REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 July 1940, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

"GULLIVER'S TRAVELS." Paramount has kept the promise, made two years ago, that the year 1940 would see that studio’s first full-length animated cartoon reach the screen. The I result is that "Gulliver's Travels,” a spectacular Technicolour treatment of Jonathan Swift’s classic, brought to vivid life by the magic pen of Max Fleischer and his two hundred assistants will be shown tonight at the Regent Theatre. With eight new songs and breath-taking colour added as extra attractions. ‘'Gulliver's Travels" hews close to the line of Dean Swift’s immortal story of the English seaman who got shipwrecked on the shore of a land no one had ever visited before, a country of peanut-sized people, the tallest of whom measured no higher than. “Gulliver’s” boot. All the elements of romance, fantasy and humour that made Swift’s story live through the centuries have been painstakingly transferred to the screen, including the biting satire on politics, international relations and human institutions. “Gulliver” arrives at “Lilliput” to find a race of people who although thoroughly engaging and delightful, are as petty in their actions as in their stature. The visitor from the outside world stumbles on to a burning crisis. A war with the neighbouring kingdom of “Blefuscu” is imminent because the rulers cannot agree whether to play “Faithful.” the “Lilliputian” national anthem, or “Forever,” the “Blefuscuan” hymn at the wedding of their children. One of “Gulliver’s” many tasks before departing from “Lilliput” is to end the controversy without bloodshed. “Gulliver’s” highlight adventures include his release from captivity by .the muchimpressed “King Little,” his singlehanded victory over the battle fleet of “King Bombo,” his narrow escape from destruction by his own pistol and his mediation of a war fought over rival national anthems. The musical score of “Gulliver’s Travels” is made up of eight numbers written especially foi the picture, seven of them by the Ro-bin-Rainger team that produced “Thanks for the Memory” and “Love in Bloom/” The numbers are: “We’re all Together Now,” "All’s 'Well,” “Bluebirds in the Moonlight,” "It’s a Hap-Hap-Happy Day,” “I Flear a Dream." “Faithful,” “Forever,” and “Faithful Forever.” To record the last three songs, Paramount secured two of America’s most popular singers, Lanny Ross and Jessica Dragonette.

The supporting items are outstanding and have been carefully chosen to match the quality of the feature. In the advertising columns will be found full details of ~ the entire programme which in every respect is one of the greatest in the history of the Regent Theatre.