Such a frustrating disappointment

Load of rubbish!!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

In my senior year of high school, I took a class on children's literature and one of the books we were assigned to read was "Gulliver's Travels". At the time to me, it was very slow reading and I quickly lost interest. I knew the story from abbreviated versions of the novel and did not pick up on the political ramifications of the story. Almost 35 years later, the book remains a far- off memory. However, in studying cinema and watching this fetching looking version, the things that I missed are now as clear as crystal. Difference in appearances, being more popular than royal leaders and the ability to solve issues easier than those in charge makes him enemy of the state. He is Gulliver, a friendly giants from England visit who has landed on the island of Lilliput, of little people the size of his finger. They first think that he is some sort of monster, but his abilities to do things for them it which they couldn't imagine being done making popular, for the moment. The underlying meanings hidden inside the plot are still very potent today, and even if you don't pick those up on your initial reading or viewing of any of the Gulliver's Travels movies, you can still enjoy the movie for the fun fantasy that it is.As with several other Ray Harryhausen movies, the special effects use the best of stop motion. Kerwin Mathews is an excellent hero. Some tidbits of minor characters make you think that there will be a few subplots but they pretty much disappear with the rainstorm that Gulliver blows away. The film switched gears half way through when Gulliver finds himself in a world full of giants which gives the reminder that we are all small fish on a large planet and our differences are not meant that I divide us but make us closer.

Jack Sher directed this kid-friendly version of the famous novel by Jonathan Swift, which stars Kerwin Mathews as Dr. Gulliver, who hates being poor, so signs on a ship headed to India to make his fortune. Sadly, he is washed overboard in a storm, and finds himself in the land of Liliput, where he is a giant to the miniature human inhabitants. At first treated as a threat, he is later made a hero, though the paranoid and ungrateful emperor turns against him when Gulliver refuses to help him win a remarkably trivial war against his neighbors, who aren't much better either... Good F/X by Ray Harryhausen, but film is otherwise uninspired and forgettable, though some of the novel's satire does remain, just not enough.

KERWIN MATHEWS makes a handsome but dull Gulliver in this somewhat slow moving, corny adaptation of Jonathan Swift's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS which might be better visited by watching the old Max Fleischer cartoon that came out during the year of SNOW WHITE.Ray Harryhausen provides the special effects monsters, but it's strictly the sort of romp you might want your kids to watch before encouraging them to read the actual Swift story with all of its biting satire intact. With today's CGI effects so markedly superior, there's a datedness about the film (made in 1960) that gives it a "quaint" quality.The story doesn't really take off until Gulliver is washed overboard at sea, landing among the little people as in the original tale. The sequence where he's tied up by the Lilliputians on the beach is remarkably well handled, as he finds himself the pawn of quarreling royalties. Yet, he manages to get them to release him from his bonds. He proves his worth to them and they think of him as their invincible weapon.The story follows the familiar pattern of other "Gulliver" films, with the "giant" interacting with the little people and settling issues of morality and justice with occasional bits of sermonizing.Should appeal to kids with its fascinating trick photography and handsome Technicolor trappings, enhanced by the delightful Bernard Herrmann score. But adults had better beware. They might find themselves losing interest after the first half-hour.

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) *** Fantastic adaptation of Jonathan Swift's classic tale about Dr. Lemuel Gulliver (Kerwin Mathews) who embarks on an unusual odyssey involving the tiny denizens of Lilliput and the giants of Brobdignagnan including the adolescent giantess Glumdalclitch (Sherry Alberoni) with a wonderful blend of action and the great stop-motion animations of Ray Harryhausen's. Fun for the entire family. ** Personal note: Begging for a Hollywood remake with a female Gulliver (Gina Gershon anyone?)