Growing up in the sixties I was one of those early fans of Ray Harryhausen films. I remember the first one I saw was JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS followed by MYTERIOUS ISLAND. I found the special effects in both to be fascinating and read what I could on how they were done. They were movies that captured my imagination and spurred me on to learn about Jules Verne and Greek mythology. Somehow THE THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER eluded me and I looked forward to finally getting the chance to watch it.Based on the GULLIVER'S TRAVELS by Jonathan Swift, the film uses only a portion of the novel here, the visits to Lilliput and Brobdingnag. Those familiar with the book will know that it was a political satire of the time that has been watered down over the years via first a cartoon version and lastly by a terrible Jack Black film. I'm sad to say this film doesn't do it much better.Gulliver is a doctor who wants to marry his girlfriend Elizabeth. But he refuses to do so until he can financially support her. With this in mind he leaves England for the high seas. To his chagrin Elizabeth has snuck on board as well. During a storm Gulliver is washed overboard and comes to on the shores of a country called Lilliput.This may not seem odd except that the people of Lilliput stand about 6 inches tall compared to Gulliver. Mistaking him for an enemy they tie him down to the beach. He soon wins their favor and in return for help building a boat aids them when he can. But problems arise when they want him to defeat their enemies, the inhabitants of Blefuscu. It seems the two islands are at war over which end of an egg should be broken before it is eaten, the small or large end. Gulliver tows away the navy of Blefuscu thinking that will end things but the Lilliputian king wants them destroyed. Before leaving Gulliver must find a way to bring peace to the two countries.He does eventually leave and ends up washed ashore once again, this time on the island of Brobdingnag. This time the reverse is true, Gulliver is now 6 inches tall compared to the inhabitants here. Fortunately Elizabeth was stranded here and the pair are reunited. But an envious court alchemist warns the king that Gulliver must be a witch. Gulliver is pitted in battle against a crocodile that seems giant to him. Their idyllic life threatened Gulliver and Elizabeth must find a way off the island before they are tossed aside or killed for witchcraft.In watching the film the story of Gulliver as told in the novel is obviously too intricate to bring forth from the written word to the screen. The subtle nuance of the story is lost in the over the top production values given the costuming and acting among the characters of both islands. It just doesn't work. Kerwin Matthews who had appeared in the earlier Harryhausen film THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD seems more bored than anything here.But the most disappointing thing is the special effects used here. I realize that CGI was far in the future when this film was made but the matting process used makes one image seem slightly soft and out of focus while the other is clear. And the most loved thing that Harryhausen did, the stop motion animation of his films, is used sparingly here with just a short sequence of a squirrel that wanders off with Gulliver and the aforementioned crocodile.In reading the background on the film in the enclosed booklet the reason for these problems is apparent. Columbia had been working on the film prior to Harryhausen and his team being brought in rather than this being a project he worked on start to finish. It may not have been a case of his heart not being completely in it but the difference between this film and those classics he left behind is obvious.The best part of this package from Twilight Time is the extras, something they don't normally include much of. This time around we get an isolated score and effects track, an audio commentary track featuring film historians Randall Cook, C. Courtney Joyner and Steven C. Smith, THE MAKING OF THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER short, THE HARRYHAUSEN CHRONICLES a short documentary on Harryhausen, THIS IS DYNAMATION! a short describing the process of stop motion animation Harryhausen used and the original theatrical trailer. The quality of the picture here is the usual top notch for any and all Twilight Time releases and once again is limited to just 3,000 copies. If you must have every Harryhausen film in your collection then you should make sure one of those copies is yours.

