Gulliver’s Travels Review

• 20th Dec 2010

Gulliver’s Travels, the tale of a little man struggling in a big world (and vice versa) is given a new lease of life thanks to Twentieth Century Fox’s retelling of the children’s classic.  Stuck-in-a-rut Manhattan mailroom-guy Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) finds himself caught up in the adventure of a lifetime after a misconstrued proposition leaves him mistaken for a travel writer and promptly dispatched to the tropics.  One storm later and Gulliver awakes to find himself not in tropical Bermuda, but instead as a giant in the tiny land of Lilliput.  Our hero must learn to make friends with the locals, fend off enemy attacks and rise to the challenges of his supersized stardom.  But will a jealous General (Chris O’Dowd) get in his way?

If you’re a Jack Black fan that has become weary of the same old over-the-top “air guitar” humour, you’ll be pleased to know that he hits better notes in this film. Although at first, it seems that we’re in for another reincarnation of Jack the down-and-out idiot. He appears calmer in this role, the humour is less frantic, the singing less constant and the overall result is more enjoyable. Perhaps this is because Gulliver’s Travels is an ensemble performance and not the “Jack Show” I feared it could have been (see Year One). With Jason Segel turning in a good performance as Gulliver’s best-bud Horatio, Jack still leads proceedings and delivers the laughs. One particular gem of a scene comes when Gulliver feeds Horatio Prince lyrics to woo his Princess Mary, an amusing nod to Bergerac.

The British cast of Lilliputians add a genuine air of pantomime to the U rated family film and the beautiful Emily Blunt was perfect as Princess Mary – a confused girl torn between her loyalties to the stuffy General Edward and to her true love Horatio. Chris O’Dowd (of The IT Crowd fame) puts in a great comic performance as the General slowly losing control; while Billy Connolly plays firm but fair King Theodore, who takes Jack Black peeing over him in his stride. The only downsides are that James Cordon is wasted in the somewhat pointless role of Jinks and Catherine Tate fails to move her expression past that of a pouting queen throughout the film.

Overall though, this is a fun family film that will entertain the children during the holiday season. As a word of advice, you may want to save yourself some money on the 3D specs, the third dimension is not what this film needs.  But, if you go without expecting Oscar winning performances, or even particularly impressive special effects for that matter (think more The Borrowers than Avatar), then you’ll get to see a modern twist on this children’s classic that throws in a few laughs for the adults as well. Finally for those who are fans of Jack Black’s song and dance routines, do not fear – he has  not abandoned his air guitar antics entirely – the film’s moral ending is given some comic relief with a little help from The Jam and some of Jack’s classic moves.

Jo Suckling