User reviews

Thumbalina. This is a good family movie. The story is fun and sweet, the characters are memorable and lovable and the music is good ("Let me be your wings" and "Once there was the sun" are particularly memorable). Thumbalina is a good family movie, the kids will love it and the parent's will enjoy it as well. This is definitely a movie to see if you want to be reminded of 3 things: "true love conquers all", "follow your heart", and "nothing is impossible". Those are not the only life lessons it discreetly teaches, many others are buried deeply in it, like all great fairy tales. Don't see it if you want brilliant animation or movie perfection, see it if you want a "feel good" fairytale that. I would give this movie 7 stars out of 10.

I grew up watching Pebble and the Penguin and Anastasia. I was introduced to this about a month ago, I watched it, and I was actually impressed. It is not as good as the above titles, but I can name a lot worse animated films, believe me, the Secret of NIMH sequel anyone?! The film is flawed, but on the whole it is a fun sweet film for kids. The animation is very good, but is a little flat in some places. But the animation sequence in "Let me be your wings" is breathtaking. Speaking of the songs, they aren't bad at all. They are very pleasant, and beautifully orchestrated with lovely tunes even if some of the lyrics were hard to understand. The incidental music was lovely too. The best aspect was the story. It stayed close to the original fairytale, while adding a little bit on. All of the characters are very much the same, and none of the essence is lost, save for some slow scenes in the middle half. The characterisations are fine. Jodi Benson is a very talented singing actress, and she had the best song of the movie, "Let me be your Wings", which was stunning audibly and artistically, and she does do a good job as Thumbelina. People find Thumbelina annoying and patronising, I find her cute and pretty and she means well. Cornelius was a little bland, but I warmed to him. The toads were funny, especially during that really fast Spanish song. My favourite character is Jaquimo, what a great accent, and Thumbelina's mother is a warm and loving character and provides the film's most touching moment in the reprise of "Soon"! Other voice actors are Gilbert Gottfried, John Hurt and Carol Channing. All in all, a pleasant animation, that is misunderstood. 7/10. Bethany Cox

Ever since I first saw this movie I have loved it. It grabbed hold of my imagination. It also follows very close to the original story which is more than I can say for several other books made to movies. It has also captivated the imagination of my children. They will sit through this movie and then talk about it all day. They even pretend to be the characters. This movie is one of the greatest children's movies ever made. It has comedy, beautiful music,a love story and it also teaches a valuable lesson....To always follow your heart and you will have your dreams realized. I recommend this movie to anyone who is in the mood for a feel good movie that leaves you with the feeling that you can do anything if you want it strong enough. I love the songs, I love the story, I love it all.

You know what? I liked this movie. Its kinda of slow in parts, and the animation is dated too, but the songs really stick. You know how I know? My kids, 7 and 12 years old, will watch this movie over and over when we break it out of our DVD rack. They sing the cheery Manilow penned songs and they watch the story unfold each time like its the first time. (The being slow part can be bridged with a cookie or two)...

I like the voice of Thumbalina. She did the voice to the Little Mermaid, so you can consider this a sequal..sorta...song to listen for? A cute little balad called "Soon"...one of those 'bring a tear to your eye' songs...

I give this a 7+...instantly forgetable for adults...kids will love it though!!!

Don Bluth does not only make a great movie with "Thumbelina", it is better than most Disney movies by far. It has a great mix of voices, a great plot and some interesting and beautifully drawn characters.

If Disney would´ve made this movie, the characters would not look human, they´d look abrupt and ugly.

The greatness of Don Bluth animations, is that there are so many different songs, or nearly no songs at all. In Disney movies, the main character sings at least 3 songs of her/his own, and the little "love duet" together with her/his love and the villain sings 1 , the highest 2 songs, or there are no songs at all.

In Bluth´s movies, the main character may have at the highest 2 songs, a duet and at least 2 villainous songs, or nearly no songs at all.

That is why Don Bluth´s movies are better than Disney´s, there is a such big mix.

"Thumbelina" does not ONLY have this, it has sweet characters that you learn to love, villainous villains, and interesting drawn other characters.

