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The book everyone knows but nobody’s read comes to life in this star-studded miniseries from 1996.

I have to admit it: I have never read Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. I have no good reason for this, except that it’s old, and rather thick, and I might have to stress my brain and vocabulary a bit to read prose that is three hundred years old. As with most people, I know the story of Lemuel Gulliver’s four voyages in broad, sweeping strokes, with more familiarity toward the voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag. The image of Gulliver tied down by the tiny Lilliputians is still familiar in our culture - even children know it - and any fan of Studio Ghibli anime recognizes the flying island of Laputa. 

So despite never having read the book, I have a sort of nebulous, pop culture sense of Swift’s comic attack on government, politics, war and human nature; in fact, it’s the same vague sense I would think most educated adults would more or less share. The purpose of Gulliver’s Travels, as a miniseries, seems to be to expand upon that general knowledge. Originally conceived as a project while Jim Henson was still alive, the Henson Company, in coordination with Channel Four in the UK, set about dramatizing the complete series of adventures as a three-hour television event. It’s here that executive producer Robert Halmi first cut his teeth on making fantasy adaptations for TV, and he’s never looked back. To anyone who watched network TV in the ‘90s and early 2000s, star-studded miniseries events like The Odyssey, Merlin, The 10th Kingdom, Arabian Nights and The Snow Queen became quite commonplace, with even more announced than were ever made. I know I watched, and as you might expect, some were quite good…and others were quite horrible.

Fortunately, Gulliver’s Travels is, indeed, quite good; I might even be tempted to call it the best of that lot. (It’s certainly up there amongst the top ranks of Halmi productions.) While former Cheers favorite Ted Danson is a remarkably inobvious choice to play Gulliver, he acquits himself with considerable aplomb - and thankfully, considering the alternative, never once attempts a British accent, despite the dialogue clearly being written for a speaker of British English. He is ably assisted by a cavalcade of luminaries, many of them British, including Peter O’Toole, Edward and James Fox, Robert Hardy, Sir John Geilgud, Geraldine Chaplin, Omar Sharif, Alfre Woodard, Shashi Kapoor and Warwick Davis. Several of these only have one or two scenes each, so although it can be a little bit frustrating to see such familiar faces go in and out of the story, it is fun to play “spot the actor” and it often helps to separate out the characters in your mind. As Mary, Gulliver’s loving but unsure wife, the one slight sticking point is the usually reliable Mary Steenburgen (Ted Danson’s wife), who makes the fatal mistake of attempting the British accent she (also) doesn’t have. Better to have just gone along with the slightly odd idea of people with American accents living in 18th century Britain, I think.

If, as I’ve suggested, the unusually high level of casting helps to separate a lot of minor characters with very little screen time, screenwriter Simon Moore has also been very savvy in his construction of the script. In the original book, Gulliver’s adventures are split into four distinct voyages, each with him leaving from and returning home, and not really associated with one another. Here, in an Odyssey-like twist, Gulliver has been gone from England for nine years, and returns home seemingly insane; shut away by the scheming Dr. Bates (James Fox), who is trying to take his wife, his house and his money. Gulliver babbles the story of his adventures to anyone who will listen. His fantastic voyages are intercut with scenes of his present-day reality, with one thread often proving a counterpoint to the other. At a certain point, for instance, Dr. Bates tries to keep Gulliver under control with doses of laudanum, while in his story, a mysterious sorcerer (Omar Sharif) keeps him a permanent guest by use of drugged wine. It’s a simple but clever plot machination to string a series of very disparate events into one cohesive, watchable whole.

In the end, of course, Gulliver’s adventures are meant not just to entertain, but to point the finger at society, its absurdity and follies. The implicit satire of Swift has, I’m sure, been dulled from the printed page, but there’s still enough here to raise a few adult eyebrows and a knowing chuckle or three, even if it will all go over a fantasy-enthralled child’s head. To aid in the satire, some of the races Gulliver encounters have even been partitioned into rough ethnic groups: the Lilliputians are British, with their precise procedures for a stiff, proper war; the inhabitants of Brobdingnag are American, endlessly needing entertainment; and the denizens of Laputa seem to be Indian, with a misguided search for knowledge that will never be quenched. Things start to fall apart a little bit, on the purely visual front, when Gulliver arrives in the land of the Houyhnhnhms; it’s impractical to depict the Yahoos at the primitive, savage level they are intended, and the Houyhnhnhms are just talking horses, so you can imagine how convincing it is to see Ted Danson in conversation with a dapple grey mare. (Yeah, you can tell they had trouble shooting it, too.) Still, the story is sweeping toward its climax by that point, and anyone who has found entertainment in the previous two-and-a-half hours - including the chroma-key (“green screen”) effects clearly required to depict the lands of Lilliput and Brobdingnag - are likely to be forgiving of the production in its last, most sharply-pointed examination of humanity. Adults will find the adaptation surprisingly clever, and kids will enjoy the sheer variety and ridiculousness of the situations Lemuel Gulliver encounters. For two nights of family entertainment, it’s a win-win situation.

