Review of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989) by Sonita L — 12 Jun 2009

Little Nemo is a flawed, yet underrated movie. The opening sequence is wonderfully weird, unsettling and terrific, and channels everything that was great about the original comic. Nemo flies his bed over a deserted, decaying urban landscape, before being chased down by a huge, ravenous locomotive that eventually catches him, and he tumbles out of bed, awake.

Having shot its load early, so to speak, the movie falters by trying to tell a somewhat conventional story for the rest of its running time. Nemo is whisked off to Slumberland to be crowned prince, and while the movie never quite lets go of the surrealistic potential, most of the Slumberland happenings are more mundane than they ought to be.

The lovely animation - a whole lot more smoother and elegant than one might expect - generally works hard to rescue the movie at any given moment, though. Still, one can't help but wonder at how great this movie could have been if Hayao Miyazaki hadn't bailed on it.

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