MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘Adventures’ Trivializes a Masterpiece

When production began on the animated feature “Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland” more than a decade ago, the film was promoted as a triumphant fusion of the sophisticated direction in Japanese cartoons with the American tradition of polished character animation.

Arriving more than two years after playing in Japan, “Adventures” (citywide) showcases the weaknesses of both nations’ styles.

“Adventures” fails to live up to its source, Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo in Slumberland” (1905-1927), one of the greatest strips in the history of newspaper comics. Each week in his dreams, Nemo became the chosen playmate of the Princess of Slumberland. They rode on dragons, played with realistically drawn animals and flew past great vistas of opulent architecture in a series of adventures that ended when Nemo awoke in the last panel. McCay’s consummate draftsmanship imbued these visions with an aura of reality.

Decades later, this masterpiece of graphic imagination has been reduced to a long, drawn-out cartoon-adventure that suggests an overblown episode of a Saturday morning TV show.

In a series of dreams, a whiny version of Nemo (voice by Gabriel Damon) and Icarus, his obnoxious flying squirrel sidekick, visit Slumberland and meet the Princess (Laura Mooney). Her father, King Morpheus (Bernard Erhard), entrusts Nemo with the magic Royal Scepter and the key to the prison of the Nightmare King (William E. Martin). When Nemo gets tricked into releasing the nasty Nightmare King, some very uninteresting havoc ensues. Nemo eventually redeems himself, but he doesn’t really risk anything in the process, so he never seems heroic.

The formulaic story would be forgivable if the artists had preserved the visual imagination of the comic strip, but the film is drawn in three conflicting styles. Nemo and Icarus have the flattened look of Saturday morning characters; the Princess, whom McCay modeled after his wife, has become a typical Japanese cartoon heroine, with a wasp waist, huge eyes and a tiny mouth. The Nightmare King is shamelessly lifted from the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.”

The international crew of animators simply wasn’t up to the challenges the film offered. None of the characters moves in a way that suggests his personality, and the clumsily drawn animals seem to slide along the backgrounds. McCay drew more interesting movements for these characters 81 years ago, in a short film he used in his vaudeville act.

“Adventures in Slumberland” might divert small children, but serious fans of animation will dismiss it as a bad dream.

‘Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland’

Mickey Rooney: Flip

Gabriel Damon: Nemo

Bernard Erhard: King Morpheus

A Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co. Ltd. production, released by Hemdale Pictures Corp. Directors Masami Hata & William Hurtz. Producer Yukata Fujioka, co-producers Barry Glasser, Shunzo Kata & Eiji Katayama. Screenplay by Chris Columbus & Richard Outten, story by Jean Mobius Giraud & Yukata Fujioka, concept for the screen by Ray Bradbury. Music by Thomas Chase & Steve Rucker. Songs by Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman. Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes.

MPAA-rated G.