Our story begins once upon a time in Paris, but I’m not sure why. This tale is from Denmark but is set in France. Anyway, we take a sickening swoop through totally abandoned bad-CGI Paris under a grossly pink sky. Jaquimo the Swallow addresses the viewer and we get to my number one beef with this movie – the designs. All of the animals are very goofy and cutesified and cartoonish, while the humans are fairly realistic. Thumbelina’s animal cast does require a lot of anthropomorphizing, but I just don’t like the designs they went with. Jaquimo narrates the beginning with the old woman and the good witch, which would have been KIND OF NICE TO SEE FOR OURSELVES. We enter the story through a book, which seems a very Disney-cartoon-ish thing to do. But the live-action Tom Thumb did it too, I guess. I did not enjoy the first song, but there is one interesting moment (Thumbelina falling into a pie) that was not taken from Andersen but is clearly a nod to older Thumbling tradition. (Many of the early references to Tom Thumb specifically talk about him falling into a pudding.) The next song establishes very little, other than the fact that Thumbelina is thumb-sized. (This differs from the original tale, where she would be more accurately named Halfathumbelina.) Anyway, they tell us her size multiple times. And I don’t think anyone will forget her name. But other than that? Uh… “Thumbelina, She’s a funny little squirt/ Thumbelina, Tiny angel in a skirt/ Thumbelina, She’s mending and baking, pretending, she’s making things up” What does that TELL US? She’s unusual…okay… and she’s…imaginative? There are some little touches with the old woman that are really interesting. Like the unused baby cradle in her house, and the fact that she’s toying with her heart-shaped locket when she and Thumbelina talk about love and happily-ever-afters. Also, Thumbelina is much more high-pitched and breathy and giggly than Ariel, though you can tell it’s Jodi Benson. With the farm animals, we run once again into the animators’ design choices. That does not look like a dog. Dog legs do not work like that. Dogs are not balding unless they have a bad case of mange. Dogs do not have moustaches. And, again, I really do like how well the human characters are animated. I like Thumbelina’s long flippy ponytail, but not the weird tufts around her face. We get to Soon, which is my favorite song out of this movie, partly because Jodi Benson is a pro. Everybody talks about Let Me Be Your Wings but that one just feels trite and tired to me. Cornelius arrives on his bumblebee. That bumblebee is HUGE. Just for comparison, Thumbelina and Cornelius are maybe 2 inches high, and he looks like a horse compared to them. Also, meet the world’s only somewhat realistic-looking animal. I guess riding a talking anthropomorphic bumblebee like a motorcycle would have been too weird. Cutesy bug children pop up apropos of nothing and give them a flower chain for no reason. Are they obsessive fans of Cornelius who follow him around hoping to throw flowers? I’m not a huge fan of Cornelius’ bowl haircut. Or his outfit. Or his personality, really. He and Thumbelina are both pretty shallow. I remember my main impression of this movie as a teenager was that Cornelius was near-indistinguishable from the Toad and Mole – same motivation and everything, he was just better-looking. Of course, the Toad and Mole are clearly villains and do some awful things, but ultimately there’s not much to Cornelius rather than “wants to marry Thumbelina.” Anyway they go on a romantic flight, soaring romantically over a creek and floating romantically around a pumpkin… I mean, it’s a pumpkin. It’s an odd mix of “cutesy and campy” and “feels like they were trying to go for stirring and majestic, but didn’t quite make it.” They go home and promise to see each other again, with a vague sort-of proposal. Thumbelina gives Cornelius the necklace – of forget-me-nots. This is actually kind of brilliant. Forget-me-nots are perfectly sized for these guys, but also there’s an old superstition that a girl giving a guy forget-me-nots would be followed by bad fortune. Sure enough, Thumbelina goes to sleep in her walnut shell, but is suddenly kidnapped by a toad! And here I ask: They couldn’t have had the kidnapping scene focus on Thumbelina trying to escape, rather than a comic relief side character cartoonishly attempting to rescue her? It’s hard for me to put into words how much I dislike the toad characters. And now we get Jaquimo, and with him the film’s absolute worst plothole. Many people have commented on it. Why doesn’t he just fly Thumbelina away from the waterfall? Why doesn’t he fly her back to her house? What’s a jitterbug and why are they here? Yes, the jitterbugs. Let’s get more cutesy. “ARE YOU WEALLLLLY GONNA MARRY THE FAIWY PWINCE?!” Actually, I’m not sure what these things are, since they superficially resemble various bugs and insects – ladybugs and butterflies and things – but are, in a few cases, so cartoonish that they’re barely recognizable as insects. And then there’s the can-can-dancing birds. (Note: this song got stuck in my head for quite some time after watching this movie.) I have to question some of the set pieces here. Why is there a random book lying there in the mud? Does this area have a really bad littering problem? The Beetle arrives, being yet another more distinctly non-insectoid insect. Actually, the beetles just look like blue humans with wings. Interesting design choice with making the antennae into a moustache, but still. 