Have you ever watched a cartoon you used to watch a long time ago? Like watching the 1940's Superman today, Gulliver's Travels from 1939 leaves viewers of today not only feeling nostalgic, but like it was a good movie by the standards of today. True, tastes in movies change with time, but true classics never die.<br /><br />The animation style of Gulliver is simple and the story straightforward. It starts with Gulliver being shipwrecked onto an island full of tiny people, about the size of ants. One nation's princess is getting married to another nation's prince, and the kings are planning the wedding. When it comes down to the wedding song, both kings suggest their own songs and have a fight about it. They end up going to war over it, but before the war can start, Gulliver is found and captured by the tiny people. He escapes and becomes allies with the people of Lilliput, the nation with the princess. The rival king has sent spies to Lilliput and asks them to kill Gulliver. The movie progresses with the countries warring and Gulliver trapped in the middle. Gulliver reunites the prince and princess and is about to put a stop to the war when the spies pull his own pistol on him. The prince hops on his horse and knocks the gun off just in time, but falls down a cliff in doing so. Gulliver picks up the boy and tells the kings how stupid they've been, fighting over a song, and that the prince is dead. In the end, the prince turns out to be alive and sings his country's song with the princess singing her country's song. Gulliver gets a new ship and is on his way. All is well.<br /><br />The most striking thing a viewer will notice in the movie is the differences between characters. The smarter, most knowledgeable and reasonable characters like Gulliver, the prince and princess all are animated to look lifelike, whereas the villagers, spies and kings all have a sort of dwarfish, cartoon style about them. This puts a visual line in the sand between the characters that becomes more and more obvious as the movie goes on. The kings are acting foolish and the people from the village are acting on their behalf. The spies and Gabby, the man who finds Gulliver all have the most cartoonish movements and are the most comic-relief type characters. The animation style provides for a visual representation of the character's personality, subtly hinting that real people should be more reasonable and intelligent, lest they look like the dwarfish, ignorant people.<br /><br />Another element that draws attention to itself is the repetition of Gulliver's line "Oh my." Oddly enough, he only says it at times where the plot is thickening, such as when the prince comes back for the princess. He doesn't seem to find it odd that people not much bigger than ants are clothing him and dancing for him for no reason other than he's a giant to them. This may be surprising, but considering Gulliver's character, it could just be a part of his kind-hearted nature. This distinction between "Oh my" being something surprising, and Gulliver's "Oh my" meaning something is about to happen, becomes more concrete as the movie goes on. Thus, when an "Oh my" is heard from Gulliver, the audience knows it should pay attention to this point in the plot, as it is important to the overall storyline.<br /><br />The most notable animation achievement is the realism behind Gulliver. Nowadays, amazing things can be done with 3D animation, making characters look more realistic, but for some reason, they still have an unnatural feel to them. This comes down to the motion of the characters, which this movie nailed with Gulliver. His movements look like that of a human being, jerky at times, possibly slow, but always realistic in those flaws. Nobody moves swiftly across the floor with little bounce, or keep steady, fluid motion, and this lack of fluidity is captured in Gulliver. Good examples of this include when Gulliver steps over the town and during the first shipwreck scene. Before he steps over the buildings, he pauses slightly as if to gain balance and keep going. This slight pause is what separates him from the CGI of today. When Gulliver's ships wrecks and he's drowning, his head comes above water a few times, but his arms are seen flailing, wildly, but with purpose, as if in an attempt to get air. Their movement is almost random, but meaningful. This level of realism within Gulliver is still astounding today, almost seventy years after the film's production.<br /><br />The director Dave Fleischer has something to do with this animation style. At that time, he was a great director of many cartoons, most notably Popeye. Gulliver had a huge step toward realism and it continued on in Fleischer's work. A few years later, he went on to direct the Superman cartoons, which are still held in high acclaim for their animation style and techniques of realistic movements and absorbing story lines.<br /><br />Though this movie may have been forgotten by many, its animation style, subtle repetition of elements and straightforward storyline all lend to this movie's timelessness. Normally, people look to the future for the latest and greatest, but Gulliver is a shining example of what the past can teach the future.