Gulliver's Travels (1939) on Netflix

G19391h 16mAction Adventure Animation Family Fantasy

Shipwrecked, Lemuel Gulliver washes ashore on Lilliput. The tiny kingdom and its rival Blefuscu are at war, and Gulliver wants to end it and help Princess Glory and Prince David marry.

Netflix3.4/5
IMDb6.6/105,483 votes
Rotten Tomatoes69%

Trailer

Plot summary

After a storm wrecks his ship, Lemuel Gulliver washes ashore on Lilliput. Town crier Gabby finds him and spreads word of a giant. Meanwhile, Lilliput's King Little and Blefuscu's King Bombo are signing a wedding contract for Princess Glory and Prince David, but they argue over which national anthem to play. Bombo cancels the wedding and declares war. The Lilliputians capture Gulliver, but he breaks free and terrifies them. When the Blefuscu fleet attacks, Bombo sees Gulliver laughing and orders a retreat. Realizing Gulliver can be a weapon, the Lilliputians treat him with hospitality. In Blefuscu, Bombo orders his spies Sneak, Snoop and Snitch to eliminate the giant.

Cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gulliver's Travels (1939)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Popeye the Sailor was originally cast as Gulliver when the story was first written in New York, but the idea was scrapped and the tale restructured once Cal Howard, Tedd Pierce and Edmond Seward came aboard. Popeye later played a Gulliver-like character in the 1960s "Popeye's Travels".
Although Gulliver's Travels made profits at home and abroad, Paramount fined Fleischer Studios $350,000 for going over budget, the start of the financial troubles that hit the studio in the 1940s.
Fleischer Studios had an 18-month delivery deadline for the film while relocating to Miami, and expanded its staff to about 800 employees to meet it. Snow White, by contrast, had three years from development to screen.
Sam Parker, a 1930s radio announcer, won the role of Gulliver in a radio contest. When the Fleischers met him, they thought his looks suited him to also perform the live-action footage rotoscoped into Gulliver's movement.
"It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day" and "All's Well" became standard themes in Fleischer and Famous Studios cartoon scores after the film, and "I Hear a Dream" was popular as well.
Deadlines were frequently missed on the rushed production, straining relations with the Technicolor lab, which was unfamiliar with the studio's remote Miami location, and leading Paramount to consider canceling the film entirely.