0/10 on the voice talent, Berkeley. (Who allowed Gilbert Gottfried to sing? Was he really paid for this?) -2/10 on the costuming, Berkeley. You wanted her to spin around, why did you put her in that easily-dismantled outfit? Anyway, Thumbelina gets thrown out by the beetles and IMMEDIATELY DESPAIRS, but Jaquimo gives her a pep talk and they part ways, with Jaquimo planning to go to Fairyland. However, winter is coming and the search seems fruitless so far. It bears noting that autumn just started two days ago, and we’re already moving on into blizzards. Jaquimo reacts with mild surprise and dismay to the GIANT THORN STICKING COMPLETELY THROUGH HIS WING Meanwhile Cornelius gets frozen, later to be found by the Beetle and Toad. (The Toad has torn off the Beetle’s wings, which was pretty horrifying to me, but the Beetle keeps saying “Give them back.” What is he going to do with them? Can he reattach his limbs?) Alone in the snow, Thumbelina finds a conveniently abandoned shoe and sock. This place really does have a littering problem! We cut back briefly to Thumbelina’s mother, who sings her own version of “Soon.” Personally, it doesn’t feel very emotional to me. I would have focused on the voice acting in this scene, rather than the sad-looking ugly animals.
Thumbelina wakes up with Mrs. Fieldmouse, who tells her with impeccable tact that Cornelius is dead. Immediately, they visit the Mole and Mrs. Fieldmouse starts working on getting Thumbelina to marry him. She, of course, uses song and dance to convince her. Here I have a question: Why does Thumbelina keep switching between looking annoyed and dancing along to the song? I notice it here in Marry the Mole, I noticed it earlier in the toads’ song… Anyway, our heroine finds and saves Jaquimo, who has finally noticed that having a thorn in his wing is kind of painful. Displaying his gloriously one-track mind, he flies off to the Vale of the Fairies to find Cornelius, leaving her alone again. (I’ve written about the implications of this elsewhere.) Anyway, the Toad and Beetle abandon their Cornelius-sicle. The baby Jitterbugs find it and, unlike literally everyone else, decide that he must still be alive inside there. How do they know that? And how does that work? They light a tiny fire under the ice cube, which somehow melts without dripping onto it and putting it out immediately. Meanwhile Thumbelina is mooning her way up the aisle surrounded by visions of her lost love, probably confusing the guests. Fortunately, she decides to leave and charges off, avoiding the Toad as well. Toad, Mole and wedding party give chase, but are blocked by a revived Cornelius. We don’t get to see him wake up or anything, he’s just there. He whips his sword back and forth. The Toad grabs a club. The fight begins. And we promptly discover that Cornelius is useless in a fight, as he gets knocked over and then apparently forgets he can fly. Okay, anyway, Thumbelina gets out and meets Jaquimo, who flies her to the Vale of the Fairies. Thumbelina is a Gloomy Gus, but sings and her voice somehow, for some reason, causes spring to arrive. (Winter lasted maybe a few days. The timeline’s unclear.) Cornelius returns, they’re happy, they kiss, Thumbelina gets wings. This is never fully explained - except by Jaquimo’s theme song - “ Your dreams will fly on magICal wings when you follow your heart.” They get married and ride away through the rainbows on their giant monster bumblebee. The end. I half-like this movie. It’s grown on me over time, actually. I’m not pleased with the design choices, or Jaquimo’s extreme obnoxiousness. It’s also weird how Don Bluth is mimicking the Disney formula, while Disney’s contemporary heroines were becoming proactive and spunky, Thumbelina primarily reacts to the things happening around her. Other people put forth the effort to rescue her, while she despairs or flat-out faints. It’s not until the end that she finally stands up for herself and walks out of her wedding without any help at all, which is admittedly a pretty good scene. And as far as playing with the source material goes, Bluth’s attempts at improving on the source material sometimes create gaping new plot holes. (See Jaquimo.) And while Bluth ties together some things that the original fairytale left hanging, he also leaves many questions unanswered (like how Thumbelina can suddenly bring back spring). (Originally posted on Tumblr.)
