Review of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989) by Lindsay W — 04 Aug 2013

The visuals in "Little Nemo" are terrific but the english vocals, sound effects and music are awful. The story follows Nemo, a young boy who is brought to slumberland to become the heir of King Morpheus. Slumberland is the land of good dreams and a place where nearly anything can happen. It is populated by happy citizens and ruled by a benevolent king and his daughter, Princess Camille. Nemo's job as heir is to guard Slumberland against the Nightmare King, the terrifying demon-like ruler of Nightmare Land. Thankfully, the only bridge between the two worlds is blocked off by a great door and Nemo is given the only key. When Nemo is distracted from his royal duties by Flip, the most notorious and mischievous outlaw of Slumberland they accidentally unleash the Nightmare King. Now Nemo, along with his new-found friends must save the kingdom.

The visuals of the film are truly dazzling. There's a lot of imagination in the different setting of the film 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 resembles 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 as spectacular and 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 and does look like a genuinely frightening villain for our heroes. Although this character is the one you'll likely remember best of all, all of the other characters are distinct from each other and well designed. They range from Nemo, who is just a small child in his pajamas, to Professor Genius, an older gentleman that's tall and thin to Flip, who's short and stubby and looks like a cross between a hobo and a clown. The models for the main characters are consistently drawn and their movements fluid so the quality is great throughout. The film is also peppered with visual gags that really work (my personal favourite being the montage where Nemo is trained in the ways of being royalty, including fencing, dancing, horseback riding and reading all at once). The animators really need to be praised for their work on the film.

What really 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!". You never really feel like you get to know him because despite being the main character he really doesn't have that much to say. Nemo's sidekick Icarus suffers similarly. Icarus is a flying squirrel so you don't really expect him to talk but he doesn't make animal noises either. He talk in a high-pitched distorted voice that you can't understand except for here and there when you'll hear a word or two. As for the Nightmare King, the voice he is given doesn't match the power of the visuals and just feels underwhelming. Looking at the film itself you're very impressed but then you're instantly let down the second the characters open their mouths to talk because most of the characters just aren't given any interesting dialogue. The one character who shows the real potential the film could have had is Princess Camille. Despite her limited screen time, her dialogue is sharp, funny and really builds up her character. You'll wish the story focussed more on her. Similar to the voice acting, the sound effects (particularly when there are large crowds) feel muted and underwhelming. The songs are not particularly well written or memorable either. It feels like the English version of the film was incredibly rushed and unfinished. With a story that's not particularly complex, this flaw really cripples the film at times.

So here's what you've got ultimately: a movie that looks fantastic but has terrible sound. 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 isn't available on all of the film's releases on Dvd unfortunately). For this English version though, it's still worth a watch, particularly if you're a fan of animation. For little children it will be particularly enjoyable because 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 favourite music while reading the subtitles, it might actually improve the film. So yes, "Little Nemo" is worth a watch despite the major flaws because the animation is so good. Unfortunately what could have been a great animated film is made just ok by the music, dialogue and sound effects but it's really a personal matter wether or not this will make the film enjoyable or not for you. (Original Cut with English Dub on Dvd, August 2, 2013).