So help me, this is the cutest thing I've ever seen! I just love this film. First time I saw it, I went with my 7 year old brother, and was determined to hate it - but, well, I just couldn't. It's soooo cute, and the songs are so good, and the story is so well told - it's just impossible not to like it.

The first thing that I really like about this film is that it (unlike, oh so many Disney films) is actually very loyal to the original fairy tale by H.C. Andersen. They've added a few things, and changed a few details, but all of the things they changed I had to agree with (hey, why not let Thumbelina and the Prince meet at the beginning? It makes more sense for them to already be in love. And what's wrong with making the Fieldmouse a girl? It's Carol Channing!) This is very true to the original story - so much more than Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID (which was supposedly based off another H.C. Andersen tale - but you'd never guess it).

The animation is good, it's not the best, but it's fine. The real star of this film is the music. A beautiful score by Barry Manilow helped out by fabulous voice work. The wonderful Jodi Benson heads the cast (she was also the voice of Ariel in THE LITTLE MERMAID) and she is delightful as Thumbelina. I've been lucky enough to meet Ms. Benson and I have to say, she is just the sweetest person you could ever hope to know. She's got a wonderful, child-like speaking voice, and a glorious singing voice - just the perfect choice for the lead. She's joined in the cast by Gilbert Gottfried, Barbara Cook, Carol Channing, and (another voice talent from THE LITTLE MERMAID) Kenneth Mars.

This film is just beautifully done. It's faithful to the original, it's lovely to see, and has a marvelous soundtrack. I don't care that I'm all grown up - this is a movie I can't help but love.

One fine thing about watching a movie based on a story you know

(when the movie is faithful to the story) is being able to know when

something is going to happen before it does, but not because

you've seen the movie. When it is based on something as short

and simple as a faery tale, it is fun to see how the movie deals

with it differently than the original source. This movie has all the

charm and verve of an old-fashioned Broadway show, much of its

charm coming from Manilow's songs. He could have been much

more appreciated had he been born a few decades earlier and

worked on Broadway. His songs are pure old-fashioned Broadway, which means they don't usually have too much new

meaning to them, they are just fun and pretty and very VERY catchy. It is only when he tries to make a MODERN score and write songs

to be performed like pop-song that he becomes pathetic. Sadly,

this leaves him only open to fine children's movies like these. One

rare happening in adapting stories to movies is that the writers are

able to keep the storyline and add new depth too it to keep the

spirit of the Faery Tale alive, but also for older watchers. For one

thing, give the Prince an earlier meeting with the girl to make it

more complex, (and not have him admit he's a Prince at first

makes it seem honest) and give the Prince a more rebellious

personality than making him the upper class figure regularly seen

in story books. The animation and much of the vocal scores help

make the scenes touching and funny when they should be. But

again, the movie's main strong point is its score, and the

spectacular cast of stars (Jodi Benson, Gilbert Gottfreid, Barbara

Cook, Charo, and the spectacular Carol Channing [Hello Dolly

herself!]) and some sadly lesser known celebrities. The only

complaints to be made are the scripts several weak moments

toward the end, when the sadness on the hero and heroine's parts

seem a bit overdone, as do some of the 'heroic' scenes involving

the prince. His heroism gives no feeling that he has accomplished

a lot to get his heart's desire. But still, this movie manages to bring

out the spirit you can rarely see in the original story, and if you see

it just to enjoy it, which is what you are meant, you may just be

impressed by what Don Bluth could do before he started

completely losing his touch.

Good Grief- where to begin. Many of the critical reviews here have touched on most of what I disliked so immensely about the movie. Stupid dialogue, annoying characters (even Thumbelina herself), very odd pacing to the movie (holes), and Thumbelina couldn't keep her dress down. Weird scenes- she just meets the Prince Fairy and starts singing and they put their hands all over each other. She later is kidnapped but instead of being upset that she can't marry her prince she starts dancing and singing and thanking the mother toad- what??!!! Now, I love most of the princess movies and cartoons out there- but this one is very, very poorly made. It was torture to sit through it with my 6 year old daughter- it will be "disappearing" from our shelf this week.

This is a triumph for Don Bluth! I really enjoyed it. The songs are sweet, & memorable. Jodie Benson (Ariel, The Little Mermaid) plays the title role, & she has such a great voice. I would recommend this movie to any family who is stuck in the Disney collection only rut. Give Thumbelina a chance!

