Gulliver's Travels (2010 film)

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Gulliver's Travels
Gullivers travels 2010 poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Rob Letterman
Screenplay by
Based on Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography David Tattersall
Edited by
Music by Henry Jackman
Production
companies
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • December 25, 2010 (2010-12-25)(United States)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$112 million [1]
Box office$237.4 million [2]

Gulliver's Travels is a 2010 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Rob Letterman in his live-action directorial debut, produced by John Davis and Gregory Goodman, written by Joe Stillman and Nicholas Stoller with music by Henry Jackman. It is loosely based on Part One (and slightly on Part Two) of the 1726 novel of the same name by Jonathan Swift, though the film takes place in the modern day and contains references to modern pop culture. It stars Jack Black in the title role, Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Chris O'Dowd, T.J. Miller, James Corden and Catherine Tate, and is exclusively distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Contents

The film was theatrically released on December 25, 2010, in the United States. Even though the film received generally negative reviews and failed at the box office in North America, it earned $237.4 million worldwide on a $112 million budget. [2] Gulliver's Travels was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on April 19, 2011, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. [3] [4]

Plot

Depressed at his dead-end job in the mail room of a New York City newspaper, Lemuel Gulliver decides to impress journalist Darcy Silverman. He convinces her he could write a report about his (false) extensive world "travels" saying his dream is to become a writer. After suffering writer's block and thinking that Darcy will not want to hang out with a "guy from the mailroom", Gulliver plagiarises a report from other publications. The next day, Darcy, impressed by his writing, presents Gulliver with a new task – to travel to the Bermuda Triangle and write an article about the legends of ships mysteriously disappearing there.

Upon arriving in Bermuda, Gulliver rents a ship and travels into the triangle. After falling asleep at the helm, Gulliver is caught in a storm and the ship is overwhelmed by a waterspout. Gulliver washes up unconscious on the shore of Lilliput, where he is seen as a "beast" by the town's tiny people. After the citizens claim him to be dangerous because of his size, Gulliver is captured and imprisoned in a cave. There, he meets another prisoner named Horatio who was jailed by General Edward because he loves Princess Mary of Lilliput, despite Edward also pursuing her. After the island across from Lilliput, Blefuscia, orders some commandos to kidnap Princess Mary, Gulliver breaks free of the plough-machine he is forced to work and rescues the princess from being kidnapped. Gulliver also saves her father, King Theodore, from a fire by urinating on it.

Gulliver is declared a hero by Lilliput's citizens and lies that he is the President of Manhattan, says Yoda is his vice-president and a living legend in his homeland. Edward becomes enraged by the luxurious accommodations that have been built for Gulliver, and for being presented as an honorary general of the Lilliputian Army. The townspeople find Gulliver's boat and his things, when Gulliver receives angry voicemails from Darcy, who has to take his place and travel to Bermuda. The next day, the Blefuscian Navy lays siege to the city when Edward shuts down its defense system as an act of revenge for Gulliver's treatment. Gulliver defeats the armada, invulnerable to the cannonballs being fired at him. Embarrassed once more, and with Mary no longer wanting to have anything to do with him, Edward defects to the Blefuscians and brings with him blueprints of a robot he had made from a page from Gulliver's Guitar Hero III game manual. The Blefuscians secretly build the robot, with Edward as the pilot.

The Blefuscians invade Lilliput and the robot-wielding Edward makes Gulliver admit to the people that he is "just the guy from the mail-room". Edward banishes Gulliver to the shores of "the island where we dare not go" (Brobdingnag). There, he is captured by a "little" girl (Glumdalclitch) who towers over him. Gulliver wakes in a pink dress in a dollhouse. The girl treats him as a doll, playing with him roughly. Horatio, who has gone to find Gulliver after being spurned by Mary, reveals to Gulliver that Darcy was imprisoned by the Blefuscians after she was lost in the Bermuda Triangle in the same manner as Gulliver. Gulliver escapes with him, using a parachute that he took from the skeleton of a dead U.S. Air Force pilot sitting in the dollhouse.

Once again accepting a duel from Edward, Gulliver defeats him with the assistance of Horatio, who disables the machine's electrocuting weapon. Horatio is hailed a hero and gets King Theodore's permission to court the princess. Edward threatens to kill the princess, but she punches him in the face. When King Theodore sentences all Blefuscians to the gallows or to prepare for war, Gulliver helps to make peace between the rival island-nations by reciting Edwin Starr's "War" and he, along with Darcy, return to New York City on their repaired ship. Gulliver, now a legitimate travel writer, takes Darcy to lunch while holding hands, after returning from another travel assignment.

