YMMV / Gulliver's Travels (1996)

• Nightmare Fuel: The Struldbruggs, as portrayed in this adaptation, are particularly creepy. Unlike their book counterparts, their outside appearances remain mostly youthful, belying the fact that their insides have continued to age; this allows them to conceal the downsides of immortality. Their Madness Mantra is especially haunting. "Never die...never die..."
  Immortal Gatekeeper: Drink. Taste immortality.
  [Gulliver notices a tremor in the Gatekeeper's hand.]
  Gulliver: Why is your hand shaking so badly?
  [Notices a Struldbrugg coughing up blood into a handkerchief.]
  Gulliver: What's wrong with her?
  Immortal Gatekeeper: Nothing.
  Gulliver: [Looking around] What's wrong with everyone?
  Immortal Gatekeeper: Drink the water. You will defy nature. You will outlive the stars themselves. You'll be like a god.
  [He notices that she is not looking directly at him.]
  Gulliver: You can't see me, can you?
  Immortal Gatekeeper: I'm alive. The water keeps us alive.
  Gulliver: You're blind. [Looks around the room.] You're all blind!
  Immortal Gatekeeper: No, some of us can still make out shape and movement! We'll never die, that's what matters! We'll never die!
• Retroactive Recognition: Gulliver's son Tom goes on to play Dream from the Netflix TV series adaptation of The Sandman (1989), over two decades later.
• Spiritual Successor: The choice to condense the travels into a single decade-long trip where Gulliver goes from bizarre island to bizarre island while wishing to go back home to his wife and son, and a villain tries to steal his wife upon his return as a changed man, makes this miniseries very reminiscent of The Odyssey. Even the Struldbruggs are reimagined as something closer to the Lotus Eaters from the myth. Coincidentally a miniseries adaptation of The Odyssey was released one year later, starring Armand Assante as Odysseus.

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