Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland is an animated cartoon released in Japan in 1989. It was directed by Masami Hata, Masanori Hata, and William Hurtz. It wasn’t released in the United States until 3 years later, in 1992. I remember watching this movie when I was a kid, about 13 – 15 years ago or so. Throughout the semester, we have learned various techniques used in animation, various animators, and have seen various animations. However, throughout all of the lectures, there was something told to us from the first lecture that stood out; a good animation comes from a combination of drawing, film, and story. I personally believe in this because being a film major, this can easily relate to live-action films as it does to animation. In this blog post, I will discuss the origin of Little Nemo, give a brief synopsis of the film, as well as, discuss the development of the drawing and story of this particular animation.
Little Nemo in Slumberland was originally a comic strip by Winsor McCay, which appeared in the New York Herald from October 15, 1905 to April 23, 1911. From April 30, 1911 to July 26, 1914, this comic strip switched to the New York American, with its name changed to In the Land of Wonderful Dreams. If you noticed, the comic strip ended a month or so after the start of World War I. This comic strip wasn’t very popular among the crowd compared to other comics like Buster Brown and Krazy Kat (which we saw in class). In the comic strip, Nemo was invited by King Morpheus to become the “playmate” of the Princess in Slumberland. The comic strips consisted on Nemo trying to make it to Slumberland, but he would always end up getting hurt, dying, getting old, etc., right before he woke up (the comic strip would end with him waking up on or beside his bed). He would eventually make it to Slumberland, but it took him four months to reach the Princess because he would be awakened by Flip (a green-faced dwarf with a hat that says “wake up”). Flip would later become his friend in the comic strip series. Even though this was a comic strip, it was far from a children’s fantasy; it was dark, surreal, and very violent at times.
Similar to the original comic strip, this movie is called Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. It starts out with a shot of Nemo sleeping. As his bed flies out out of his window down the street, a bird (an owl I believe) makes a noise, which wakes him up. Then he flies through the town, up into the sky, into a darker place. This is where his bed starts to descend slowly and a train starts chasing him. When his bed gets torn apart, he sees a house that resembles his own and runs into it and shuts the door as the train is coming towards it. He yells to his mother, but she seems to not notice him whatsoever. As he opens the front door and peeks, he sees the train coming fast right to the door. When he closes the door again, holding it shut, he still screams for his mother. However, the train busts through the door, as he goes flying in the air, it cuts to him falling out of bed. It was just a dream. This is just the beginning of the movie, which you can view above (the rest of the clips are on youtube if you want to watch the whole movie). We then meet Icarus, his friend, a flying squirrel with wearing a pilot’s hat (similar to Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle, except Icarus is Brown). They go to a parade, advertising there is a circus in town. You don’t know this yet, but all of the characters from his dreams are those who are in the circus. We see the “Professor” on the piano, the “Princess” throwing him a flower, “Flip” knocking him over while balancing on his ball and juggling, and “King Morpheus” riding a horse. The others in the parade are the people of Slumberland and servants to the King and Princess.
(From Left to Right: King Morpheus, the Professor, Servant, the Princess, Nemo, Flip, and Nemo's mother and father. Icarus shown throughout the picture in various places.
After talking to the “King,” Nemo goes home to ask to go to the circus, when his father tells him “tomorrow.” That night, after Nemo sleep walks trying to take a pie from the fridge and running away from his mother, he tries going to sleep, however he notices a light shining through his window. Professor Genius and some other characters come inside his window to invite him to Slumberland as a playmate to Princess Camille. After they give him a gift from the Princess
(a box of cookies), he boards a dirigible (or airship) outside his window. When arriving at Slumberland, Nemo sees Flip; the professor tells him to avoid him. When going to see the King, he is missing, so they all split up to find him, while Nemo is told to wait. However, Flip tells him to follow him. Nemo follows him into an upside room. While Nemo is trying to follow Flip, he falls down into a toy room, where he helps a conductor fix a toy train. While Icarus gets on to ride it, the conductor and Nemo run around to catch it and hop on board. The train crashes into the Professor and we find out the conductor was actually King Morpheus.
