The Great Land of Small

I do understand how movies can be loved if you see them at a right age as a child - but lets truly discuss this as a family movie - it is awful - long slow sequences where nothing happens - just long wide shots of bad actors walking through fields. Bad special effects, terrible script - the director was Czech and couldn't speak English and it shows. But once the kids are taken to this "magical" land of Small - it is such a joke - it looks like a bunch of Cirque De Soleil cast offs are performing in front of a closed down museum - that's it. And then people slide down a chute into a hole and a slow deformed blob rises up (Slime-O) and demands more people. There is no connection between the kids and any of the characters and I can see why some people comment that the movie scared them as kids - the "man-dog" is creepy, Fritz is kind of creepy, lots of filthy carny looking people, etc. And the kids do that bad kid acting thing where EVERY line is delivered with the same enthusiastic sing-song. Man - what a disaster - this makes The Peanut Butter Solution look like Spielberg.

I can't believe how many children from the late eighties were freaked out by this movie. The scene of the people being swallowed by the "slimo" monster haunted me since I was a little kid, until I wasn't sure if it was actually from a movie or something I dreamed! So glad this bizarre movie actually exists. Not sure if I will show it to my kids though . . .

I saw this movie as a kid, and for years now I honestly thought it might have been just a really messed up fever dream! In all honesty it starts off slow, and I think I enjoyed it way more than my kids, just due to the nostalgia. I will say, The Great Land of Small has a very Cirque Du Soleil feel too it. Probably because it is Canadian.

I've been looking for this movie for years and could never find the title or what it was about because all i could remember was these kids went down this slide and became butterflys. I asked around and finally found out the movie was called The Great Land Of Small. So after looking all over for it i finally found a video store that had it and i rented it.

Its so great to finally know the name of this movie i enjoyed it it was a good movie and reminded me of Wizard of Oz, Chronicles of Narnia and Never Ending Story type of worlds. The only thing that upsets me is that this movie isn't on DVD. I know its a canadian movie but really put it out on DVD.

Also really cool is Micheal J. Anderson who plays Fritz the Leperchaun is in the new show Carnivale that i'm really looking forward to. I can't wait for Carnivale.

I was 7 years old when this movie came out, and I was taken to see it with my best friend by his mother. The memories of this film still haunt me to this day. Something about the strange imagery of the film caused it to fuel more nightmares for my childhood mind than freddy krueger or any other ghoul could ever hope to do. For that reason, I don't know whether to endorse the film or not. The imagery in the movie was potent/bizarre/creepy enough to etch itself permanently into my seven year old consciousness, so if you're interested to see what kind of film can do that to a child, I'd have to recommend it.

If not, stay away, especially if you're a kid or have a kid with an (over)active imagination.