Little Nemo

Magical and exciting, this classic will keep you entertained. After watching this movie once when I was little I immediately found myself hooked! I still watch it 10 years later! It's just so full of adventure, comedy, and sad moments. The plot, characters, scenery, && music are illustrated && played out very well. It's probably the most unique && original work of art you will ever come across next to Miyuzaki's 'Spirited Away' and 'Howl's Moving Castle'. I would recommened this to just about anyone who shares a love for imagination. This is deffinately worthy of the title 'classic'.

I actually seen this baby nearly 20 years ago when I was a kid. But due to how little I could recall of Little Nemo, I never got around to writing a proper review for it until I got a copy of the film just recently to cover. A little known fact about this film to many folks is that Little Nemo was made as an attempted collaboration between American and Japanese animation studios planned during the early 1980s. However, differences in the creative direction of the film led to enough disputes between both sides that it took years before the film finally got a theatricalrelease, which shows rather prominently in how the animation and plot to this are laid out. The look and feel for both are very Western-influenced as Little Nemo looks almost like a Disney film with its character designs and scenery, while sporting fluid movements and animated sequences. For an 80s anime, Little Nemo is easily among one of the better-looking animated films I've seen from the decade, being on par with Studio Ghibli films made during the time. In terms of its plot and characters though, Little Nemo is rather underwhelming in both departments if you're not this baby's intended target audience of younger children. The cast mostly fill simple character types related to Western animated films and the plot's rather haphazard pace limit any world-building or character exploration that could have been utilized. The plot for it also milks a number of storytelling cliches that never get explored as Nemo is the "chosen one" to be Slumberland's prince, a typical good vs evil conflict involving the Nightmare King in the movie's later half, a number of the Slumberland residents looking like those part of the circus troupe he encountered at the start of the film and an attempt at incorporating some sort of moral related to Nemo's adventure. Pretty much, the film's intent is to keep its plot and characters as simple as possible for its target audience while anyone older may keep wondering why certain stuff to it is never explored. Little Nemo also has its sloppy points in its writing. The later third of the movie features a couple points where Nemo is in some sort of hostile situation, yet he "wakes up" away from it only to discover he is still dreaming. The "wake up" bits function as a sort of deus ex machina to get Nemo out of trouble and seemed rather lazy in execution. The film's attempt at a moral is also rather questionable as it tries connecting a rather mundane incident that Nemo is involved with at the start of the film to later events in it when Nemo unintentionally triggers the threat of the Nightmare King for the film's second half. However, the events leading up to the moral being utilized are rather idiotic as a certain character was dumb enough to entrust the safety of his entire kingdom to Nemo (and not warning him of the danger in question) and our lead gets rather easily duped into triggering said events. Overall, Little Nemo is mostly fare for younger children as its plot and characters are way too simple to appeal to older audiences in the same vain that many Studio Ghibli films are. I might have been in awe of the movie as a kid. But being older, it really loses its appeal when you begin to question the "whys" to it.

I first read about Little Nemo comic strips in a comic journal that I used to buy before it went bankrupt. I read there that the Little Nemo comic strips in the beginning of the twentieth century went to be highly influential with most comic authors that came afterwards, Disney being one of those. Little Nemo does have something American and occidental in it, but it is an entirely Japanese production, but it certainly doesn’t seems like that, it sure looks more like a Disney or other occidental production. The character designs, as well as everything else in the animation, backgrounds, story, screams Disney. Some triviaregarding the pre-production of this movie is that Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were to pick this in the beginning, unfortunately they never got to work on it, I wonder how it would have turned if they remained in charge here. Here's a brief description on the story. The story starts with a boy named Nemo and his weasel friend. Somehow Nemo is chosen to be the sole heir of Slumberland, so Little Nemo goes from his home back in NY to Slumberland without thinking twice. He is to learn on how to be a prince and everything that involves being a prince. But the king only asks Nemo to promise him one thing, the King gives Nemo the master key that opens every door in the castle to little Nemo and only makes him promise not to open the door which has the same symbol as the key, the forbidden door. While roaming through the castle, Nemo gets to know a little weird and malicious character, which incites him to run away from his lessons on how being a prince and later while escaping the guards in their fun, incites Nemo to open the forbidden door they that they had found… The rest, you can easily guess asthe story develops in a rather simplistic way. The story was done thinking on an younger audience and it does have a simple story very easy to get without major plot turns for a easy understanding. But the good animation makes it for the simplicity of the story, even I get the feeling that I would like to watch this at a tender age. While being a Japanese movie and being often referenced to Ghibli lovers, Little Nemo is by far a innocent view without any conscious and adult meaning in it. Ghibli recommendations, would probably be Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro for their both innocence. Unfortunately, the file that I got was a dubbed old file, so my enjoyment could have been greater. The English voices sounded too much higher than the other background sounds and the usual music. But still I could notice that they were good voices and did fit each character well. It's a pity that I didn't get to hear the background music in all it's glory, I'll wait for a proper DVD release in the future. Rate: 6/10 - A nice movie, but not really necessary to most folks. Only recommended if you're really into childrens animated movies.

Where to Watch

Links may contain affiliate references

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio