The humble newspaper comic strip doesn't seem to have the impact it used to, but it was the launching pad for some of pop culture's best-known characters. One of the most groundbreaking names in the medium was Little Nemo, which inspired creators around the world, including two different creative teams who turned it into very different movies.
Adaptation and readaptation is an extremely common issue in modern media. Just about everything is based on something else, and as source material runs dry, multiple works will see multiple new takes. It can be fascinating to see what one piece of art can inspire in different creators of adaptation over the years.
Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland began as a spin-off of another popular comic strip in 1905. It became widely beloved by American audiences as it migrated to multiple huge newspapers in the 1910s and 20s. It was celebrated for doing new things with the format, experimenting with pacing and visuals in ways that would inform the medium for generations. In 2022, almost a hundred years after the end of McCay's original run, director Francis Lawrence brought a loose adaptation of the story to Netflix under the title Slumberland. The critical reception wasn't great and there's no way to know exactly how many people enjoyed it, but Jason Momoa's face in the posters and name on the cast list drew in some eyes. This recent adaptation differs from the source material in a number of ways, but the first film on the subject is very different.
Released in 1989, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland has one of the most fascinating production histories of its era. The primary voice compelling the creation of the film was one Yutaka Fujioka, best known as the producer of Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. Fujioka had a dream, to make a Japanese animated film that would rival Disney, and he believed Nemo would be the perfect source for that project. It took over three years to attain the rights, during which he personally met with the McCay's descendants to convince them.
With legal privileges secure, Fujioka made some big calls. He reached out to George Lucas in 1981, at the height of his power, to ask him to produce. He refused, but Gary Kurtz, the man he hired to replace him, appointed Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury as the film's screenwriter. Bradbury had some wild ideas as he rewrote the original treatment, which was turned in by none other than Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki's first take on the material eventually became Laputa: Castle in the Sky, but he kept coming back and kept coming up with new ideas. Three or four of Miyazaki's greatest films came out of his time working on this one, which he later characterized as the worst time of his life. The film sat in development hell for years before finally releasing in 1989. After all that work, the film flopped in Japan and the US, leading Fujioka to retire from animation forever. It's a tragic tale, one that could have, at several points, resulted in one of the most incredible films ever conceived. The film it produced, however, is still surprisingly good.
This anime take on Little Nemo follows the eponymous child as he explores his dreams and evades his nightmares. One of the most interesting things about this anime take on the material is that Nemo's waking world is often just as fantastical as his dreams. His presence is ordered by Morpheus, King of Dreams, who promptly goes missing. Nemo must partner with a scientist named Professor Genius and a mischievous clown named Flip to save the king from Nightmare Land. It's a simple charming story that plays fast and loose with the setting, mirroring the logic of dreams. The songs, primarily carried by R&B singer Melissa Manchester, are a lot of fun and the characters stand out among children's films. Though Little Nemo wasn't appreciated upon its initial release, it did well enough in home media sales to become something of a cult hit today. It'll appear on lists of great children's anime from time to time and many consider it a wonderful starting point for young viewers.
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland is a wonderful adaptation of one of the best comic strips ever written. It may not have lived up to Fujioka's dreams of beating Disney, but it did survive a tumultuous development period that would have shut most films down. Some of the most beloved creatives of the modern era put their hand on this strange film. The more recent adaptation may have better special effects and bigger names in the credits, but the original has it beat when it comes to imagination. Anyone who enjoyed elements of Slumberland will find those elements in droves in Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.