3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Slumberland

2022, Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) -- Netflix

I watched this as comparison to IF, both movies about a child dealing with make-believe that has become a very real part of their life. Both are about a child dealing with the loss, or potential loss, of a parent and seeking to escape it. Both have oversized man-childs stepping in as companions for the child as they enter and explore a world of magical wonderment. Where IF felt like a vehicle for Ryan Reynolds to play with some family friendly magic, primarily for his audience, this actually feels like a kids movie made for kids, but not childish in the least.

Nemo (Marlow Barkley, Spirited) lives a fairy tale life in a lighthouse with her Dad (Kyle Chandler, Godzilla vs Kong) the lighthouse keeper. She is home schooled by day, read stories and taught to dream the best dreams by night. Then reality hits and her father is taken by the sea. She is sent to The City to live with her uncle, her father's estranged brother Philip (Chris O'Dowd, Moone Boy), who does not adjust well to his new ward. Nemo wants nothing more than to go back to sleep, to dream a way to find her father, who she is convinced can be rescued by a magic pearl wish. That is when she meets Flip (Jason Momoa, See), her father's old outlaw partner, a centre figure in all his bedtime figures. He lives in the dream world, lives his life in Slumberland, avoiding the dream authorities. At first he doesn't want to have anything to do with her, but Nemo perseveres and soon they are hunting down a pearl, and dealing with the nightmares that chase her everywhere. That is, until she realizes who Flip is.

A "duhhhh" moment that I did not catch onto as quick as I should have.

I loved this little movie. Surprisingly, Momoa's usually grating wah-hoo's worked really well with the character he was playing, a giant man-child with faun horns, furry ears and clawed toes that were always wiggling his true feelings. And as a vehicle for magic lost, the movie was perfect. Barkely, who struck me eerily as Saoirse Ronan returned to childhood, played the independent child so aptly, a girl who had been raised by her father to stand on her own, to live with dreams always in her heart, but also to be brave when things didn't go her way. And Slumberland, as depicted by the dreams of a number of people, but only those with a still beating heart connection to their childhood, was really magical.

Of note, I was wondering if I could still do just the 3 Short Paragraphs, and reading back, I see that I never really did many actually SHORT paragraphs, and I started using the nomenclature almost immediately after the start of this blog. Also, this voice made its appearance almost immediately as well, though it has had many lives through the years.