Cast

Production

Cote Zellers created and directed a series of segments for Nickelodeon's animated sketch comedy anthology series KaBlam! called Prometheus and Bob, and a film based on the segment was considered and announced in 1998, with Joe Stillman as a screenwriter. [5] While that film was ultimately cancelled, Zellers would say in 2019 that "a lot of those ideas from that Prometheus And Bob script showed up in that really horrible Jack Black Gulliver’s Travels movie". [6]

In a January 2010 interview on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson , Jason Segel explained his character spends most of the film in Black's shirt pocket. The film features 7.1 surround audio in select theaters. The name of Liliput's rival country, Blefuscu, was also changed to Blefuscia. Filming of the Lilliput royal palace was at Blenheim Palace. Miniature 1:12 scale dolls' house furniture and accessories from Derbyshire firm The Dolls House Emporium were used to bring the movie alive with less need for special effects. [7] Jonathan Swift, the original author of the novel on which the film was loosely based, is not mentioned during the credits, despite the titles mentioning that the film is not an original piece.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack album of Henry Jackman's score was released by Varese Sarabande. Rock music and film themes that appear in the film include:

Release

Marketing

The official trailer for the film was released on June 3, 2010; and attached to Marmaduke a day after. The second trailer was released on November 5, 2010, and it is also attached with Megamind . As a prize on the television show Survivor: Nicaragua , four of its contestants were able to watch the film before its release.

Originally scheduled for release on June 4, 2010, it was pushed back to December 24, 2010 and later changed once again to December 22, 2010. [8] 20th Century Fox later announced on March 23, 2010, that the film would be converted to 3D. [9] On December 13, 20th Century Fox announced that it would again move the release date, this time to December 25, 2010. [10]

The film was accompanied by an Ice Age short titled Scrat's Continental Crack-up.

Home media

Gulliver's Travels was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on April 19, 2011, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and it was released on Disney+ on May 21, 2021. [3] [4]

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 20% based on 120 reviews, with an average rating of 4.10/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though Jack Black is back doing what he does best, Gulliver's Travels largely fails to do any justice to its source material, relying instead on juvenile humor and special effects." [8] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 33 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. [12]

The Hollywood Reporter commented that "any sense of fun slowly drains away as the movie insists on highlighting effects over character and story" [13] while Time Out gave it 2 out of 5 stars, commenting that the film "veers between the very mildly chucklesome and plain not funny." [14] The Christian Science Monitor called it "a movie of such stupendous uninspiration" that it was "monumentally dreadful" [15] and the San Francisco Chronicle called it "cute" but "sleep-inducing." [16] Slant Magazine rated the film 1.5 out of 4 stars [17] and Empire rated 2 out of 5 stars calling it "a low-grade comedy that'll have Jonathan Swift turning in his grave." [18]

Conversely, Roger Ebert commented that knowing whom the film is for, and whom it is not for, might help viewers appreciate it. He awarded the film three out of four stars. [19]

Emily Blunt has openly slighted the film, especially since she was forced to turn down the role of Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man 2 for it. While promoting The Fall Guy , Ryan Gosling brought up Gulliver's Travels, causing Blunt to respond, "We do not talk about that film." [20]

Box office

Gulliver's Travels opened to $6.3 million for its opening weekend, landing at #8 in the US; this ranks it as the 84th worst opening for a film with a wide release tracked by Box Office Mojo. The film grossed $42.8 million in the US and Canada and $194.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $237.4 million against a production budget of $112 million. [2]

Awards

Jack Black received a nomination for favorite movie actor at the 2011 Kids' Choice Awards, losing to Johnny Depp.[ citation needed ]

Black was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor, losing to Ashton Kutcher. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Gullivers Travels</i> 1726 novel by Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. It is Swift's best-known full-length work and a classic of English literature. Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver's Travels "to vex the world rather than divert it".

The year 1902 in film involved some significant events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lilliput and Blefuscu</span> Fictional island states in Gullivers Travels

Lilliput and Blefuscu are two fictional island nations that appear in the first part of the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The two islands are neighbours in the South Indian Ocean, separated by a channel 800 yards (730 m) wide. Both are inhabited by tiny people who are about one-twelfth the height of ordinary human beings. Both are empires, i.e. realms ruled by an emperor. The capital of Lilliput is Mildendo. In some pictures, the islands are arranged like an egg, as a reference to their egg-dominated histories and cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Fox</span> English actor (born 1939)

James William Fox is an English actor. He won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for The Servant (1963). Other credits include The Miniver Story (1950), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), King Rat (1965), The Chase (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Isadora (1968), Performance (1970), before quitting acting for several years to be an evangelical Christian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lemuel Gulliver</span> Protagonist of Gullivers Travels

Lemuel Gulliver is the fictional protagonist and narrator of Gulliver's Travels, a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Peet</span> American actress (born 1972)

Amanda Peet is an American actress. She began her career with small parts on television before making her feature film debut in Animal Room (1995). Her portrayal of Jill St. Claire in The Whole Nine Yards (2000) brought her wider recognition, and she has since appeared in a variety of films, such as Saving Silverman (2001), High Crimes, Changing Lanes, Igby Goes Down, Something's Gotta Give, Identity, Melinda and Melinda (2004), A Lot like Love, Syriana, The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), 2012 (2009), Gulliver's Travels (2010), Identity Thief, and The Way, Way Back.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Blunt</span> British actress (born 1983)

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<i>The Adventures of Gulliver</i> American TV series or program

The Adventures of Gulliver is a 1968 television cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show is loosely based on the 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The show aired Saturday mornings on ABC-TV and lasted for one season in its original broadcast. Flirtacia appeared in the third season of Jellystone!.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Segel</span> American actor (born 1980)

Jason Jordan Segel is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother from 2005 to 2014. He began his career with director and producer Judd Apatow on the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) and Undeclared (2001–2002) before gaining prominence for his leading roles in various successful comedy films in which he has starred, written, and produced.

