MOVIE NEWS: Gulliver’s Travels

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, all! For many families, Christmas day is a great day to catch a flick. And for many film studios, it’s a great day to release a family-friendly flick. This year is no different as Gulliver’s Travels is opening today. I caught the movie at a preview screening last week, and I’m here to share my thoughts.

This movie is a modern retelling of the classic tale by Jonathan Swift — minus a few of the parts. (Well, a lot of the parts. More on that later.)

In the new movie version, Gulliver (played by Jack Black) is a lazy guy who works in the mailroom at a big newspaper and stumbles into an awesome travel writing assignment and a free trip. After his boat drifts off course in the Bermuda Triangle, however, he wakes to find himself in Lilliput, a place where everyone is the size of a small action figure.

Gulliver quickly becomes the (terrible pun alert!) biggest thing in Lilliput, and he starts making friends and enemies galore. But will his larger-than-life presence help or hurt Lilliput? You’ll have to catch this flick to find out!

Here are a few observations about the movie:

1. It’s entertaining. The acting is good, the characters are cool, and the special effects are great — for instance, Jack Black looks perfectly natural as a giant in Lilliput. There’s enough action and conflict to keep the movie moving, too.

2. It’s [potty] humourous. It’s got a lot of laughs, but be warned: some jokes revolve around, um, bodily functions. And Jack Black’s belly. If that’s not your thing, this movie’s not for you. However, judging by the reaction at my screening, it didn’t hurt many kids’ (especially boys’) enjoyment.

3. It’s not like the book. At all. It covers only one of the book’s four parts, and even then it doesn’t stick too close to the plot. For instance, I don’t remember any giant robots — or wedgies! — in the book. Then again, maybe the filmmakers are just setting up Gulliver’s sequels?

Overall, I thought this movie was pretty good. What’s more: after my screening, I distinctly overheard one OWL-aged kid saying, “Gulliver’s Travels was awesome. I’m going to tell all my friends about it.” So there you go!

Happy holidays, everyone! I’ll be back next week with a reverse mailbag, so keep checking back.

Talk to you soon.

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com