As of 2011, Don Bluth continues to live as one of the best animation directors of all time. The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go To Heaven were his most successful films yet and one of the most decent movies he has done was "Thumbelina" based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson.

It revolves around Thumbelina, a small person, who meets a fairy prince named Cornelius and have now fall in love. Later, she stumbles upon an adventure as lots of furry creatures try to marry Thumbelina.

Now, I haven't read the story or The Little Mermaid at all, but for a animated adaptation, this one is just a decent movie.

I'll go for the bad parts: The story line was butchered and underdeveloped it attempts to be a Disney-clone and the characters were also underdeveloped. The dialogue was so lame it makes the characters lose their personalities.

The good parts are: The animation and art design were very colorful and creative, the songs may not be the best I've heard (especially with Let Me Be Your Wings and I'll admit it was a "Whole New World" ripoff) but they were OK for the most part, the characters were very decent, and the voice acting wasn't that bad with the best coming from Jodi Benson.

Thumbelina isn't as good as Bluth's successful works and I do understand the criticism it received, but it's not as terrible as I thought it would be. Yes, the story and characters could've been better, but at least the music score makes the movie kind of watchable and only for little kids. So, I'll give this a decent rating.

6/10

ONE thing you can say about this awful, awful movie is that the reviews of it are pure entertainment. This is like one of those vacations where the brochure is more fun than the trip. Maybe that's what Bluth intended because he knew that every aspect of Thumbelina is totally horrid and only worthwhile as material for creative IMDB users who want to shoot it down. The only good part of this movie is when John Hurt shows up as this mole who's so desperate for a spouse that he's actually considering Thumbelina. Always noble, perhaps the greatest humanitarian of our time.. Who but John Hurt would try to assist this wretched film that is a 76-minute result of whatever extraterrestrial brain-sucking creature got a grip on Don Bluth's head in 1990 and hasn't since let go or stopped feeding? (Though it did vomit in '97 and return to him enough sentience to produce Anastasia.)

This is the WORST. (Except for possibly A Troll in Central Park, which I haven't seen.) Worse than Rock A Doodle and much worse than The Pebble and the Penguin, full of songs I could criticize if only I could remember anything about them, full of blah like the "follow your heart" spiel which is trite here, well after being trite in The Land Before Time, and before being trite in Nimh 2 and Cinderella 2. The plot is incomprehensible all around, following Thum as she dances around with a bunch of racially insensitive frogs and then gets involved (somehow) with a lot of insects.. I don't even remember how. Trying to call up the reasons and explanations but they just aren't coming because nothing makes sense in this movie. (Characters appear and then just leave at random.) Also it's BORING. I SO wanted to turn it off, and had to force myself to get through the whole thing without hitting the FF button.. (I knew if I touched it even once, it'd be all over.) I can't conceive of any reason why ANYone over 2 years old would like this movie. The only cute thing in it is the fuzzy bumblebee that Cornelius rides-- nothing else is even remotely interesting or worthwhile. It is NOT good for the whole family. I highly do not recommend renting this for a family night or a solo night or any night. Oh and don't be fooled by the trailer, which is highly deceptive as it includes the only really coherent sequence in the whole thing, the part where Thum and Cornelius first meet.

For more intelligent fare, rent any of the Teletubbie adventures and be awestruck by their sophistication.

Keep in mind the comments you read about this movie ARE opinions. Don't base the movie solely off of those opinions. Rent it, and watch it YOURSELF instead of listening to any crock or praise that may be posted about it here.

PERSONALLY....

I enjoy the movie very much. I watched it when I was a tiny little gremlin, and I still watch it now on occasion. I'm 15 and one of my silly little fetishes are Disney movies. They're WAY better than the new ones at any rate. (...and cleaner too, heh.) Thumbelina is a wonderful Fairytale with pretty songs and the beautiful voice of Jodi Benson. Fairies, jitterbugs, mice, beetles, fish, frogs, a mole, and a swallow... all the tiny things. (With some big animals at the beginning.) I think the main reason why i like the movie is the images, the color (especially at the end) is beautiful. The story is a wonderful children's fairytale. I don't know if kid's nowadays would enjoy it or not, because they have all the Pixar stuff, but my five year old sister does enjoy seeing it once in a while. I loved it when I was little (and still do).

