The New Gulliver / Новый Гулливер (1935)
In The New Gulliver, a 1935 film by Soviet animator and director Alexander Ptushko, a young Pioneer from the Stalin era falls asleep during a group outing and dreams himself into the role of Jonathan Swift’s hero. Escaping from a band of comic-opera pirates, he washes ashore on Lilliput, where he tolerantly submits to being tied up and is made the guest of honor at a feast. Before waking up and returning to reality, the young revolutionary helps Lilliput’s workers overthrow their decadent monarchical rulers.
The Lilliputians are played by hundreds of small puppets animated in stop-motion; their activities give this film its main interest. The idiot king, who speaks in a high-pitched voice, is presentable in public only thanks to a wily stooge who controls a phonograph that plays stock ceremonial phrases for the king to lip-synch to. During a musical number, a row of identical Lilliput women wear unchanging expressions of wide-mouthed stupefaction. Although the film was apparently a success in the Soviet Union, its political orthodoxy is questionable: what kind of Communist message is it that Lilliput’s organized-labor movement can triumph only with the aid of a giant from another world?
The Lilliputians are played by hundreds of small puppets animated in stop-motion; their activities give this film its main interest. The idiot king, who speaks in a high-pitched voice, is presentable in public only thanks to a wily stooge who controls a phonograph that plays stock ceremonial phrases for the king to lip-synch to. During a musical number, a row of identical Lilliput women wear unchanging expressions of wide-mouthed stupefaction. Although the film was apparently a success in the Soviet Union, its political orthodoxy is questionable: what kind of Communist message is it that Lilliput’s organized-labor movement can triumph only with the aid of a giant from another world?
