If you say “Nemo” to someone, they’ll probably think it’s a fish from a Pixar movie. Without it, they would think of a vengeful submarine captain. 20,000 miles under the sea. (or Extraordinary Gentlemen’s League.) But if your first relationship with “Nemo” was a little boy with big dreams, then you know you’re talking to someone who’s immersed in the world of animation, filmmaking, or comics.Winsor McKay’s early 19th century newspaper comic Little Nemo from Slumberland From R. Crumb to Neil Gaiman, Federico Fellini to Maurice Sendak, it has inspired creators.
Most recently, it inspired director Francis Lawrence (Constantinethe final film in the Hunger Games franchise) and writing team David Guion and Michael Handelman (schmuck dinner, Night at the Museum: Secrets of the Tomb) revisits the world of Nemo on Netflix in a heartwarming and visually rich production called slumberland.
slumberland It boils down the “lore” of McKay’s cartoons to its most basic parts. Kind-hearted children return to their magical quests every time they fall asleep. They befriend their infamous sidekicks and seem to wake up whenever the action climaxes. His victory was formal, not narrative. little nemo Comics are chokkablock with blatant racial stereotypes.
This modern incarnation of Nemo is Marlow Berkley (single parent), a girl who lost her parents was forced to move out of her idyllic lighthouse home and live with her very boring and ill-equipped uncle. When she meets Flip (Jason Momoa), she finds refuge in the famous Slumberlands. Flip (Jason Momoa) is McKay’s blatantly racist, largely reworked caricature of a clown-like Irishman. Momoa’s version of the character is a giant dream outlaw/hedonist adventurer with all fangs, ram horns, jester shoes, fingerless gloves, shaggy hair, manicure, and pink ombre. trench topping his coat. (My hats off to Academy Award-nominated Hangar His Game His series costumer, Trish His Somerville.)
Berkley plays in a straight (or girl) relationship, while Momoa plays her Beetlejuice. There is none dangerously dangerous. Momoa flips with obvious joy, a clown performance that never feels like a clownH isWithout a shred of self-awareness, he repurposes his talents for Aquaman’s strong poses in the DCEU, instead using them for kid-friendly hijinks. Jason Momoa is probably the best father role ever.
Even more impressively, Momoa never outdoes his diminutive co-star. This is one of many ways. slumberland The balance is perfect. Is it worth seeing? Clearly, a city made of glass, an underwater nightmare, and a fighter jet-sized Canadian goose. But Lawrence never delivers spectacle for spectacle, never making environmental creativity more important to the eye than character behavior.
is that funny? Yes: I laughed out loud many times.However slumberland It’s a rare action-heavy family movie that doesn’t tickle the funny bones of adults by trading in pop culture references and ironic supporting characters. Do you have an expo load?Yes, there’s a foundation of cosmic dream rules and the hostile bureaucracy of the 1970s cosplay dream police, acting as rails to keep quests on track and provide obstacles to overcome. slumberland It never puts worldbuilding out in front of its true heart, Nemo, Flip, and Nemo’s uncle’s wet blanket, played by Chris O’Dowd in the reversed third lead.
If slumberland Length may be overkill in any category. Two hours is an acceptable length for him in this world of his three-hour blockbuster, but it may be difficult for the youngest of viewers.and meanwhile slumberland I had never yawned before, but I checked the playback timestamp and was like, ‘Well, 40 minutes left? How?”
a real pleasure to watch slumberland A B on both fronts, not for ingenuity or originality, but a simple thematic delight well executed by a talented player and attuned to a larger resonance. ‘, but I’m a big believer in family films where the filmmakers had the courage to do something very strange. There’s a whole canon of such movies, and there are movies that, years later, feel like a fevered dream.
slumberland It may not really belong in that category, but it’s certainly closer to it than most of today’s blockbuster family films. It may be the element of the film that best adapts McKay’s work. Over 100 years of his fantasies provided the seeds of ideas that would continue to blossom into beautiful dreams for generations to come.
slumberland Currently streaming on Netflix.