Jonathan Swift's novel, "Gulliver's Travels," is a classic satire from 1726. I once managed to get around to reading his "A Modest Proposal", in which -- apparently in all sincerity -- he suggests that the problem of overpopulation and malnutrition in his native Ireland can be cured simply by having the Irish eat their own children.Well, that's what satire is, I guess. A send up of current social issues with an element of viciousness that's usually absent from a mere parody. Swift must have found the mores of his time easy targets, just by reducing their characteristics to the absurd. Are the Irish causing you problems? Get rid of them.In "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver" the problems dealt with are (1) the causes of war among the tiny Lilliputians, and (2) science versus religion among the giant Brobdingnagians. I think some other adventures were deleted. I seem to remember Yahoos and Houyhnhnms and maybe one or two others. But the elisions are okay. Just two of the strange worlds Gulliver visits are enough for one movie. (The third world of the title is his home in England.) I don't know that this story has the same impact as it originally did. Maybe you need some kind of Skeleton Key to pick up the more arcane references, as with "Finnegans Wake," "Alice in Wonderland," or "The Master and Margarita." However, the broader points of the satire should be clear enough to everyone except the kids, who will be tickled by it because it's such a colorful fairy tale.Kerwin Mathews is an idealistic English doctor, Lemuel Gulliver who is washed overboard at sea and finds himself on an island inhabited by tiny people, the vaguely Arabic Lilliputians. Once the little people get over their astonishment -- because compared to them Gulliver is really HUGE -- they try to talk him into using his immense strength to destroy their enemies on a neighboring island. Man, are the Lilliputians petty, especially the sputtering king. "I have abiding faith in the trustworthiness and reliability of any man that I can kill," he announces. He's dying to go to war and kill his enemies because they open their eggs from the big side rather than the small side, as civilized Lilliputians do. The perceptive adults in the audience are, at this point, permitted to explain to the children that sometimes wars are fought for silly reasons. He wants a warmonger for a Prime Minister, although, "I don't need a Prime Minister to fight a war. I need one to blame if it goes wrong." Here, please explain to the children the meaning of the phrase, "The buck stops there." Gulliver promises to end the war and he does, by stealing the enemy's fleet so they can never attack Lilliput. This doesn't satisfy the king because it wasn't a proper war. How can you have a war without sacrifice and heroism? And besides, since Gulliver robbed the enemy of their fleet, we now have no need for Admirals and everybody in the Navy is now out of a job.A disgusted Gulliver finally manages to get off Lilliput but then lands on Brobdingnagia, a land of superstitious giants living a Medieval life style. (J. B. S. Haldane once wrote a famous essay explaining why giant humans were physically impossible.) At first they treat him well, an amusing toy for one of their gentle children, a pretty young girl named Glumdalclitch. But soon, after he beats the self-important king in a game of chess, and exposes the court magician as an ignoramus, he falls out of favor. He's smarter than they are. After all, he's a doctor and knows chemistry and science. The Brobdingnagians believe in witches and some of the stunts pulled by Gulliver -- treating the Queen's upset stomach with a mixture of opium and paragoric -- smack not just of elitism but of witchcraft. Besides, there is still that damme chess game. Who but a witch could check mate the King? So the Royal Court tries to burn him. Glumdalclitch makes it possible for him to escape.Gulliver barely makes it back to England. We see him on the beach with his bride, who was swept up in his adventures. It's not a happy ending. Nobody finds satisfaction right in his own back yard, like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." His wife asks what will happen to the Lilliputians and the benighted Brobdingnagians. "They'll always be with us," he admits with chagrin. "And what of Glumdalclitch", the truly benign and compassionate kid who looked after them? "Waiting to be born," answers Gulliver solemnly. I don't think Dean Swift would have been surprised to find that 280 years later, she's still waiting. Maybe, as I age, my emotional apparatus is becoming more primitive or something, but I found that final exchange rather moving.There are many special visual effects but only two instances of Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animals, one a squirrel and the other a crocodile. This isn't a monster movie. Bernard Hermann's score doesn't sound much like that of a monster movie either -- no galumphing BROOP broop, BROOP broop. It echoes the light-hearted quality of the story itself and the composer only rarely lapses into his usual effects. I think it's the best score Hermann wrote for any of his fantasies.

The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver I first saw on the big screen, and in color, and later saw it a few times on television, but not for a quarter century or so. So, I had to rewatch the 100 minute film. Kerwin Matthews, from The Seven Voyages Of Sinbad, does a surprisingly good job as the semi-zomboid, but buff, Dr. Lemuel Gulliver. He plays Gulliver as a real guy his genuineness makes up for his sometimes wooden reactions. June Thorburn plays his fiancée (then wife) Elizabeth. She's sufficient eye candy, and that alone is reason enough to justify her sweet insertion into the tale (she is not in Swift's novel). Gotta love her silly 'Don't ever wanna lay eyes on you again moment' after Gulliver objects to her naïve-te regarding the purchase of an old shack. None of the other actors who play any of the other characters leaves that great an impression, although the girl who plays Glumdalclitch (Sherry Alberoni, a child star on the original The Mickey Mouse Club on television) does a solid job with the little she's given. Her petulance and warmth make her the only semi-realistic character in all of Lilliput (land of the tint people) or Brobdingnag (land of the giants).This film features less of the stop motion photography Harryhausen was noted for, and more visual tricks involving split screens and traveling mattes, to make use of forced perspective in portraying Gulliver against his smaller and larger costars. Cinematographer Wilkie Cooper is credited in the film, but, realistically, he was, in effect, just a cameraman for Harryhausen.The story is a simplified version of the Swift novel. Gulliver reluctantly aids the King of Lilliput in his war against the rival state of Blefescu. The war is over which is the proper end of an egg to be opened. After Gulliver steals the Blefescuan Navy ships, the King is still not satisfied, and orders Gulliver to commit genocide on Blefescu. As a doctor and man of honor, he refuses, and is accused of treason. He then flees, and washes up on the shores of Brobdingnag, where Glumdalclitch finds him. The King of Brobdingnag offers to barter for him, then accepts the girl as his protector. Fortuitously, Elizabeth ended up there when she stowed aboard Gulliver's ship. He had been washed overboard to Lilliput, and the ship later destroyed. She seems to have been the lone survivor. The King's doctor accuses Gulliver of witchcraft after he saves the Queen's life with modern medicine, and the two lovers (married by the King) are persecuted. While the Lilliputians and Blefescuans are small in mind regarding politics, the Brobdingnagians are backwards regarding science and medicine. Glumdalclitch therefore rescues the couple, tosses them into a basket, and throws them down a river which washes out to the sea, where the two end up back in England at film's fade. Yes, there's some petty philosophizing by Gulliver, but it works in a campy way. Even the ending which questions whether or not the adventures were all a dream- while trite, is not too big a deal because the film handles everything in a lighthearted way. Had the film been more sober in its claims and portrayal, such an ending would have bombed, especially since it veers so far from the original.

This would be a good one for the kids: I found it to be a tad slow and corny. It did have good special effects, but the acting wasn't all that good. A pretty good lesson in how narrow minded folks are and mistrustful of anything that is different than they. Not a bad film, just wasn't my cup of tea.