The New Gulliver

Plot

The New Gulliver follows Petya, a young Soviet pioneer who falls asleep while reading Jonathan Swift's classic novel and dreams himself as Gulliver in the land of Lilliput. Unlike the original story, this Lilliput is a capitalist society suffering from extreme inequality, where the tiny king and wealthy elite brutally exploit the working class. Petya/Gulliver witnesses the oppression of the Lilliputian workers and decides to help them organize a revolution against their corrupt rulers. The film culminates in the workers overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a socialist society, with Gulliver serving as their giant ally and symbol of international proletarian solidarity. The dream ends with Petya awakening to the reality of Soviet life, having learned valuable lessons about class struggle and the importance of fighting for justice.

Historical Background

The New Gulliver was produced during a crucial period in Soviet history, under Stalin's rule during the Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1937). This was a time of rapid industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and consolidation of political power. The film emerged when socialist realism was becoming the mandated artistic style in the Soviet Union, requiring all art to be realistic in form and socialist in content. Cinema was seen as a powerful tool for education and propaganda, with the state heavily investing in film production to both showcase Soviet technical prowess and spread communist ideology. The transformation of Swift's satirical novel into a revolutionary parable was typical of how Soviet culture appropriated and reinterpreted Western classics to serve political purposes. The film also represented Soviet efforts to compete with Western cinema, particularly American animation, demonstrating that the USSR could produce technically sophisticated entertainment that could compete internationally while maintaining ideological purity.

Making Of

The production of 'The New Gulliver' was an enormous undertaking that pushed the boundaries of what was technically possible in 1930s cinema. Ptushko and his team worked in secret at Mosfilm studios, developing revolutionary techniques for combining live-action footage with stop-motion animation. The biggest challenge was creating believable interactions between the human actor and the puppet characters. The team solved this by filming the live-action sequences first, then projecting them frame by frame onto a screen where animators could precisely match the puppet movements. The puppets themselves were engineering marvels, with ball-and-socket joints that allowed for fluid, realistic movement. The facial expressions were achieved through interchangeable parts and subtle manipulation of the rubber faces. The political content required careful negotiation with Soviet cultural authorities, who wanted to ensure the film properly promoted communist values while still being entertaining for children. Despite these pressures, Ptushko managed to create a film that was both technically brilliant and artistically compelling, establishing him as one of the Soviet Union's most important filmmakers.

Visual Style

The cinematography of 'The New Gulliver' was revolutionary for its time, employing innovative techniques to seamlessly blend live-action with stop-motion animation. The camera work had to solve the complex problem of making a human actor appear giant compared to three-inch puppets. This was achieved through careful use of forced perspective, custom-built sets with exaggerated dimensions, and precise camera placement. The lighting had to be meticulously matched between the live-action and animated elements to create a unified visual world. The cinematographers developed new methods for composite photography that allowed for realistic interaction between the human and puppet characters. The camera movements were particularly challenging, as they had to be perfectly synchronized between the different filming processes. The result was a visual style that, while dated by modern standards, was groundbreaking in 1935 and created a believable fantasy world that audiences found immersive and magical.

Innovations

'The New Gulliver' was a technical marvel that pushed the boundaries of 1930s filmmaking. The most significant achievement was the seamless integration of live-action with stop-motion animation, which required developing entirely new techniques for composite photography. The puppet technology was groundbreaking, featuring fully articulated joints and rubber faces that could show subtle expressions. The production team invented specialized camera equipment that could maintain precise alignment between different filming processes. The film also pioneered techniques for creating realistic scale relationships, including innovative set design and perspective tricks. The method of projecting live-action footage frame by frame to guide the animators was a revolutionary approach that would influence future animation studios worldwide. The film's technical achievements were so impressive that they were studied by filmmakers internationally, including at Disney studios, where Ptushko's work was analyzed for its innovative approaches to animation and special effects.

Music

The musical score was composed by Mikhail Ziv, who created a dynamic soundtrack that balanced revolutionary fervor with whimsical fantasy elements. The music incorporated both traditional orchestral arrangements and Soviet revolutionary songs, reinforcing the film's political themes while providing appropriate accompaniment for the various scenes. The sound design was particularly innovative for its time, as it had to match audio with stop-motion animation, a process that required careful synchronization. The film featured several musical numbers where the Lilliputian characters sang revolutionary songs, with the puppet mouths carefully animated to match the vocals. The sound effects were created using imaginative methods to match the miniature world of Lilliput, with everyday objects manipulated to create appropriately scaled sounds. The soundtrack helped establish the emotional tone of each scene, from the oppressive atmosphere of the king's palace to the triumphant climax of the revolution.

Memorable Scenes

• The opening sequence where Petya falls asleep reading Gulliver's Travels and seamlessly transitions into the dream world of Lilliput, with the camera pulling back to reveal thousands of tiny puppet figures surrounding him
• The revolutionary march of Lilliputian workers, where hundreds of tiny puppets carry red flags and chant slogans as they storm the king's palace, creating an impressive spectacle of miniature political action
• The scene where Gulliver helps the workers build their new socialist society, with the giant hands carefully constructing miniature buildings while the Lilliputians organize their new government

What Critics Said

Contemporary Soviet critics praised 'The New Gulliver' as a triumph of both technical achievement and ideological clarity. Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, hailed it as 'a brilliant example of how classic literature can be reimagined for the Soviet people.' Western critics were impressed by the film's technical innovations, with Variety noting that 'the Russians have achieved effects in stop-motion animation that rival anything coming out of Hollywood.' Modern film historians recognize the film as a groundbreaking work that prefigured many developments in animation. The British Film Institute describes it as 'a remarkable achievement that deserves wider recognition for its influence on stop-motion animation.' However, some contemporary Western reviewers criticized what they saw as heavy-handed political messaging, with The New York Times noting that 'the propaganda elements are rather obvious, though the technical wizardry cannot be denied.'

What Audiences Thought

The film was enormously popular with Soviet audiences, particularly children and families who were captivated by its technical marvels and engaging story. It played to packed theaters across the USSR for months and became one of the highest-grossing Soviet films of 1935. Children especially loved the imaginative world of Lilliput and the charismatic performance of young Petya. When exported internationally, the film found appreciative audiences fascinated by its animation techniques, though the political message resonated differently in capitalist countries. In the United States, audiences were more interested in the technical achievements than the revolutionary themes. The film developed a cult following among animation enthusiasts and was regularly screened at film schools as an example of early stop-motion innovation. Even today, it maintains a dedicated following among classic film fans and historians of animation.

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