Category: Reviews

For my post, I chose to watch the Jack Black interpretation of Gulliver’s Travels. Overall, I was very unimpressed with this movie. I have always preferred the books to the movies. This holds true when it comes to this version of Gulliver’s Travels. While the characters and very basic plot was the same, this movie was completely different than Jonathan Swift’s novel we read for class.

The movie starts off with Gulliver working in a mail room for a company trying to impress a girl. He tells her he is a journalist who would be willing to travel to the Bermuda Triangle and write a story about his experience. She allows him to go on behalf of her company, and the tale begins. This is very different from the novel as Gulliver, in the novel, is a trained surgeon who goes on these adventures for fun.

Like the book, there is a storm at sea which causes Gulliver to be shipwrecked. A difference in the movie version is Gulliver begins this journey alone. In the book, Gulliver goes to sea on a ship with multiple crew members. A similarity between the book and the movie is how Gulliver discovers the citizens of Lilliput. After being shipwrecked by the storm, Gulliver wakes up confused and realizes he is tied down. He then notices there are miniature sized humans all over his body and panics. I thought this scene was portrayed well in the movie. The way the movie shows this scene is exactly how I pictured it playing out in my head as I read the book.

The director of this movie needed to add certain elements to make it more appealing to a wider audience; however, I feel he should have stayed true to the book. I did not find the added humor funny, nor did I like the changes that were made to the story. The only new plotline which I enjoyed was the added romance between the princess of Lilliput and Horatio. I enjoyed Gulliver attempting to give Horatio relationship advice despite being unable to win the heart of his own crush. The main element added to the movie which I did not like was how Gulliver caused the Lilliputians to become a technologically advanced people. I understand it added humor to the movie, but it was not realistic. I also did not like the added battle between Gulliver and the General Edward character.

One element I thought the movie did well was portraying the size difference between Gulliver and the Lilliputians. They rarely showed the Lilliputians in the same frame along with Gulliver. When Gulliver spoke, the camera angle was an upshot of his face making him seem very tall. When the camera focused on the Lilliputians, the camera was above them causing their characters to appear small.

Overall, there were some funny parts which made this movie appealing to a broader audience. However, I will never watch this movie again. I much preferred reading the book and would not recommend this movie to anyone wanting to know the story of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

Online I found a comic depiction of Shakespeare’s play King Lear, it obviously is much different than the actual play itself, but it adds a twist of humor. King Lear is a tragedy that ends in almost everyone either killing themselves, being killed, or just dying. Here I will review the portion of the comic depicting Act 5, as well as compare it to Shakespeare’s play.

King Lear’s Act 5 begins with Regan eloquently declaring her love for Edmund, but also questioning his feelings towards her sister Goneril. She tells him to “speak the truth,” to which he replies a couple lines later with “no, by mine honor, madam” (Lines 7 & 14). The comic keeps the same plot, but changes the conversation into a significantly shorter and more modern version, adding small pictures too. Unlike Shakespeare’s long eloquent speeches and formality in his play, the comic goes as far to have Regan refer to Edmund as “Eddie” (good tickle brain). This creates a comedic affect that fits perfectly into a comic, yet would be vastly inappropriate for a tragic play.

Later in Scene 3 of Act 5 of King Lear Edgar and Edmund finally have the brotherly duel that was bound to happen, and Edgar defeats Edmund. This is starts the domino effect of deaths. The comic makes fun of Edgar’s disguises that he changes between throughout the end of the play by depicting it as a “Phantom of the Opera mask” which draws attention to how no one in the play could see through any of Edgar’s disguises, even though they’ve known him for years (good tickle brain). In the comic Edgar himself even draws attention to this through his sarcastic dialogue when he calls them “cunning disguises” (good tickle brain). In the play there are also loud trumpets that signal a battle, which would have been very brave and noble as a Herald has to give the order to “let the trumpet sound” (Line 107); however, in the comic the sound the trumpets make is a small “toot” noise (good tickle brain).

At the end of the play when Lear enters the scene with Cordelia’s dead body in his arms he has a moment of hope as he thinks he sees her breathing, “Lend me a looking-glass; / If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, / Why, then she lives” (Lines 261-3). This moment that shows a father’s hope that is youngest daughter is still alive brings the audience to an emotional state. The comic includes this moment by having Lear exclaim, “Look on her! Look, her lips! Look there!” which also shows this emotional father, except it is abruptly interrupted by an “urk!” once he discovers her to surely be dead (good tickle brain). This comedic relief breaks the tension, and is something that is not in Shakespeare’s play.

Overall, the comic kept the basic plot elements of Shakespeare’s King Lear, but made it original by simplifying and making it laughable. The comic maintained the themes of family and loyalty that are present throughout the play, specifically by including the main parts of the dialogue between characters.

Comic

The timeless novel Gulliver’s Travels has been taken to the “big screen” multiple times. The version I decided to watch (mainly due to the availability on YouTube) was the 2010 version with Jack Black starring as Gulliver.

Beginning with the story structure, this version is very different from the novel we read in class. In the movie, Gulliver works in a newspaper office as a mail clerk. This is a verrrry different situation than novel Gulliver who was a traveler and seaman. There is also a definite difference when it comes to Gulliver’s love life. Gulliver in the novel is married with children and often reflects upon how he misses them (most when he’s in the land of the giants) however in the movie, Gulliver has a huge crush on one of the women in his office. It is this crush that motivates him to take an assignment for the newspaper that ultimately causes him to end up in Lilliput. While both and movie and novel land Gulliver on Lilliput via a storm and ship wreck, the movie version has Gulliver crash somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, a location notorious for mysterious crashes.

The reactions immediately following Gulliver’s arrival in the novel and movie are very different. In both, Gulliver awakens frightened and confused about the teeny people. After this, the story begins to diverge again. In the novel, Gulliver is treated as a treasure from the start. The people are intrigued by him. In the movie, the Lilliputians treat him as a prisoner and he even wakes up in a giant cave-prison back in Lilliput. After making a friend, Horatio, in prison movie Gulliver is sentenced to a life of hard labor. This is drastically different than in the novel.

The enemies of Lilliput attack while Gulliver is working, this loosely correlates to the novel because both include an attack. This attack results in a fire and Gulliver solves this the same way in both interpretations – he pees on the castle. This action has opposite consequences in the novel and movie. In the novel, we know that this action gets Gulliver banished. In the movie, Gulliver is praised and becomes a hero of Lilliput.

This alters the plot in the movie. He is a hero of the kingdom so he is allowed to stay in the movie and does not go to the land of the giants until the end when he kicked out when the Lilliputian enemies invade. In the land of the giants, he does not have a positive relationship with the little girl like in the book.

There are are multiple times in which the movie references details found in the novel. Gulliver is referred to as the “Beast” in the movie which is similar to “Man Mountain” in the novel. The movie characters also reference the special form of speech by the Royal Lilliputians however they mock it.

While the movie was very enjoyable, it was definitely modernized to appeal to a younger and more diverse crowd.