One of Studio Ghibli's Famous Founders Abandoned This Anime, but the Film Inspired Netflix's Slumberland

Summary

• Both Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland and Slumberland have a strong narrative centered around dreams and adventure.
• Slumberland, Netflix’s modern retelling of a classic comic, differs significantly from the anime Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.
• Despite the differences, both versions are recommended for fans of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s work.

Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki are both well-recognized names for fans of anime and film buffs in general. They are responsible for a large amount of beloved original movies and adaptations of popular fables, including Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. Before Miyazaki was part of Studio Ghibli, he worked for an animation company that made a film called Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. The film could have been a Studio Ghibli release, had the studio not passed on the opportunity.

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland is now considered a cult classic and was originally adapted from the American comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay. In 2022, a fantasy film called Slumberland came out, starring Marlow Barkley and Jason Momoa. Many viewers didn’t realize that Netflix’s fantasy was actually based on the same comic the aforementioned anime adapted into a feature-length movie. This meant that, by extension, Slumberland was technically a remake of Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. While there are many differences between the two films, the plot of a brave child who travels through dreams were at their hearts, and both are worth a watch.

Slumberland & Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland Were Based on the Same Comic

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland is a 1992 animated film about a young boy named Nemo who goes on adventures in his dreams. The night that an actual circus comes to town, Nemo dreams they have been sent by King Morpheus to take Nemo to Slumberland to play with his daughter, Princess Camille. Morpheus gives Nemo a skeleton key to the kingdom because his true intentions were for Nemo to eventually take over the throne of Slumberland, but he warns Nemo to never open one door in the kingdom. As viewers could guess, Nemo does find and open the forbidden door after being tempted by a conman clown named Flip. This releases The Nightmare, a black, oozing smoke-like substance that consumes King Morpheus and takes him to Nightmare Land. Nemo now must travel with his new Slumberland friends to rescue King Morpheus and stop The Nightmare King.

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland was a Japanese and American collaboration between Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS) and Kineto Graphic Inc. It’s been credited as TMS producer Yutaka Fuiojoka’s passion project, which he was working on since 1977. The movie was only finished in 1989 because it switched between so many talents and production companies during its creation. Many veteran Walt Disney Studio animators, legendary Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones, and even Star Wars creator George Lucas were approached by Fuijoka and offered the chance to work on the project, but they all turned it down. Many of the early animation drafts and concepts for Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland were done by Miyazaki when he still worked at TMS. Miyazaki suggested major revisions to the movie and pitched potential movies, but when they were not chosen, he left. He later used the rejected pitches for his future films Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and Princess Mononoke. It’s also worth noting that Miyazaki described his experience working on Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland as one of the worst times of his life. His frustrations with the inconsistent production and unreliable financing greatly informed Studio Ghibli’s mission-vision and work ethic, which he founded in 1985.

Ray Bradbury, the highly influential sci-fi author, was Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland’s original screenplay writer. But after initial funding ran out before solidifying a director, Bradbury left the production and the final screenplay was written by Chris Columbus (the director of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Home Alone, and Mrs. Doubtfire). While it wasn’t a box office hit when it was released domestically in 1989 and internationally in 1992, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland garnered a big fan base once it was hit home video. It now has a strong cult following that has endured for decades.

Winsor McCay’s original comic, Little Nemo in Slumberland, ran from 1905-1927. The comic had an overarching story, like the film, where Nemo was invited to play with King Morpheus’ daughter in Slumberland. Many comic strips involved Nemo running off to different random adventures. Flip the Clown also originated in the comics as a villain who tried to wake Nemo up from his dreams, before later teaming up with Nemo on adventures. Little Nemo in Slumberland was quite an experimental comic for its time. McCay was inspired by the Art Nouveau movement. He would play with the format of panels, such as flipping the panel upside down if a character stood on their head, or making it larger if a character or object grew. He also researched dream psychology to properly create how dream logic worked in his stories. Little Nemo in Slumberland was one of the most experimental comics of its time, and its influence on the medium could still be felt today—even if both readers and the comics’ creators didn’t realize it.

The Differences Between Slumberland & Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

Slumberland is a live-action film from 2022 directed by Francis Lawrence (the director of Constantine, I am Legend, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I am Legend, just to name a few) and starring Marlow and Jason Momoa. Before directing films, Lawrence had a career filming music videos for some of the biggest stars, like Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi,” Beyonce’s “Run the World,” Britney Spear’s “Circus,” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” In Slumberland, after Nemo’s father dies, she goes to live with her boring uncle and discovers a map to a magical world in her dreams called Slumberland. Nemo travels there in her sleep in hopes of finding a way to see her father again in her dreams.

• In Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland and in the original comics, Nemo was a boy. He was gender-swapped to a girl for Slumberland.
• Slumberland wasn’t ruled by King Morpheus. It also didn’t have any of the other characters from the anime, such as Princess Camille, Professor, Bon Bon, or the dreaded Nightmare King. The only other character from the anime who returned in Slumberland was Flip.
• In Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Flip had the appearance of a clown, while Slumberland’s Flip had ram horns, sharp teeth, and wore flamboyant rocker-styled attires. Both Flips wear a top hat, but the anime Flip (voiced by Mickey Rooney) had a painted face, red nose, top hat, bow tie, and cigar.
• While both Flips were con artists, the Flip from Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland was charismatic, but manipulative, and good at schmoozing. Slumberland‘s Flip was ruder and more blunt, but also less deceitful towards Nemo.
• Jason Momoa’s Flip has a larger connection to Nemo’s uncle and the story of Slumberland as a whole, while the anime’s Flip was merely a sidekick tagging along on the adventure.
• Nemo had a flying squirrel sidekick named Icarus, who wore an aviator hat and goggles in Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. In Slumberland, Nemo also has an animal sidekick who is a pig named Pig. However, Pig was a stuffed animal who only came to life in the dreamworld.
• There were no Dream Cops in Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. They were an entirely new element created for Slumberland. Agent Green, the main Dream Cop in Slumberland, was on patrol to arrest Flip for intruding in other people’s dreams.
• In Slumberland, the death of Nemo’s father was her motivation for going to Slumberland. Both of Nemo’s parents are alive in Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, though they were only heard as disembodied voices telling Nemo to go to sleep from outside his bedroom.
• The wish-granting pearl Nemo and Flip were searching for was another new creation for Slumberland. Since Nemo’s father was a fisherman, her dream world was much more nautical-themed than Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland’s fantastical dreamscape.
• Slumberland‘s story was centered around dealing with grief, while Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland was about Nemo facing his fears and taking responsibility for his mistakes.

Though Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland was a Japanese-American collaboration, it is still considered by most to be anime due to its art style. It’s a highly recommended watch for fans of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. The prolific studio may have turned it down, but by having Miyazaki as an animator on the film, some of that same magic that he would bring to Studio Ghibli in his later films and today could be seen in one of his earliest works. Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland may have been created in the 80s, but the reinvented live-action version of Slumberland has proven once again that its story still reaches audiences of all ages. This was the same for the anime movie back then, as it was remaking a story from a comic strip from the early 1900s. Quite a bit has been changed in the Slumberland remake compared to the original anime, but it creates a fresh, heartfelt story of its own for fans of the original, while still keeping key elements from the original Little Nemo comics and its beloved anime adaptation to delight in.

Slumberland is now streaming on Netflix.