Little Nemo is an oft-overlooked 1989 animated film, a Japanese/American co-production, about a little boy who can't help but dream. The film, which took twelve years to bring into being, is based on characters from a 1910s comic strip called "Little Nemo in Slumberland." With striking visuals, a screenplay co-written by Chris Columbus (The Goonies), and a story concept by Ray Bradbury, this film deserves some attention.
The film centers on Nemo, a little boy in 1900s suburban New York, who gets pulled into one of his dreams about a magical place called Slumberland. This land is ruled by King Morpheus and his daughter Princess Camille, who invite Nemo to be a playmate for the princess and to become the King's future heir. Nemo receives guidance and etiquette lessons from a man named Professor Genius. Morpheus gives Nemo a key that will open any door in the kingdom, but warns him that there is one door he must never open - the door that locks away the Nightmare King. Flip, a mischievous rebel clown, peer-pressures Nemo into opening the door, just a little, to see what's inside. Doing so, Nemo releases unknown evil into the pristine and wholly-good Slumberland, resulting in King Morpheus's kidnapping during Nemo's coronation. With the help of Flip and his questionable map of Nightmare Land, Nemo bravely ventures to the Nightmare Castle to do battle and rescue King Morpheus.
This movie is a relic of my childhood. I fondly remember watching it many times on a crackly VHS tape that was recorded from television. I recently rewatched the film with my Mom (this time on YouTube), because I was thinking about the religious overtones that it strongly suggests. If we take these overtones seriously, whether or not they were intended by the filmmakers, we can easily read Little Nemo as an allegory for the Christian paradigm of original sin in Adam, and salvation and redemption in Christ.
*****
Slumberland/Eden
Take for example Slumberland itself: it is perfect, happy, harmonious. The one time we see police officers, they are napping in the police stations, suggesting that there are never any crimes or disturbances. Slumberland (which looks a little bit like Naboo) has the best of everything, and it functions as a monarchical kingdom. Complete with gardens and many good things to eat, Slumberland's resemlances to Eden are obvious. Caught in a rainstorm, Nemo, Princess Camille, and their companion Bon-Bon hang their clothes out to dry and are meanwhile clothed in orbs of glowing light. This minor detail underscores the comparison of Nemo and the Princess to Adam and Eve, who, as many Bible scholars say, were not naked in the conventional sense but were clothed in a protective covering of God's glory, which was lost at the Fall.
When Morpheus gives Nemo the key to the kingdom, he gives him only one explicit restriction. Flip fills the role of the serpent, tempting Nemo into transgressing Morpheus's command. On one level the incident is a lesson for youngsters about peer pressure, and it extends one of the film's themes about keeping and breaking promises. But on a more allegorical level, it portrays the central act of the Fall of Man, fusing a Christian idea with a Pandora's Box-like image of opening and unleashing evil.
Not Yo' Mamma's Lucifer
The baddie in Little Nemo is a lot scarier than the baddies in a lot of current children's films. I was always struck by the depiction of the villain in this film, because the hell imagery suggests that the hero's adversary is capital E Evil itself. The Nightmare King is depicted with horns, red eyes, and a Darth Vader-esque voice. The inside of Nightmare Castle looks a lot like the classical depiction of hell, dressed with cavernous expanses, pools of light and shadow, stalactites and stalagmites, and grinding noises (perhaps gnashing of teeth?).
Behind the door that Nemo opens is a vast, oozing inky blackness - a physical, material substance. The film is not clear whether this substance is the Nightmare King shapeshifted into this form, the force of Evil, or some medium in which Evil resides. The fact that this "Evil" is shut up behind a long-locked door under the streets of Slumberland hints at some earlier battle that resulted in its containment. In the same way, the Bible (and Milton) depict a battle between God and Lucifer before the universe began.
Fall from Grace
The release of evil into Slumberland results in Nemo's fall from grace, after King Morpheus is bound and captured by the vine-like bands that steal him away. The sequence following this is one of the film's topsy-turvy blendings of Nemo's dream world with his home world. After getting mobbed by an angry crowd at the coronation, he wakes up in his bed, thinking it was all a dream. But his house is suddenly flooded by crashing waves and he ends upfloating on his bed in the middle of an endless, still sea. He has sinned and is cast out of the Garden, so to speak.
While caught in the doldrums, Nemo sees a waterspot that takes the form of King Morpheus before collapsing back into the sea. Nemo then expresses his sincere sincere remorse for what he has done. Soon after, Professor Genius floats by on a suitcase. The two devise a plan for rescuing the King, and then paddle their way back to Slumberland. Perhaps we can read this sequence on the water as a period of purgatory that Nemo must undergo.
The Second Adam
While Nemo falls from grace, King Morpheus falls from power, leaving behind his magic scepter to Nemo's responsibility. Continuing the allegory, this fall from power and descent into bondage represents Christ's humiliation and death on the cross. Going even further, Morpheus is held captive within the hell-like caverns of the Nightmare Castle; this could be read as representing Christ's descent into hell. Morpheus's fall from power represents Christ's giving up of power.
This is where the cool thing happens.
When he goes to rescue the King, Nemo transitions from an Adam figure to a Christ figure, a second Adam. Nemo uses the King's scepter to do battle in Nightmare Castle, using the incantation that the King had used at Nemo's coronation. He takes on Morpheus's mantle of power, using his words, to defeat evil. I see this as an allegorical representation of Christ's defeat of evil at the cross. Christ is called the Second Adam many times in scripture because he stands in Adam's (Man's) place to take the punishment for sin.
What's more, He dies on the cross and is resurrected and restored to glory by the Father. After Nemo defeats the Nightmare King, he is overwhelmed and appears to die, or at least pass out. Nightmare Land explodes in light, and the churning lava and fire are replaced by ice and snow. King Morpheus, Princess Camille, the Professor, and Flip (who had all been captured and placed in some kind of cryogenic sleep) are suddenly released. Finding Nemo lying on the ground, Morpheus uses his scepter to revive Nemo, resurrecting him even.
The following scene shows Slumberland restored to its former state of happiness, as Nemo and the Princess float away on a dirigible back to Nemo's real world.
*****
The thing I like about Little Nemo - other than its allegorical storyline, its imaginative characters, its disorienting editing and dream sequences - is the fact that it doesn't fall back on the "If you just believe in yourself, all will be well" idea that many children's film have. Nemo must 'do something about it', but he doesn't act fully out of his own power either. Even if we ignore the film's allegorical implications, the film is firmly rooted in the idea of taking action and keeping one's word. Sin must be paid for, but redemption is the ultimate finale.