Barry Manilow's music is fantastic, but I would listen to Jodi Benson sing just about anything. I've carried my love for Prince Cornelius into adulthood, much to my embarrassment. I truly appreciate Thumbelina's agency; she gets thrown into a lot of BS, but she finds a way to make it work. While it may not be as solid as some of the 'golden-age' Disney princess films, I've always admired Don Bluth for bringing something different into our very Disney-centric household growing up. Rewatching it as an adult, I cried! I could still sing along to every song, and it holds such a special place in my heart. Voice cast is pretty strange but a lot of the lines are ingrained in my head (I love you Carol Channing). Some beautiful moments of animation, and some that were obviously new for the times but don't hold up very well now. Kinda slow at times but also a great fall movie.

It is a decent movie to have a good time with the family; it has a passable plot, the animation is good, and some songs are catchy; it is not as bad as they say and it is enjoyable.

"Thumbelina" is notorious for being probably the only animated movie that won or was nominated for a Razzie. While certainly not a great movie, I strongly disagree about the Razzie towards it. If we're talking about animated films that should definitely be priced with Razzies, then let's take a look at movies like "Pocahontas 2", "Home on the Range", "101 Dalmatians II", "Madagascar" "Shrek" trilogy and "Monsters & Inc", for example.

Enough talking about other movies. Now let's talk about what really matters on this review: this one in particular.

"Thumbelina" is cute and a little too childish at the same time. For that reason, I recommend it more for kids than adults. I believe that more likely kids will love it. However, I'm not so sure about adults. I am a grown up guy now and I admit that I used to like this better when I was younger.

The main character of the movie, Thumbelina, is a cute and pretty girl. The idea of Thumbelina being as small as a thumb is cute but surreal and too childish at the same time, as well as the idea of her "mother" as a normal human being, which means absolutely gigantic for Thumbelina.

The dog with a mustache is ugly outside, but his beauty is on the inside. He's one of the best characters from this movie. Other great characters are Thumbelina, the Prince Cornelius and the french bird Jacquimo.

But if there's one thing that bugs me about this movie is its unbelievable frogs, as well as the fact that this movie features too much bugs, not to mention that Mr. Mole and Mrs. Fieldmouse are boring characters. Also, the songs by the frogs, the bugs and Mrs. Fieldmouse are quite weak. On the other hand, Jacquimo sings very nice and joyful songs with a french charm and accent.

The artwork is very good, almost at the same level as Disney's standards. But, like I said, too much frogs and bugs kinda ruined this movie for me.

But the worst thing about this movie is the whole thing of a frog and a beetle always chasing Thumbelina. What kind of nonsense is this supposed to be??