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So: there is a Folk Opera episode entitled Thumbelina in the Bamboo Tube. This is Nang Ut, who is closer to Doll i’ the Grass than she is to the Thumbling tale type. I was pleased to find this with subtitles in English (and lots of other languages, but mostly English). Two fairies are nearly sentenced to death for the crime of falling in love (“the grave sin of flirting!!!”), but instead they are sentenced to be reborn as mortals. Both will suffer before finding each other again, but the girl in particular will be born poor with “a tiny and hideous appearance” and will have to labor in the fields and sleep in a bamboo tube. She’ll become beautiful when someone compassionate loves her. The man, reborn as the (very pretty, very makeup-wearing) third son of the Emperor, is choosing a wife. She must be beautiful, educated, skilled, and well-mannered, as she will be First-rank Princess Consort. (I don’t know why, since he’s the youngest.) There are some princesses waiting for him to choose one of them, but he doesn’t want to marry just for beauty, and tells his father that he has to turn them all down. Most of the princesses accede to this, but the Princess of So is furious. She is invited to stay, however, because her country’s very powerful and they don’t want to anger her. She’s in love with Third Prince, and his brothers and their consorts want him to marry her. They begin to plot together. Meanwhile, the prince prays, and has a vision of his beloved from his past life. They had a previous affinity in Paradise. “A predestined marriage with karmic obstructions.” I thought these two were arrested for falling in love. “The watermelon field is my home.” Little Thumbelina is my name.” Okay! She fades away. He’s distraught. His servants run in, saying she’s here, but it’s actually just one of them dressed up as a woman. (This is our comic relief, guys.) They beg the prince not to punish them because they were just trying to cheer him up. He tells them to just come along as he travels out to look at flowers. They sit down by a field and the now-thirsty prince sends his two servants to find water. They argue with each other and pray for rain (comedy alert). PLEASE STOP SINGING AND GET TO THE PLOT. Then they find watermelons, and when the prince comes to see what’s taking them so long, they give him a melon. However, right after they split it open, he says they must find the owner. It’s not a wild melon because there’s a proper garden with rows. (Yes, after they start breaking open watermelons, he notices this.) The owner, Third Prince assumes, must be a kind-hearted, industrious and beautiful girl. The servants point out that it could just as easily be an old lady. The prince says they have to find the owner and pay for the melon. The prince thinks she must be hiding and tells the eunuchs to head back. Just then, they hear a voice calling out. The voice belongs to a tiny girl, set up in a weird-looking tiny bamboo hut chair thing. Sorry for the low quality, but what is that?
She asks them to pay for the melon. At first the servants can’t find her because she’s so small; then they’re terrified, thinking she’s a demon, and faint dead away. The Prince comes looking for them, again, and is also frightened by her appearance. “Yes, I’m a freak and I’m ugly. That’s why I keep myself in the forest, befriend trees and plants, rest in the green bamboo tube at night, labor to grow melons during the day and live alone; such is my ill fate.” The prince quickly feels sorry for her and asks her story. She explains that her mother died in childbirth after seeing her child so small. The girl’s father abandoned her in the melon garden and became a monk. The prince decides to marry her and take her home, and she rides to his palace inside his long sleeve. Rumors spread that the prince has taken a wife. Princess So is not happy that he scorned her in favor of an ugly, finger-sized woman, and a peasant to boot. In conference with the older princes and their wives, it is suggested that Nang Ut is a fiend who will destroy the dynasty. However, they reassure themselves that she can’t possibly have the virtue and beauty required of a princess. They speak to the emperor and empress and arrange a contest. The prince is frightened that Nang Ut can’t possibly cook a meal. “Little One, you can’t even hold a pot. How can you cook? You’d get burnt as soon as you went to the kitchen.” Honestly, they are really cute together in this scene. She jumps onto his hand to say goodnight. There is lots of singing. (It is a musical.) After he goes to bed, Nang Ut prays (“Help me out of this karmic obstruction!”) and a fairy appears (why? Who is this? What’s going on?). The fairy gives her a jewel. Nang Ut passes it on to the prince; at the contest, he cracks the jewel open and it creates a tray of amazing food. The fairy also intervenes in the contest by making the other wives’ meals less tasty. This strikes me as cheating, but Nang Ut wins. The prince tries to say that Nang Ut doesn’t care about being First Rank Princess Consort, but the other siblings insist on a second contest, this one a set of royal robes for the emperor and empress. Meanwhile, the Princess of So is preparing an army and plots to to kill Nang Ut. Nang Ut has a dream about