This review is focused on the first chapter of the book Gulliver’s Travels book and divided into four main areas, you will se below, from the beggining to the end in chronological order:
1ts part:
| Similarities | Differences |
| The crafts are wrecked by a violent storm. Gulliver wakes up tied to the ground with pieces of thread, with little people on him. | The movie does not tell Gulliver’s family history or professional life. |
| Little people are brave due to, they climb up onto Gulliver despite he is a giant for them. | The movie does not give the same reasons of why Gulliver decides to go to sea again and travels. In the movie, Gulliver travels alone; in the book, he travels with partners. |
| Gulliver tries to stand up and break the strings, but little people attack him. | In the book, Gulliver indicates that he is hungry and thirsty. Little people bring meat and wine, showing hospitality. However, in the movie, Gulliver is immediately taken and obliged to face the king. |
2nd part:
The Gulliver’s travels (book) in comparison with the current version of the movie, launched in 2010 starring in Jack Black has similarities and many differences. The movie presents a very modern version of the book. It is a comedy movie which shows the different events that Gulliver suffers during his travel. It is very important to mention that the movie is an American version of the story because Gulliver was born in Manhattan, and also it is basically based on the story of the Lilliput lands, where Gulliver was considered as a hero because of preventing war between the tiny kingdoms. Firstly, Gulliver arrived in Lilliput lands without understanding anything about those tiny people and their costumes, but then he is considered as a hero because of the things he does. He actually transformed the Lilliput city in an American city with cinema, festivals, and advertisements around the city. The people of Lilliput built a house to Gulliver, and also he was named General of Lilliput by the king and queen. Gulliver told to Lilliput citizens about what kind of things the American citizens do, about the government, and the food.
But, the movie never shows what happen after returning to England, in this case America. I mean, with the other Gulliver’s travels. For example: when Gulliver arrived in a landscape which is totally barren and rocky, trying to escape of a giant habitant of that place. He was shocked because o f the giant things and the giants habitants of that weird place. Now, he was the tiny people who cannot protect himself. Finally, giants notice his presence and take him as a servant, a slave. They were very surprised because of the size of Gulliver. The giant farmer takes advantage of Gulliver showing him to different people as a treasure. Gulliver was given to the queen as an entertainment, and at that moment the problems started again because the queen’s dwarf was not happy with Gulliver, he was the smallest person in the palace and a source of diversion for the court after Gulliver arriving. So, he decided drops Gulliver into a bowl of cream, but Gulliver knew swimming and the dwarf was punished. But finally Gulliver was exhausted of that situation. Thus, he sincerely asks for his freedom.
During the movie, that story is never told it, but actually there were very similar scenes when the rivals of the Lilliputian sent Gulliver to an island very rocky, and he is captured by a little giant girl who play with Gulliver as a doll, she dress him as a doll, and put him in a doll’ s house. And finally Gulliver decided to escape because the Lilliputian needs his help.
And finally, the dwarf in the case of the movie could be the general of the Lilliputian, he never trusts Gulliver, because everybody loves Gulliver, and nobody paid attention to him.
3rd part:
In the book Doctor Lemuel Gulliver has a love for sea and adventure he left his family behind to travel and seek for adventure, he was full of excitement.
His ship gets lost into a storm and arrives in Lilliput, which is an island full of tiny people. There Gulliver helps this tiny people called Lilliputians with lot of problems, but some Lilliputians didn’t like Gulliver so they decided to tell the emperor that Gulliver should die. When Gulliver heard about that, he escaped in a little size boat. Then in another travel Gulliver ends up in another island of giants, but then gets away when a bird picks up his house and drops it into the sea. Finally he arrives home just for luck.
And in the movie Doctor Lemuel Gulliver is a guitar hero player and the laziest one of the mail room of a newspaper building. The travel editor, Darcy Silverman, makes Gulliver to sign up for a travel assignment. He travels through the Bermuda Triangle, but then gets lost and arrives in the island of Lilliput. He tells the little people there a bunch of lies about him. When the Lilliputians realize that those were just lies, they sent Gulliver to the island that they were not daring to go. In that island Gulliver wakes up in a doll house, with a giant girl using him as a doll. Then Darcy, the travel editor, arrives in Lilliput and the Lilliputians take him prisoner because she was associated with Gulliver. So Gulliver had to come back there to save her. He saved Darcy and start to fight with a robot manage for a Lilliputian, the General Edward who hates Gulliver. Gulliver and Darcy come back to their reality, Gulliver quits his job to become a travel writer and of course start a relationship with the girl.
4th part:
The film in general terms does not focus very much, in Gulliver’s internal thoughts and ideas; instead they are clearly shown to the public, resourced which points out mainly to capture the crowd attention. In the book, Gulliver extensively describes what he had lived there and how the situations, animals, traditions are expressed.
There’s no direct relation with how the book and the film expresses the rules about if someone falsely accuses someone else of a crime as Deceit is considered worse than theft, honesty also is not covered at all, as it was trust the base of commerce. The film covered all this instances when Gulliver in specific cases, as express in the friendship and loyalty relation of Gulliver and Horacio, when Gulliver cannot sustains his lies about their background and life and as a consequence of this is charged with the exile of the island, but at the end he recovers his honor winning a battle which decided the destine of Blefuscu and Lilliput.
In terms of ruling, the book presents Lilliputians as people very stacked to the norms which ruled their society, they do not consider other ways of resolving disputes because they do not consider they were wrong on that, in fact when looking for alternatives to do this, as in the case of the egg-breaking controversy, the discussion ends in a violent confrontation.
In contrast, the Gulliver travels’ the film presents Lilliputians as a community deeply-rooted to their traditions and rules, for instance when Horacio is characterized as a individual who belongs to the lowest social class, and that’s the reason why he cannot accede to the princes love. But as Gulliver gets more involved with this community, they are more willing to adapt their traditions and rules to look for less violent and suitable ways to solve problems. Thus, these tiny people evolved along the film, becoming more Gulliverians, and less Lilliputian, which mean they absorb many of the features of Gulliver.
Finally the book and film differs at the final part when Gulliver is sent to exile, the book says that it was a travel Gulliver decided to do, and that he knew the consequences of it but in contrast Gulliver is sent to exile by the Blefuscubian army after having dishonored the Lilliput realm. Thus, the main features of the book are presented in the film but obviously adapted to suit the taste of 21th century audience.