Well, the animation isn't exactly stunning, I'll agree with that, and the production team certainly picked a rather silly name from the fairy prince - CORNELIOUS! What a silly name! And also it does get rather weak as far as sentiment goes, but above all, "Thumbelina" is just lovely! BEAUTIFUL. I just kind of think that those golden sparkles that trail behinds the fairies is actually quite unique. Not many cartoon films have those kinds of effects at all, not these days at least. Mind you, "Anastasia" had the same kind of effects (the 1997-cartoon, I mean) which may be considered in the 1990s and 2000s (our present time-period in fashion) a little old because "Pinocchio" had PLENTY of that but at least "Anastasia" received BIG respect and honour from many audiences worldwide. This movie very rarely receives respect and honour. Far too underrated! Just because it's all soft and sometimes soothing, with pleasant little songs, warmhearted character and a Disney princess that, for the first time in this era, is all kind and forgiving and not feisty. Come on! LOVE IT! See what I see in it! People (including my sister) find the grey and white bird with the big hat annoying. I'll admit that his jokes are rubbish but I wouldn't say he's annoying. He's got a good heart and he helps Thumbelina through hard times and he's a good bird - they're ALL good characters and Thumbelina's mother! Well she is the most warm, tender, caring, considerate mother I've ever seen in a cartoon film! She loves Thumbelina so much and she always makes sure she's away from harm! That horrible toad certainly proved her wrong, though, didn't he? There are three characters I hate and find irritating, apart from the toad; the Beetle, who is terribly shallow. First he flies Thumbelina up to a tree-top making her think he'd help her find her mother's cottage but instead he drags her off to a disco for INSECTS! He dresses her up to be the belle of the ball but when he dances with her, Thumbelina's clothes fall off and there she is stood in a red pair of trousers and a red blouse. He humiliates her, shouts, "SHE'S UGLY!" to all who attend that ball and then feels proud of himself! Lucky, the bird came to comfort her when he saw her sobbing her heart out. Then, there's Miss Fieldmouse; I know she took Thumbelina in when she nearly froze to death and served her some food and kept her warm, but her nature is unpleasant. She tells a very shocked, heartbroken Thumbelina her boyfriend, the fairy prince died in the snow and says "who cares? You're only young, my dear! There are many more men to come!" Hah! Nothing like being sympathetic, eh? Last of all, there's the fat old serial-proposer Mr Mole. He is just SO pompous! Thumbelina is sad as sad can be about her one true love being dead and not ever seeing her mother again and there he is! (The mole, I mean) munching away at his corn-cakes as if Thumbelina is his servant. Miss Fieldmouse even insists Thumbelina marries that pompous, over-sized twit and, what's worse, she won't take "no" for an answer! So our poor little heroine DOES "marry the mole!" It's such a sad story, although it's comforting with it! Only the odd one low point to this movie. Don't listen to those dreary-natured critics! They're WRONG! It's absolutely lovely!

I was shocked after watching this movie! Yes, I sat all the way through!

Let's start off by this short summary of Don Bluth which explains my deepest wonder about this disturbing movie:

The man who worked for Disney left it to persue his own animation career, was a tough rival to Disney in the 80's with great animated movies like The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988) and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). Then Disney came back on track with their animated musicals, and Bluth follows in their footsteps after observing their success. He should have been able to do that in his sleep, but it turns out one awful movie after the other leaving his usually thought-provoking and grim stories behind in exchange for ugly and bland babysitter fodder with unlikable characters and terrible songs.

About "Thumbelina": We have a main character who spends almost the entire movie whining about either her size or that any attempt of helping herself get what she seeks is hopeless. She constantly makes bad choices every single time she meets a new acqaintance in the unknown nature. That is dumb and irresponsible and by no means a good example for kids.

The animals she meets are either annoying, useless or unlikable, so they do not help lifting this poor Disney wannabe out of the garbage can. Speaking of which, the only partially enjoyable song in this movie is strikingly similar to Disney's Aladdin's giant hit "A Whole New World", yeah, Bluth was certainly desperate.

The rest is short, the songs are mostly awful, the animation is sub-par to his earlier work, the voice acting was also mostly lousy, but the beautiful voice of Jodi Benson stuck out as decent. Her singing voice is amazing, but her lines were terrible as mentioned before. Notice we have two actors famous for their Disney roles, Benson from "The Little Mermaid" and Gilbert Gottfried from "Aladdin".

I'd say avoid this movie, I only watched it to see how bad Bluth's 90's movies were and this was very bad.

I totally disagree which Pynchov. How dare he say the film was terrible. The way he describes it makes it sound like a horror movie. This film was absolutely brilliant. It was fun, enjoyable, enchanting and had some memorable characters. I have had the video for years and I would still watch it. The songs in the movie were inspiring and the scenes were picture-perfect. It was nothing like that totally rubbish 2003 Thumbelina and Tom Thumb film. People must see the 1994 version!!!!! I think the frog characters were excellent and some of the songs they came out with were really funny. The beetle ball was a great scene and looked really unusual. The scenes were beautiful. Full of luscious green fields and beautiful flowers, it was so inspiring! One of the best characters was Jacquimo! I loved his accent!! Thumbelina and Cornelius were the perfect fairy tale couple in a perfect fairy-tale film.

