Gulliver's Travels

This film was shown on our TVs many years ago and it was quite entertaining back then. Today, the ravages of time are very much evident, but that's not a complaint. What bothers me is that the script is a bit infantile (Swift's novel is, after all, about something completely different) and covers only a small part of the book: Gulliver's fate in the land of Lilliput. If I were to compare it to the 17 years older version, Richard Harris is a much more charismatic guy (and a much better actor) than Kerwin Matthews, but otherwise this newer version loses out cinematically, especially when it comes to special effects. If you want to experience a better and not so plot-trimmed “Gulliver's Travels”, your best choices are the British adaptation with Ray Harryhausen's effects, or the one with Ted Danson, which is slightly more Hollywood, but it covers the entire source material. (20/12/2010)