Ranked #443

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

Flowy artwork and enjoyable storyline along with amazing characters make this movie worth watching. I watched it when I was a toddler and grew up loving it. Nemo is a boy plagued by nightmares and when the circus comes to town, he's taken off to Slumberland. There he meets the princess, King Morpheus, and many more friends that bring this adventure to a wonderful climax. If you liked Spirited away, you'll love Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. It's based off of a 50's comic strip by the same name. Very underappreciated and underexposed, but well worth watching.

I first read about Little Nemo comic strips in a comic journal that I used to buy before it went bankrupt. I read there that the Little Nemo comic strips in the beginning of the twentieth century went to be highly influential with most comic authors that came afterwards, Disney being one of those.

Little Nemo does have something American and occidental in it, but it it an entirely Japanese production, but it certainly doesn’t seems like that, it sure looks more like a Disney production. The character designs, as well as everything else in the animation, backgrounds, story, screams Disney.
Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were to pick this in the beginning, I wonder how it would have turned if they remained in charge here.

The story starts with a boy named Nemo and his weasel friend. Somehow Nemo is chosen to be the sole heir of Slumberland, so Little Nemo goes from his home back in NY to Slumberland without thinking twice. He is to learn on how to be a prince and everything that involves being a prince. But the king only asks Nemo to promise him one thing, the King gives Nemo the master key that opens every door in the castle to little Nemo and only makes him promise not to open the door which has the same symbol as the key, the forbidden door. While roaming through the castle, Nemo gets to know a little weird and malicious character, which incites him to run away from his lessons on how being a prince and later while escaping the guards in their fun, incites Nemo to open the forbidden door they that they had found… The rest, you can easily guess.

The story was done thinking on an younger audience and it does have a simple story very easy to get without major plot turns for a easy understanding. But the good animation makes it for the simplicity of the story, even I get the feeling that I would like to watch this at a tender age.

While being a Japanese movie and being often referenced to Ghibli lovers, Little Nemo is by far a innocent view without any conscious and adult meaning in it. Ghibli recommendations, would probably beSpirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro for their both innocence.

Unfortunately, the file that I got was a dubbed old file, so my enjoyment could have been greater. The English voices sounded too much higher than the other background sounds and the usual music. But still I could notice that they were good voices and did fit each character well. It's a pity that I didn't get to hear the background music in all it's glory, I'll wait for a proper DVD release in the future.

Rate: 7/10 read more