<i>Pride & Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy</i> 2003 film

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<i>Gullivers Travels</i> (miniseries) 1996 American TV miniseries

Gulliver's Travels is an American-British TV miniseries based on Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel of the same name, produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment. This miniseries is notable for being one of the very few adaptations of Swift's novel to feature all four voyages. The miniseries aired in the United Kingdom on Channel 4, and in the United States on NBC in February 1996. The miniseries stars Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Tom Sturridge, James Fox, Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole, Alfre Woodard, Kristin Scott Thomas, and John Gielgud.

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver is a 1960 American Eastmancolor fantasy adventure film loosely based upon the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The film stars Kerwin Mathews as the title character, June Thorburn as his fiancée Elizabeth, and child actress Sherry Alberoni as Glumdalclitch.

<i>Gullivers Travels</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer, Willard Bowsky

Gulliver's Travels is a 1939 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Max Fleischer and directed by Dave Fleischer for Fleischer Studios. Released to cinemas in the United States on December 22, 1939, by Paramount Pictures, the story is a very loose adaptation of Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel of the same name, specifically only the first part of four, which tells the story of Lilliput and Blefuscu, and centers around an explorer who helps a small kingdom who declared war after an argument over a wedding song. The film was Fleischer Studios' first feature-length animated film, as well as the second animated feature film produced by an American studio after Walt Disney Productions' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as Paramount had commissioned the feature in response to the success of that film. The sequences for the film were directed by Seymour Kneitel, Willard Bowsky, Tom Palmer, Grim Natwick, William Henning, Roland Crandall, Thomas Johnson, Robert Leffingwell, Frank Kelling, Winfield Hoskins, and Orestes Calpini.

<i>Gullivers Travels Beyond the Moon</i> 1965 Japanese film

Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon, also known as Space Gulliver, is a 1965 Japanese animated feature that was released in Japan on March 20, 1965, and in the United States on July 23, 1966.

<i>The New Gulliver</i> 1935 film

The New Gulliver is a Soviet stop motion-animated cartoon, and the first to make such extensive use of puppet animation, running almost all the way through the film. The film was released in 1935 to widespread acclaim and earned director Aleksandr Ptushko a special prize at the International Cinema Festival in Milan. The part of Gulliver was played by Vladimir Konstantinov, who was born in 1920 and died in 1944 near Tallinn in the Second World War. This was his first and only film role.

<i>Gullivers Travels</i> (1977 film) 1977 film by Peter R. Hunt

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References

  1. ↑ Gulliver's Travels tests Jack Black's appeal. Reuters. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 "Gulliver's Travels". Box Office Mojo. December 25, 2010. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Gulliver’s Travels DVD and Blu-Ray Release Date – Latest Blu-Ray Release Dates" MovieCynics, March 14, 2011 Section: end of first paragraph. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  4. 1 2 Gulliver's Travels Archived October 6, 2015, at the Wayback Machine VideoETA, "Section: On Video/DVD". Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  5. ↑ Hindes, Andrew (September 18, 1998). "Nick sets 'Bob' toon feature". Variety . Archived from the original on September 30, 2008. Retrieved May 12, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ↑ Neilan, Dan (April 11, 2019). "Nickelodeon's long-forgotten Prometheus And Bob deserves a second look". The A.V. Club . Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  7. ↑ "Miniature props". The Derby Telegraph newspaper.
  8. 1 2 "Gulliver's Travels (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  9. ↑ CJ Stewart (March 23, 2010). "Fox Giving 'Narnia' and 'Gulliver's Travels' 3D Releases". TheCelebrityCafe.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
  10. ↑ Tom Ayers (December 11, 2010). "'Gulliver's Travels' moves to Christmas". Digital Spy. Retrieved December 23, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Gulliver's Travels Reviews". Metacritic. November 25, 2016.
  12. ↑ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017.
  13. ↑ Gulliver's Travels – Film Review. The Hollywood Reporter (December 22, 2010). Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Gulliver's Travels Review. Movie Reviews – Film – Time Out London". Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved December 26, 2010.. Timeout.com. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  15. ↑ 'Gulliver's Travels' Review Revue – Speakeasy – WSJ. Blogs.wsj.com (December 24, 2010). Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  16. ↑ Gulliver's Travels | Mobile movie news | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle. Chron.com. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  17. ↑ Gulliver's Travels | Film Review. Slant Magazine (December 22, 2010). Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  18. ↑ Review of Gulliver's Travels. Empireonline.com (December 5, 2006). Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  19. ↑ Roger Ebert (December 22, 2010). "Gulliver's Travels". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  20. ↑ Craig, Richard (May 2, 2024). "Emily Blunt's Lost MCU Casting Just Got Worse 14 Years After She Was Forced To Reject It". Screen Rant. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  21. ↑ Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor: 2010
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