Slumberland

I have come to realize that if one is making a movie for families it will never get high enough rating, that's a given. Frankly, People who only watch and love Noah Baumbach and Terrence Malick movies should not expect similar experience from Slumberland. This limits the movie's reach to people who would have otherwise experienced it and loved it. I gave it a well deserved 8 since it is very well made but it is no The Return of the King. Not as much layered as some would want it to be but, come on, it made for viewing as a family which includes kids as young as 8 years old (my family) it indeed is competently handled by Francis Lawrence. A simple story with a lot of heart. Cool CGI and imaginative set pieces along with amazing performance across the board do help. I wasn't expecting it to be so good, just wanted to have a good time with my kids but was completely drawn in. This is a perfect one for holidays. Give it a go and you won't be disappointed.

This is a very well made, perfectly balanced film.

It has enough confidence to take its time laying down the background and characters - yet doesn't drag.

The set pieces are imaginative and well rendered - younger children will be enthralled.

The production and acting is great! The cast is lean and all the characters are interesting and serve a purpose.

The writers used great skill replicating a dreamlike state by bending the rules of reality in fun ways - but managed not to take things too far and lose all sense of tension.

This is a remarkably well made film that is fun, exciting and touching.

It has amazing affects and great character moments.

I'm a 52-year-old woman whose only child is years out of the house & I came across this on Netflix's Top-10 U. S. Movies list & decided to give it a watch, being a Jason Momoa fan. What a delightful surprise this movie was!

For me, it had great, new world-building/quickly gets the viewer up to speed on the in/outs of Slumberland, solid character development, & a decent plot, along with lots of adventure, laughs, & heart!

Finally, Jason Momoa easily had me fully-convinced that he was this unique new character, and throughout, it felt like had a blast fitting into this character's big shoes! This role shows a whole new side of his acting range that I thoroughly enjoyed!

This is a quality family film, that I will definitely recommend to Family & Frinends!

Nemo (Marlow Barkley) is a young girl who lives with her father (Kyle Chandler) in a lighthouse on the sea where he regales her with stories of his high adventures with his outlaw partner Flip. When Nemo's father is lost at sea following his assistance of a vessel in distress, Nemo is placed in the care of her estranged uncle Phillip (Chris O'Dowd) who's very much a loner and is unsure how to be a parent to Nemo. In Nemo's dreams of her father's lighthouse, she comes across a burly fast talking satyr con-artists who is actually the Flip (Jason Momoa) from her father's stories. Flip tells Nemo that her father had a map of Slumberland, the land where all dreams reside, that tells the location of magical pearls within the Sea of Nightmares with the power to grant any wish. Using her father's map Nemo embarks with her living stuffed pig and Flip on a journey through the dreams of others to find the pearl and reunite with her father, but a Nightmare hunting Nemo based on her fears and Agent Green from Slumberland's Bureau of Subconcious Activities (BOSA) stand in their way.

Announced in March of 2020, Slumberland from producer Peter Chernin and director Francis Lawrence is the latest even release from Netflix. Loosely based on the early 20th century newspaper comic strip Little Nemo by Winsor McCay, the strip is no stranger to adaptation with McCay himself having produced a number of animated shorts featuring his characters, adaptations for theater and opera, an unauthorized obscure adaptation in 1984, and probably most notably the 1989 Japanese-American co-produced anime film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland which survived a lengthy 10 year production cycle only to become a massive financial failure but did eventually get a cult following. In interviews Lawrence stated that his work on more grim works such as I Am Legend, The Hunger Games films and Red Sparrow left him wanting to try his hands at something more light-hearted and optimistic which lead to him choosing Slumberland as his next project. David Guion and Michael Handelman, best known for their work on Dinner for Schmucks and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, write the screenplay and the movie covers very familiar ground, but for me I think it does it well enough.

At the core of Slumberland, the movie is essentially a treasure hunt story with Nemo and Flip using her father's map to travel through various recurring dreams belonging to other people as the dreams of Slumberland possess hidden doors used by BOSA to keep order in the world. While some iconography from the comics and 1989 film is revisited such as the iconic "walking bed", most of the dreams are original creations with a ballroom filled with dancers made of butterflies and a city of glass some particularly well rendered set pieces. Sometimes the dreams can be a little underwhelming with some set pieces being the Canadian wilderness except with giant wild geese or one set that's just a large bathroom not particularly memorable and the BOSA being tailored after the 70s is more odd than it is whimsical. I also wasn't a fan of the design of the Nightmare as it's just a vaguely squid shaped smoke cloud.

In terms of the characters and performances I think the film does pretty well. Marlow Barkley I thought did well playing Nemo and she makes a solid audience proxy for which the dreams bounce off against. Chris O'Dowd is also very good as Nemo's uncle Philip and you feel his struggle being a parent to Nemo because he's been alone for so long. But stealing every scene he's in is Jason Momoa as Flip who gets to play into his comic side with a lot of high energy. While Flip's redesign is about as far from his original as you can get, let's be honest: after years upon years of creepy clown movies and those weird clown sightings in the Carolinas in the early 2010s (Remember those?) I don't think too many people want a clownish protagonist. Momoa is havin an absolute blast playing Flip who's sort of like a less threatening version of Beetlejuice with a air of "wannabe" dashing ladies man coupled with his brash impulsiveness that makes him fun to have an adventure with.

Slumberland is agreeable time killing family viewing that provides a fairly rousing adventure even if it doesn't go quite as full force with the concept as it could've. Overall a decent way to spend two hours.

All around I recommend this movie. I'm not a critic or anything. Slumberland is sweet yet heartbreaking while remaining hopeful. It is creative and whimsical, but has more of a heal your inner child vibe than a kids movie. Great for them in the sense of imagination but I cried the whole time, so it may be a bit of a big concept and for littles. Maybe for a little older? Depends on your kid of course. While sentimental it is a bit predictable but that's what makes this feel like a safe, comfort movie. Jason mamoa is funny. The cast is all around likable. It has as happy ending as it could have given the beginning.