this or somehow senses that she’s in danger, I guess? She and the Prince begin to pray, and once more the fairy appears. This time she gives them a gem which will become royal robes, a nectar that will make someone look as beautiful as a fairy, and a golden hairpin that will become a heavenly lute. Once more, the fairy’s magical robes win the contest (and the fairy sabotages the brothers’ entries). But the Princess of So’s army is here. “Woe to us!” As per their agreement with the evil princess, the royal siblings demand that Third Prince go out to join the fighting. His pickiness ruined everything! He graciously tells his parents that he has to go and fight, despite their protests that he’s too inexperienced. He’s an intellectual, not a warrior. The prince comes out on the wall carrying Nang Ut in what seems to my educated eye to be a birdcage (oh, and she was living in a dollhouse inside the palace, too). He negotiates with the besieging army and Nang Ut speaks up, startling the others, to challenge the enemy general. If he can eat all the rice in her little pot, then he wins. (Wait, where’d they get the pot from?) The pot, of course, refills itself automatically, and the general gets angry. (Still confused but okay.) “Devil’s magic is at work here! Deploy the troops!” The army charges and Nang Ut tells the prince to use the golden hairpin. It becomes a lute and its music confuses the soldiers, sends them into despair and fills them with the desire to go home. They all collapse. The war is over before it begins. Princess So: “I’ve been to many perilous battles and never flinched from swords and arrows” (pretty hardcore) “but now I must accept defeat and drop my swords. Kill me, then! So will be ruined and filled with tears.” But Nang Ut has mercy and makes an alliance with her. Shamed, the princess of So blames the two princess consorts for everything. There are so many princesses in here. With war averted, the beauty contest ensues. The princess consorts come out, bow, dance, respectfully greet the king and queen. The queen asks for Nang Ut, but the Prince is worried. “They’re so beautiful I don’t know what to do!” he says to Nang Ut, who is back in his sleeve. “My love, did you forget already? Pour this nectar water on me and you’ll witness something incredible.” Burst of smoke. There’s Nang Ut, full size. The prince doesn’t recognize her at first (“Miss, why are you here in my palace? Darling Thumbelina, where are you?”) but then they run up to join the contest. The King: “She’s like a fairy from heaven!” Even the princes and their wives have to admit that Nang Ut is worthy to be First-Rank Princess Consort. They are about to be punished for their treachery, but our heroes ask for leniency on their behalf. Good for you, guys. The king decides to retire and live in peace, farming on a mountain. They ask to go with him, but he goes off on his own. With that, Third Prince and Nang Ut become the new rulers. All very happy. All singing. So much singing. Start watching it here. (Originally posted on Tumblr.) We open on a man named Jonathan chopping wood. A voice from midair calls him, and turns out to belong to the Queen of the Forest, who asks Jonathan not to cut down the tree. He doesn’t believe her, but she talks him into agreeing, and says she’ll grant him three wishes. Then she vanishes, proving that she’s magical. He goes home for dinner and says grace before he eats. This is such a fifties movie. He keeps trying to tell his wife about the Queen of the Forest, but stops, complains about having cabbage for dinner, and wishes for sausage. Bing, there’s a sausage. He starts talking about how beautiful the Queen was; his annoyed wife wishes sausage was on his nose. Blah blah blah. This isn’t even Tale Type 700! Finally this blows over and they make up, and the wife gives us The Line: “Even if he were no bigger than my thumb.” Cut to outside. It’s dark. Owls watch as something rustles in the grass, heading slowly towards the tiny house. In the silence, someone’s whistling but we can’t see who. This is shot like a horror movie. Jonathan and Anna are asleep (in different beds. Such a fifties movie). 13 minutes in, we finally see Tom Thumb, dressed in a (normal-sized) fig leaf. I first saw this dubbed in Spanish, and with the low-quality video and annoying high-pitched voice, I thought he was a woman. It didn’t help that the leaf looks like a dress. Anyway, as Tom warms himself by a candle, he announces that he’s their son. He’s actually five and a half inches tall, so quite a bit bigger than a thumb. The overjoyed couple place the tiny adult man in a baby’s cradle and bid him goodnight. This was one thing that felt weird about the movie – Tom is a child, really, and everyone treats him as such, but he’s played by a grown man. Not that Russ Tamblyn was bad in the role. He has a very playful Peter Pan-like air, and he does some great acrobatics, but I still feel like having a child in the role might have been better for effect. Tom varies between being an obvious cutout and a doll. I should mention that this film won an Oscar for special effects. For its time, this was pretty good. Anyway, Tom is woken by his toys, who want to sing and dance for him. There’s a stereotypical Chinese doll named Con-Fu-Shon. I think there’s also a golliwog running around