Review: Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland

This article reviews the merits of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland as an early, experimental collaboration between the Japanese and U.S. animation industries. It should be noted that this film is in no way a piece of Finding Nemo merchandise.

What?

Plot progression The film's rather rambling title is actually a fair indication of how the plot progresses. Though the most significant event is the escape of the Nightmare King, the viewer is taken a most peculiar route up to and beyond this point. Actually, it's fair to say that the film plays out with all the cohesion of a dream. It would be easy to suppose that due to the fact that this is a children's film in which the characters behave inconsistently, the lead has no emotional growth and attempts at finding explanations have all but failed, but that would be doing it a disservice. Storytelling: A mixture of philosophy and superstition This is a classic example of mature storytelling packaged as innocent fairy tale, something which has always enthralled the young. Like Tove Jansson's Moomin's and A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh it plays with grand philosophical ideas [the self, reality and time are distorted throughout] and, like Alice in her Wonderland, Little Nemo is frequently faced with the dark and bizarre. The character's names also suggest deeper waters. Nemo is derived from Latin and stands for 'nothing', while King Morpheus is named after the Greek god of dreams. The flying squirrel Icarus is an inexplicable allusion to the myth of the boy whose wax wings melted as he flew too close to the sun.

How?

The West's first experience of the Nemo movie came three years earlier than its U.S. premier in the 1989 NES game, Little Nemo: Dream Master. The story behind this separation provides further insight into the film's disjointed feel. Putting Little Nemo in Slumberland were the result of the combined forces of the Japanese and U.S. animation industries. On paper, it represented a fantastic concept, but in reality, there were complications. The production was effectively doubly managed, often in conflicting ways, and several of cinemas leading lights, Lucas and Miyazaki (to name two of them), were temporarily involved. In an effort to make the film equally appealing to both markets, the production became hopelessly confusing and lasted an astonishing 10 years.

So?

The sad thing is that, for all its high ideas, these problems show and the final product fails to fulfill its potential, leaving many unexplored threads and an abrupt conclusion. It's hard to simply accept, as Nemo does, that it was all a dream and the characters we've grown to care for have just faded away.