SLUMBERLAND (2022)

SLUMBERLAND (2022)

Tagline: Every Adventure Begins with a Dream

(Adventure, Comedy, What Is The Kill Flower?) [PG]

You can’t take things from other people’s dreams…

In this one, a young girl named Nemo’s father is in charge of a lighthouse. Her father Disappears one night and is thought to be dead. One night she has a dream and it told by a dream thief named Flip that tells her of a map to dreamland. He also happens to be a friend of her father’s. After finding the map, Flip and Nemo decide to use it to find her father who they both believe is somewhere in Slumberland, and a magic pearl. Along the way, they must evade a dream agent named Agent Green and occasional nightmares. 

The first thing I noticed about this movie is that it has a very “UMBRELLA ACADEMY” feel to it, if “UMBRELLA ACADEMY” had been written with kids in mind. Overall this movie is a super tame super imaginative tale involving lots of interesting concepts. Both properties are inspired by comics. SLUMBERLAND was inspired by the comic series “Little Nemo in Slumberland” by Winsor McCay. This was also an anime movie that came out in 1989. For some reason, the character of Nemo was gender-swapped because of course men and little boys are pigs or whatever the new thing is. 

One thing that is very intriguing about this thing is some of the more interesting emotional truths that get laid down in such a whimsical visual feast. Lines like “Being brave isn’t about being scared, it’s about doing what you have to do, even when you are” delve into deep idea’s that kids can grasp on a certain level. Some of these things are kind of nonsense, but there are some things you can actually back with biblical truths which I thought was pretty interesting. This particular concept can be found in 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” God doesn’t say we won’t fear, just that it doesn’t have to overcome us. It’s what we do in the face of fear in the spirit we are given which is one of power, love, and self-control. None of this is to say that this is an allegory trying to teach us anything. I just found some of the ideas transverse into the real world. 

I also think it’s pretty funny that according to this movie Canadian's number 1 dream is about giant geese. I have no idea if it’s true or not, but that’s pretty hilarious. I think the number one dream in America is probably showing up at school with only your underwear on. Having said all that, this movie is not without its wonky moments. At one point Nemo is at school and she’s been trying to sleep during classes in a room at the school. She gets in trouble one day and the school officials say “she could have been in danger”. Wait what? Why would she be in danger at the school? It’s not like the school was being invaded by liberal arts students or anything…geez. 

Acting wise I liked Jason Momoa (AQUAMAN) as Flip, and Marlow Barkley is fine as Nemo, but Weruche Opia (BAD EDUCATION) as Agent Green steals every scene she’s in. It was also nice to see Kyle Chandler (GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS) in this as brief as his scene was. 

Overall in spite of it being a full-blown kid's movie, there is plenty in here for adults and the story moves at an even enough pace to keep things interesting. I also liked the little touches they threw in with Nemo being at school and with her uncle Phillip. I do not know what people were expecting from this thing, but I had a lot of fun with this one and enjoyed a lot of the emotional elements. It also doesn’t hurt at all that this movie is a visual splendor. 

SLUMBERLAND gets a solid 6 out of 7 for me. Not much to complain about except maybe next time I watch this I don’t eat over half a mushroom pizza and need like 7 antacids.

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