Slumberland (2022)

A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.

1.0 / 5

INCLUVIE SCORE

3.5 / 5

MOVIE SCORE

Representation

Asian

Black

Latinx

Dana Ziyasheva

December 29, 2022

1 / 5

INCLUVIE SCORE

3.5 / 5

MOVIE SCORE

The Discreet Insensitivity of ‘Slumberland’

The Netflix fantasy feature Slumberland (2022) is based on the comic strip “Little Nemo in Slumberland” which was created by the American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay in 1905. In this exquisitely drawn psychedelia, Nemo is a boy who embarks on fantastic adventures in his dreams. It’s a flow of subconsciousness at its finest, and it contains no moral lesson. Written by David Guion and Michael Handelman, and directed by Francis Lawrence, Slumberland has a story to tell and a lesson to teach. Nemo is a girl played by a dependable, but uneventful Marlow Barkley. After losing her dad (Kyle Chandler) at sea, Nemo retreats into the dreamworld as a way to process her grief. There, she meets Flip (Jason Momoa), a Satyr-like creature who helps Nemo see her dad one more time. ***Spoilers Alert*** By abandoning the original surrealism of a dream for a structured narrative, Slumberland subjects itself to an inevitable comparison with

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