in the room, just so twenty-first-century viewers can feel sufficiently cringy. Also among Tom’s toys is an angry-looking bride doll (clearly a woman trying with her all not to blink), who’s the only one who doesn’t come alive. Then we get to the LONGEST DANCE SEQUENCE EVER. After five hours straight of Tom’s whimsical insanity, it’s morning. Tom and his father go out to the fields to work, and are spotted by two crooks who want to use Tom in their heist. Tom is naïve and trusting, but his father knows better and sends them on their way. On the way back, we encounter Woody, some random guy who’s in love with the Queen of the Forest. They can only be together if he kisses her and she becomes mortal, but they keep dancing around the subject and this is our excuse for a plot, people. Woody heads off and encounters Jonathan and Tom. He offers to take Tom to the upcoming local fair, and Jonathan agrees. WHY am I watching a random guy singing about STOP-MOTION-ANIMATED SHOES? I DON’T KNOW! Anyway, Woody and Tom run off to buy some shoes. The shoemaker gives Tom some miniature shoes off a keychain. However, in the midst of the dancing people, Tom nearly gets trampled, and grabs onto a balloon’s string and floats away. He floats right over the castle that the two crooks are trying to break into. (I call no way.) They shoot down his balloon with a slingshot and catch him. He thanks them for saving him, and they con him into helping them steal a bag of gold. They claim it’s for orphans. Then they send him off through the dark, scary swamp, with a single gold coin for his troubles. Fortunately, he’s rescued by the Queen of the Forest, who then has a argues with Woody. Finally Tom sneaks home, afraid of getting in trouble with his father. (Both of these scenes have the man yelling at Tom and the woman saying “Don’t yell at him.”) Along the way, Tom accidentally drops his coin into a batch of bread that his mother’s cooking up. Tom is sent off to bed, and the toys decide to bring out a doll called “The Yawning Man” to help him fall asleep. This, of course, involves singing. NOOOO Okay, okay. The soldiers are looking for whoever robbed the treasury, and stop by Jonathan and Anna’s house. Anna offers them some breakfast, but wouldn’t you know it, she gives them the bread containing the coin. The soldiers decide to arrest the couple. Tom and his toys hear the commotion and try to get out, but Tom can’t open the door. This was actually a pretty sad scene. Finally Tom gets out and finds Woody. Fortunately, Woody somehow knows where to find the thieves. They track them down to an abandoned castle, where we find the thieves counting “Two for you and two for me, three for you and three for me…” in a scene straight out of Maria como un Ajo. Meanwhile we’re continually cutting back to Jonathan and Anna, who are about to be sentenced. Their punishment is 24 lashes. And I guess that’s it. This seems a bit underwhelming to me, especially since they’re still playing the town lasher as a clumsy, goofy person who gets tangled in his own whip. He seems to have his hood on wrong. Tom plays tricks on the robbers for a few very long and repetitive minutes, and then Woody starts throwing punches and the fight commences. After that fight scene, presumably all of the participants have brain damage. So many head blows. I think everyone spent at least a few minutes unconscious except for Tom. The thieves finally figure out what’s going on and decide to escape on their horse, but Tom is hiding in its ear and directing it towards town. This looks way more uncomfortable for the horse than I’d envisioned it. Jonathan gets his shirt torn off so that he can be lashed, and he turns out to be pretty toned, at least in the back region. But just before they can whip him, the thieves come flying in on their horse and fall off, sending gold flying everywhere, and Tom shouts that they’re the culprits. They’re about to escape, but Woody catches up with them and punches them out. Hurray! The Queen of the Forest pops in, and Woody kisses her. They both vanish momentarily, and her gown and diamond crown transform to a peasant dress and flower wreath, which . . . I guess . . . means she’s mortal now . . . ? Anyway, they get married and everyone is standing around celebrating. Tom is the groom figurine on the cake, standing next to that bride doll from earlier. He kisses her on the cheek and she comes to life (or perhaps simply gives in to the crippling urge to blink). They dance around the cake and everyone sings. So . . . are kisses in this universe magical?
This movie left a lot unexplained, like how Tom actually came into being. It’s harmless, but doesn’t have much substance, and some of the elements (such as Con-Fu-Shon) haven’t aged well. Although Tamblyn’s acrobatics are excellent and the stop-motion effects are nice, it suffers from long musical sequences which completely halt the narrative for minutes on end. Storywise, it’s a fairly straightforward Thumbling retelling, but with far too much padding. The Woody/Forest Queen romance was unnecessary. Overall, it was an interesting watch - not great, but okay. |
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Researching folktales and fairies, with a focus on common tale types. Archives
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