But soon a boy named Flip came into the picture. The exiled son of the Sun and nephew of the Dawn, he wore worn hobo costumes and green clown makeup, and chomped on a cigar to demonstrate that he was a Lord of Misrule. He decided that he didn't want Nemo to reach the Princess, so at climactic moments he would shout "Wake up!" or display the words "Wake up!" on his hat, and Nemo's quest for heterosexual fulfillment would be foiled for another day.
Why was Flip so obsessed with ruining Nemo's quest for the Princess? Because he had designs on Nemo himself! He was a trickster, a "queer" character, disrupting the presumed naturalness of the heterosexual bond.
It seemed to work. Within a few years, the Princess was forgotten, and Nemo and Flip were constant companions, exploring little-known corners of Slumberland, diving under the ocean, taking a dirigible to Mars.
Eventually Nemo picked up the Imp, an African stereotype (though he was actually from a cannibal tribe in Slumberland), who spoke only in gibberish, but proved a brave and loyal companion. Naturally, Flip was jealous, and the two argued and fought constantly.
The queer subtext is obvious: two boys bonding, rescuing each other, forming an emotional attachment, jealously guarding against potential interlopers, with the original heterosexual goal of the journey long forgotten.
See also: Alphonse and Gaston
There was an NES game based on it. (Don't be surprised. Jekyll and Hyde also got a pile of shite, I mean game. Little Nemo was a good game, though. But "Nintendo hard" definitely applies. Expect to die a lot.) And an anime.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention, when you finish the NES game, Morpheus offers to let Princess Camille marry Nemo. He says he has to wake up early because he promised his mom. (Also, he's 8 and she looks like she's in her teens, so it's kinda disturbing. Nemo needs to fly to Vienna.)
ReplyDeleteOther reason to wake up? Slumberland is worse than Freddie. From the train level (prompting me to say "World War I came early") on, it's not "impossible without a cheating device", because it's Capcom and not everyone's favorite laughing joking numbnuts who can't even spell C, so I don't use one. It is ridiculously hard, though, even by NES standards.
I do wish they had Flip, though. But I guess it was more based on the Miyazaki cartoon.