In 1939, animation pioneers Max and Dave Fleischer made history when Paramount Pictures released Gulliver’s Travels, the second feature-length animated film produced by a U.S. studio. This aptation of Jonathan Swift’s novel went on to earn two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song (“Faithful Forever”) and Best Score, and is considered one of the greatest achievements in animation history.

Seventy years later, E1 Entertainment proudly presents a digitally restored, re-mastered and enhanced Max Fleischer’s Gulliver’s Travels on DVD and Blu-ray. This edition includes the complete 77 minute feature plus two fully restored “Gabby” cartoons and the Fleischer Studios documentary short “The Making of a Cartoon.”

Backed by Paramount and utilizing 600 artists, Max and Dave Fleischer created Gulliver’s Travels, one of the most complicated and detailed animated features ever produced. Their staff toiled for over two years, using twelve tons of paint and 39,000 pencils to create over 639,000 celluloids and 115,000 composite scenes. The titular character was animated using rotoscoping, a process which involves tracing live-action footage frame-by-frame – one of several innovative animation techniques developed by the Fleischers and Fleischer Studios.

By the late 1990s this animated gem had sadly fallen into disrepair, but thanks to a close relationship with the Fleischer family, North Hampton Partners and animation expert Dr. Thomas R. Reich were able to secure a long-lost 35mm source print. State-of-the-art technology enabled the film to be meticulously revived, removing years of dirt and restoring damaged portions of the frames. Gulliver’s Travels was then color corrected using 100% historically accurate palettes at Technicolor and was re-mastered for the first time ever in 16×9.

This entire process was done frame-by-frame without stretching characters or losing any image beyond standard vertical safe areas – and the use of proprietary techniques actually enables more picture to be visible on the left and right sides of the frame than ever before. Additionally, the original soundtrack was fully restored and supplemented by two newly enhanced sound options (Dolby Digital and 5.1) utilizing multi-track Foley techniques. The bonus Fleischer documentary as well as the two Gabby cartoons featured on the DVD and Blu-ray were also restored.

Buy the DVD or Blu-ray at Amazon.

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