I'm old enough to remember seeing "Thumbelina" in theaters. At the time, I was a ten-year old boy being dragged by his mom and two sisters to see what I perceived as a "girly movie". (And I know some reading this will immediately protest whether or not this actually counts as a "girly movie", but keep in mind when you're a ten-year old boy, anything with a female lead seeking after the prince of her dreams tends to be automatically labeled "girly movie".) At the time, I hated it. Cut to decades later, and now I'm a father with two young daughters of my own. We were trying to think of a family movie to watch, and I brought up this movie. All I remembered was I didn't like it as a kid. Curious, we all sat down to watch it. Within five minutes, my daughters were already in love with it. As the end credits finally began to roll, even I had to openly declare, "Alright, it was cuter than I remember it."

If you're already familiar with the Thumbelina story, this movie follows it fairly faithfully. The only difference might be that the character of the toad is now the primary villain, with the beetle becoming his secondary accomplice. The role of the prince is also expanded, so that Thumbelina meets him early on, and much of the movie involves the two of them trying to relink with each other. Voice acting overall is well done, with Jodi Benson doing her thing as Thumbelina (man she can hit those high notes), and even John Hurt doing a great job as the Mole. The songs are surprisingly good and catchy, to the point that I got the soundtrack for my daughters to listen to, and they still enjoy it to this day. (And my wife and I can't help but sing the final line of "Let Me Be Your Wings" to each other.) Of course, one of the biggest highlights for me is Don Bluth's animation, which is smooth and crisp. I must admit that sometimes I watch scenes from his movies just for the animation quality alone.

Is this the greatest movie ever? No, I'm not going to say that. Let me also add that, while I love and adore Don Bluth as an animator, and I think he's a master of his craft, I'm willing to lambaste his movies when I think they deserve it. (Don't get me started on "The Pebble and the Penguin"...) Sure, there are some legitimate complaints you can make about the film. For example, "follow your heart" is one of those corny moral lessons that sounds great in fairy tales, but tends to do really poorly in real life. Also, it's kinda funny that for a movie that seems to make that the front and center lesson, very little of the movie involves Thumbelina following her heart until the very end. But hey, it didn't affect my opinion of the movie too much too much. On that note, I think the film has gotten way too much criticism over the years, and I think it holds up a bit better than some people will give it credit for. For example, it got the Razzie for worst song ("Marry the Mole"), which just goes to show the Razzies are more focused on poking fun at mainstream films than making objectionably true statements. As someone who was sitting there in a theater when this film was fairly new, I can promise you nobody during the "Marry the Mole" scene was cringing or thinking "This is the worst song ever." In fact, people were enjoying themselves, and I even remember the room breaking out in laughter at the "They're DEAD! DEAD! VERY VERY DEAD!" line. (I'll add that, while I do love the soundtrack, "Marry the Mole" was probably the only song I remembered from the movie as a kid, which adds to the fact it wasn't all that bad.)

If you're looking for a simple family feature, I say give this a go. Or, if you're looking for one of Don Bluth's better hits than one of his misses, I suggest giving this a go as well.

My little sister went through a stage when she was about four where she insisted on watching a movie two or three thousand times. We endured so many viewings of The Lion King, All Dogs Go To Heaven, and Balto that the songs were indelibly stamped into our brains and we could say the lines along with the characters. We endured my sister's voracious viewing habits with varying degrees of grace, but the breaking point came when she started watching Thumbelina.

The movie plays like some sort of grotesque nightmare. Sure, you can try to describe Gilbert Gottfried's beetle character and Carol Channing's nagging mouse, but the sheer horror of the movie can't be comprehended until you actually SEE the scene where Thumbelina is mocked in an insect music hall. Trust me, it really must be seen to be believed. The plot, which follows Thumbelina's "mis-adventures", isn't terribly coherent or consistent, and you will feel serious loathing for each character within moments of their entrance (especially Prince Cornelius). The one person whom I didn't absolutely hate by the movie's end (which was viewed many, many times) was Thumbelina herself, who was such a pathetic, rag-doll of a figure that she only inspired an uncomfortable sense of pity. Really, there's absolutely nothing entertaining about this movie, and it ranks right around Rock-A-Doodle (which my sister thankfully was NOT attached to) as "Things Don Bluth Should Leave Off His Resume".

My sister has since grown past this habit and I haven't seen the movie in years, but the thought of the singing frogs still gives me chills.