The 1989 animated musical fantasy film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland is based on the popular comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay, which ran from October 15, 1905 to January 9, 1927. The movie was a Japanese anime which took many people many years to produce. Longtime comic fan author Ray Bradbury contributed enough to receive prominent screen credit.

Most of the movie follows the dream life of a boy named Nemo, voiced in the English dub by Gabriel Damon. Nemo lives somewhere in America, as when returning home he passes New York City. His town appears to be medium to large sized and the time to be the early 20th Century. His best friend and constant companion is a flying squirrel named Icarus, voiced by Danny Mann.

One night Nemo is invited to be the playmate of Camille, princess of Slumberland, voiced by Laura Mooney. Nemo leaves a note for his parents and takes off for Slumberland in a dirigible. In Slumberland, he meets King Morpheus, voiced by Bernard Erhard, a Santa Claus like figure who wants to adopt Nemo and appoint him his heir. Nemo commences prince lessons, but is led astray by a frightful fellow named Flip, a clown voiced by Mickey Rooney, who coaxes Nemo deep into mischief which finally threatens the very existence of all Slumberland.

As for objectionable content, Flip is a cigar chain smoker and the dreams contain quite a few nightmare details which will frighten certain children of say about age six and younger. Older children and adults should enjoy it. There is also the implication that Princess Camille, who is presumably Morpheus’s real daughter, isn’t good enough to be an heir. She doesn’t seem to object to Nemo taking what should be her rightful place.

Terrific talent went into the fantastic animation which rivals anything Disney ever did. The voice work is excellent, and the movie features songs by the famous Sherman brothers. Although I found the movie entertaining, sadly for some reason it was not popular either when released in Japan in 1989 or in the United States in 1992. I would recommend it for adults and for children who are not easily frightened.