Gulliver’s Travels: Special Edition comes to DVD courtesy of my old buddies at Genius Entertainment; you can see my review of Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather for more on how carefully they treat their miniseries on DVD. Thankfully, Gulliver is presented in two complete, unedited episodes - which must be selected individually from the menu - and in its original 1.66:1 widescreen format, as it was originally broadcast in the UK. (The original American broadcast was, of course, cropped to the then-television standard of 4:3). Unthankfully, the image is letterboxed; I guess the yahoos over at Genius haven’t made it to the age of anamorphic televisions yet. The transfer is largely very clear and bright, although it has a tendency toward over-sharpness in some, highly-detailed sequences; there’s also quite a bit of grain in outdoor scenes (notice the skies), and the occasional spot of dirt or dust on the film. Okay, this could probably use a restoration, but for a TV property, it could also look an awful lot worse. 

Audio is presented in 5.1; there are, regrettably, no subtitles available for the disc, but optional closed captioning can be activated with your remote.

Although the disc is called a “special edition,” there are really only two special features here. The first, Making of Gulliver’s Travels (24 mins.), is actually fully titled Ted’s Excellent Adventures: The Making of Gulliver’s Travels. This, I’m sure, has its origin as either a TV special or a bonus feature for a VHS release. Host Ted Danson takes us through the making of the miniseries, with lots and lots and lots of behind-the-scenes and pre-special effects footage, and a fun glimpse into the Henson Creature Shop. A lot of the discussion involves special effects techniques, which are interesting but have since, of course, been superseded in many ways. Comments are included from cast members James Fox, Sir John Gielgud (who admits to being a “great fan of Cheers”!), Robert Hardy, Omar Sharif, Mary Steenburgen, and Richard Wilson, as well as director Charles Sturridge and numerous members of the crew. Following this is an Interview with Omar Sharif (7 mins.), which is an extended version of his interview from the previous featurette. It may have been taken from a press kit for the miniseries, as aside from an initial credit for Sharif, the piece appears to be fully edited. Along with behind-the-scenes footage, there are also some odd clips mixed into this interview which appear to be from a version of Gulliver’s Travels starring an all-child cast in bright, colorful costumes; I have no idea what these are from or why they’ve made an appearance here! Both featurettes are presented in 4:3, although the volume on the Sharif interview seems a touch low.

Intriguingly, early press releases for this DVD mentioned that it would include some “all-new bonus material” alongside the making-of featurette, including a photo gallery, casting notes, concept drawings and other ephemera. None of this appears here (and yes, I checked for DVD-Rom content). It’s a pity, because some additional material would have been very, very welcome indeed. As it is, the only other inclusions on the disc are some long, thorough trailers for Lonesome Dove: 2 Disc Collector’s Edition and Tin Man, which automatically start when you put the disc in your player.

The one thing I will genuinely hand to Genius Entertainment is that their DVDs are always cheap. With an RRP of just $14.95, you can find Gulliver’s Travels: Special Edition online for under $10, and at that price it’s very hard to go wrong. In fact, if you think Gulliver sounds at all your cup of tea, you’d probably do just as well to go ahead and order it. It’s a solid miniseries, highly entertaining, and probably one of the stronger productions of its kind. The DVD presentation is fine, if not exactly forward-thinking, and the special features are pleasant if slight; I’m not sure this deserved a “Special Edition” banner, but I suppose they had to differentiate it from the 2000 DVD release somehow. Certainly, an anamorphic transfer and some expanded supplements would have been nice, but for a budget release from Genius, perhaps I should just be happy they remembered to include both episodes. Watch this one with the whole family, and in the meantime, I’ll see what I can do about expanding my own mind and finally reading that book. 

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