Slumberland is a 2022 American fantasy adventure film directed by Francis Lawrence and written by David Guion and Michael Handelman. Based on the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay, the film stars Jason Momoa, Chris O'Dowd, Kyle Chandler, Weruche Opia, and introducing Marlow Barkley in her film debut as Nemo.
The film tells the story of a young girl whose father is lost at sea. She enters Slumberland where she befriends a renegade character who is involved in a plot to obtain a special pearl that may have the power to reunite her with her father.
Slumberland was released on November 18, 2022, by Netflix. It received generally mixed reviews from critics.
Contents
Plot
Nemo is a young girl who lives in a lighthouse with her widowed father Peter, a lighthouse keeper. Every night, Peter tells her wild bedtime stories about his adventures with Flip, his old partner.
One night during a storm, Peter heads out to help a distressed boat. Nemo is later visited by their family friend Carla, who informs her that her dad was lost at sea. With Nemo devastated by the news, Carla persuades Nemo's estranged uncle Philip to take her in so she does not become a ward of the state.
In contrast to his brother Peter, Philip is a doorknob salesman who leads a lonely, boring, and monotonous life. Nemo moves to the city with Philip and the two find it difficult to adjust to each other. When enrolled at a local school, she struggles to fit in as she meets school counselor Ms. Arya and a student named Jamal.
One night, Nemo is awakened when her stuffed pig (Pig) comes to life. In reality, she is still asleep and in Slumberland, the world between dreams. Here, she meets Flip, learning that he is real and not simply a character her father made up. A stubborn and unscrupulous outlaw, he is looking for a map that will lead him to magical wish-granting pearls.
Nemo finds the map in the waking world and takes it back to Slumberland by sleeping through classes. Flip begrudgingly allows her to join him to search for the pearls so she can wish her father into her dreams. Nemo learns that Flip has refused to wake up for so long he no longer remembers who he is in the real world.
Flip uses the map as a guide through various people's dreams to get to the Sea of Nightmares, where the pearls are. They are attacked by Nemo's nightmare, a cloud of smoke resembling a kraken. Flip is later imprisoned by Agent Green of the Bureau of Subconscious Activities (BoSA) for intruding on people's dreams.
In the real world, Philip shows Nemo an old videotape of him and Peter playing together as children. Nemo realizes that Flip is Philip's dream alter ego. As Flip has not woken up, Philip has lost that part of his personality and become Flip's opposite: docile and unadventurous.
Cast
Marlow Barkley as Nemo, a young girl who has dreams of Slumberland. The character is a boy in the 1900s comic strip.
Abigail White works as Nemo's photo double.
Jason Momoa as Flip, a con artist with sharp teeth and the ears and horns of a goat who becomes Nemo's companion and was a former friend of Nemo's father Peter. The character is a clown in the 1900s comic strip.
Chris O'Dowd as Philip, Nemo's uncle who works as a doorknob salesman. He is the waking world counterpart of Flip.
Cameron Nicoll as young Phillip
Kyle Chandler as Peter, Nemo's father and former lighthouse keeper who gets lost at sea.
Antonio Rane Pastore as young Peter.
Weruche Opia as Agent Green, an operative of the Bureau of Subconscious Activities who Flip has been eluding.
India de Beaufort as Ms. Arya, the school counselor at Nemo's school.
Chris D'Silva as Jamal, Nemo's school friend.
Yanna McIntosh as Carla, a family friend of Peter and Nemo.
Jacob So as Emmett, a boy who dreams of driving a garbage truck.
Izaak Smith as a Canadian guy who dreams about riding a giant Canada goose
Michael Blake as an accountant whose dreams have him with more hair
Production
Development and casting
On March 3, 2020, it was announced that Jason Momoa would star in a live-action adaptation of the comic strip series Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay from director Francis Lawrence, with Netflix distributing and production starting in the summer of that same year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, filming for the project was postponed. On October 12, 2020, Kyle Chandler joined the cast of the film, where Chris O'Dowd and Marlow Barkley had already been confirmed to star. The following year, on February 18, Weruche Opia and India de Beaufort were cast.
Filming
Filming began on February 18, 2021, in Toronto, and concluded on May 19, 2021.
Post-production
Pinar Toprak composed the musical score. DNEG and Framestore provided the visual effects. Additional VFX was done by Scanline VFX, Ghost VFX, Important Looking Pirates, Outpost VFX, Rodeo FX, Incessant Rain Studios. and Pinscreen, which did AI VFX. The film's main and end titles were done by Imaginary Forces.
Release
Slumberland was released on November 18, 2022, by Netflix. In its first week of release Slumberland was the fifth most streamed program for the week of November 21–27 accruing over 1 billion minutes viewed across the platform.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 40% of 42 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Winsor McCay's classic Nemo comics are fertile ground for the right filmmaker, but Slumberland forsakes the spirit of the strips in favor of senseless spectacle." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 40 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Accolades
The film was nominated for two awards (Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature & Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature) at the 21st Visual Effects Society Awards.
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