King Morpheus ends up giving Nemo a key which will open everything in Slumberland. However, he makes him promise to never open the door with the same symbol as the key, which Nemo promises. Nemo is then taken to meet the Princess, where he gets a bit of an attitude with her because of he gets offended by what she says to him. However, they end up getting along and playing with one another. Then Nemo is thrown to some adults to teach him how to act proper (become royalty, if you will). After a dance and song number, Nemo escapes and runs into Flip. Then Flip shows Nemo how to have “fun” by making the guards hit one another. They run after him and Nemo, whom get away and do more mischievous things. Then, of course, Flip talks Nemo into opening the door which he is not supposed to open to take a peek. Nemo and Flip do it and there is something scary on the other side. They slam the door shut, with the key still in the lock and run away in fear. Nemo makes it back to the palace, running late for his ceremony. They dress him up and he is introduced to all of Slumberland. The King shows them the scepter which has kept Slumberland safe from Nightmare King. The Professor and King start to dance, as Nemo runs to retrieve the key, however, a black fog already has gotten out and consumes the King at the Party, where the King has vanished. The crowd blames Flip for what has happened and then he blames it all on Nemo. The crowd starts looking at Nemo and as they crowd around him, he “faints,” ending up at home in bed. When he wakes up, he realizes it was a dream. However, when he uncovers his blanket, he finds the scepter there. He starts hearing the King’s voice and starts to walk down the stairs.
When he makes it downstairs, he sees a flood heading towards him. He runs upstairs and the flood takes him, Icarus, and the bed down a waterhole. They are seen floating on water, where they find the Professor. Nemo learns Flips is going to be banished from Slumberland (by canon). Knowing Flip has a map to Nightmareland, Nemo and the Professor paddle quickly to stop the banishment. Nemo makes it and makes Flip give him the map. However, it is in code that only Flip can read, so Flip takes Nemo, Icarus, the Professor and the Princess to Nightmareland (to save the King). However, they all fall asleep and are taken down a waterhole, where the boat is destroyed and they end up in what seems to be Nightmareland. There they meet some nice goblins or woodland creatures who are looked down upon because they are not evil. As night falls, they camp for the night. However, evil bats come and take Flip, the Professor and the Princess. As, Nemo waves the Scepter back and forth, trying to recite the words to activate it, he falls out of bed. Nemo seems relieved it was just a dream, however, he notices the scepter and the woodland creatures in his room. Another woodland creature falls into his room, which he has never met before. We find out he escaped Nightermare King and has a message from the King. The message is the words to recite to activate the scepter. So, they go off on Nemo’s bed to Nightmareland.
They finally end up in Nightmareland with the scepter. They make it inside to find the Nightmare King. Nemo defeats a flying creature by only reciting part of the words for the scepter. Eventually, Nemo defeats the Nightmare King and saves everyone. However, it seems Nemo died in the process. So the King takes the scepter and brings him back to life. After going back to Slumberland, the Princess takes him back home on the airship. Right before Nemo wakes up, him and the Princess kiss each other. When he wakes up, he finds out his dad is going to take him to the circus. Nemo and Icarus go to the window happy and dance as the camera keeps pulling farther away from his house until he is barely visible by the window. Then the movie ends. Sorry for the lengthy summary, but I felt it was necessary for those who haven’t seen it in a while.
The Nightmare King
When looking at the drawing, you can tell it’s not as similar to other movies as Aladdin or Mulan. This movie, in my opinion, was drawn to be a much more dark movie (something similar to Tim Burton movies, except actual hand-drawn animation). Also, it seems to be more of an Anime (style of animation originated in Japan) feel to it. This could be due to the fact that it was developed in Japan, which is a popular place for Anime. In a way, this movie is on the borderline between English animation and Japanese animation (Anime). I personally don’t watch too many Anime films, however, this one I enjoyed as a child, even now. Overall, the feel of the movie is very interesting, due to the fact that it can either be considered a regular animation or a stylized Japanese animation (in my book anyway).
The story to this film is also very important. It does stay mostly true to the comic strip, which is a good thing because it should satisfy those who enjoy reading the comic strips. Also, the storyline is engaging, both to adults and children alike. Children have dreams and nightmares, which would allow them to relate to this movie. Adults can understand how intricate the film was done to achieve this feel of a dream. Throughout the entire film, the story plays tricks on your mind, making you think it was just a dream, but then showing you it wasn’t just a dream. This is seen when he ends up in his room a couple of times, but notices the scepter is still there or the creatures are in his room. This is supposed to give the audience a feeling that we are in a dream-like state. Dreams trick your mind, which is exactly how the story makes you feel while watching it. At the end, you can either believe it was just a dream or it wasn’t just a dream. Most people should understand that it was most likely not real and just a dream because it was the characters from the circus, but I guess arguments can be made. I also really like how the main character went on a journey through his dreams. A good story is usually done with the character going through a journey. In this case, his journey was done to essentially prevent himself from having nightmares, which he achieved in the end. So, in the end, we know Nemo will most likely not have anymore nightmares, just good dreams. Also, in the end, Nemo learned a lesson; to not break a promise. In a good screenplay, the main character should learn some type of lesson and have some type of redemption. Overall, this story, written by Chris Columbus and Richard Outten, really captures a terrific journey by a main character in an animation.
ETA: I Commented on the Blogs of John Lyver and James Scutari.
-Hope Everyone Is Having A Good Spring Break…Til Next Time…
