shipped out while still unfinished. With a story that's not particularly complex," Little Nemo" depends on its visuals to keep the audience engaged.

So here's what you've got ultimately: a movie that looks fantastic but plays better if you hit "mute" on your remote. Not having seen the film in its original language I can only assume that nearly all of the problems would be fixed by seeing this story with the original Japanese track (which unfortunately isn't available on all of the film's releases on DVD) This English version is still worth a watch, particularly if you're a fan of animation. I also recommend it for little children, as they won't be able to catch the flaws in the script, they'll just be impressed with what they see on the screen. That's not to say that children are stupid, it's just that they have less of an ear for dialogue than adults and are therefore less discriminating.

If you find the dialogue that bad, just put it on mute and play your favorite music while reading the subtitles, it might actually improve the film. So yes," Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland" is worth a watch despite its major flaws because the animation is THAT good. (Original Cut with English Dub on Dvd, August 2, 2013)