Animation in Obscurity: Thumbelina

OK, now that the Animation Advent Calendar is over for this year, let's get back to the other segments of the blog, with Animation in Obscurity, with one of Don Bluth's films from the 90s, Thumbelina! Now, I know I already reviewed A Troll In Central Park, but this was before I decided to change my format in reviewing and I actually have more to say about it after looking back at it, so I'll do an update review for it. Anyway, this was released in 1994 and Don Bluth decided to release this first over A Troll in Central Park because he thought it would be a bigger commercial success...and boy was he wrong! This movie made $11 million over a $28 million budget and it got pretty bad reviews. And it would become infamous for being the only animated film to ever win a Razzie. You heard right! The ONLY one EVER in the animation genre to win a Razzie! As a kid, I will say that I loved this movie. I never saw it in cinemas cos, well, I wasn't even born until the year after the release and I used to love watching it on VHS. So does this movie deserve that distinction of winning a Razzie, or is this just a small movie which needs to have a bigger reputation? Let's find out!

Story: Before I go into my thoughts on the story, it's important to know that this movie was released in 1994 and was in production since 1991. Why? Because that was when the Disney Renaissance was in full swing, and clearly, Don and the creative team took some 'influences' when it came to the story. How? It steals every Disney cliche at the time, especially from The Little Mermaid. You know what, I'm just going to do a list of similarities to Disney's The Little Mermaid and this:
1) Both movies are based on Hans Christian Andersen fairytales.
2) It stars a red head woman wishing to be something they're not (Ariel the mermaid wanting to be human & Thumbelina wanting to be big)
3) They fall in love with a prince they just met and their main goal is to get back to them.
4) The title characters are voiced by Jodi Benson (how didn't she notice the similarities?)
5) It's an animated musical
6) Everyone loves Thumbelina for her voice!
Anyway, I am aware that the plot and conflict in Thumbelina are similar to the story it's based on, but the problem is that there is nothing for kids to get out of it and most of the new material has no purpose whatsoever, like the movie being set in Paris even though none of the story takes place there-oh wait, it's the city of love. The plot overall is actually rather incompetent thinking about it. I mean, Thumbelina's suitors consist of fairies, toads, beetles and moles...yeah! And she's pretty passive in all of this. And clearly she's stupid enough not to think of asking the bird to fly her home instead of the bullshit about following your heart leading you home! The pacing is very rushed, the autumn lasts about 2 days until winter comes, and then at the very end, spring comes. I mean, does this movie's timeline mean one year is really 3 days or something?! Also, the romance is WAY too rushed, even worse than Ariel! They literally want to get married after 1 hour of knowing each other (too bad Elsa from Frozen isn't there to be blunt about marrying a man she just met) and they have nothing in common. However, I am willing to forgive that since they are young and Thumbelina is portrayed as VERY naive, and wants true love. The movie doesn't even answer the questions it raises, and there is way too much going on, making everything feel underdeveloped up to the very end. We only see what happens to all the antagonists during the end credits, including the minor ones who had no purpose whatsoever. Because you know, kids will want to stay during the end credits to see barely made out illustrations! Yeah, this story is one giant mess, and is definitely a weak edition to Don's animated films, but at least it's not as incompetently put together as A Troll in Central Park!

Yes, there's a female toad with giant breasts in this...the whole idea is just wrong in the first place!

Animation: Even if this is one of Don's bad films of the 90s, the animation is still really good. The character designs are the classic Don Bluth look, especially with the humanoid characters, with a more realistic look compared to Disney. However, it's pretty clear they took influences from Ariel and I do have a problem with how the animals look, particularly when it comes to birds. I don't know, I thought they looked way too cutesy and cartoony for something like this. I think he should've gone for something like in The Secret of NIMH where the animals were more realistic, but still had a kid friendly feel to them with the eyes. The character animation is similar to rotoscoping with the humans, and it's actually really well done, especially during Let Me Be Your Wings. The backgrounds are also very pretty look at and they can get rather creative as the camera is normally shown from Thumbelina's or the fairies' perspectives and everything is to scale. Also, it can get very colourful with the places Thumbelina goes to from the Beetle Ball to the Vale of the Fairies. If I did I have another problem with the animation, it would be the use of CGI in the backgrounds at the beginning of the movie, which looks really obvious and pretty bad. OK, I know Disney did the same in the 90s, but it looked amazing!

Characters: Like I mentioned before, there are way too many characters in this for us to care about! First, there's Thumbelina, who is pretty much a Disney Princess and is actually more passive, lets people use her without doing anything and constantly whines and moans and is uninteresting. Bit of a far cry from Belle or Ariel! Prince Cornelius is just as bland, and actually quite creepy looking back at this with how he acts to Thumbelina. Hell, he wants his parents to postpone the winter, even though it would be out of balance for a woman he just met the night before! Jacquimo reminded me way too much of Henrie from An American Tail, except he annoyed the hell out of me and was just stupid! Thumbelina's mother has little screen time, and honestly, I found her to be more interesting than the other bland protagonists! Now...onto the antagonists, starting with...actually there's no primary antagonist, this movie has hundreds! Mr Beetle did make me laugh because of Gilbert Gottfried's performance, but he annoyed me during the rest of the movie. The Toad who wants to marry Thumbelina was never intimidating, although this could be intentional and I think he's meant to be more of a comic relief, but never made me laugh. Mrs Toad, voiced by Charo who Mrs Toad is clearly modelled after, was just nonsensical and stupid and had very little screen time and is never mentioned again afterwards! Mrs Fieldmouse was also annoying, trying to push Thumbelina to marry Mr Mole, but she wants to marry him herself for his money....yeah that makes no sense! Mr Mole, voiced by John Hurt, has no personality at all and is just there for Thumbelina to be forced to marry! Overall, the characters are bland, one dimensional, stupid and annoying!

 

Songs: The songs were composed by Barry Manilow, and they're not all that great. Songs like Thumbelina and Follow Your Heart just annoyed me with the awful lyrics and really childish tunes and they had no purpose whatsoever. Soon is pretty good with Jodi Benson's voice sounding beautiful, but the lyrics are too generic and it's way too short to make it anything memorable. Then there's On The Road by the toads, which is catchy, but of course, it has no purpose whatsoever! Then there's the infamous Marry The Mole, which caused this movie to win a Razzie. Is it really that bad? Well...yes it is! But I'd take that any day over the songs from Rock-A-Doodle or A Troll in Central Park. If there is one song that's actually remotely good in this, it would be the love song Let Me Be Your Wings. It may be considered a rip off of A Whole New World in visuals, melody and lyrics, but it is actually really good compared to the rest. Even the reprise Thumbelina sings is beautiful to listen to and the visuals also look great. I can't say they're insufferably bad like The Lorax or A Troll in Central Park, they're just generic bad animated movie music bad. But at least one of them is actually good and shows Barry Manilow did put in some level of effort.

Now, with all of this criticisms I've given in the review, do I believe Thumbelina deserved the distinction of being the only animated film to ever win a Razzie? Surprisingly, no! Trust me, I have seen much, much worse garbage than this (refer at my Happily N'Ever After & Justin & The Knights of Valour reviews) and this is actually a more forgiveable movie Don made in the 90s compared to others like Rock-A-Doodle or A Troll in Central Park. However, Thumbelina is still a weak and very flawed movie, with an incompetent story that has recycled Disney cliches, pretty bad songs except for a few and an annoying crowd of characters, but the animation still looks gorgeous nonetheless. I don't really know who to recommend this to, probably to children under 5 or those who just want to watch every Don Bluth film.
Story: 2/10
Animation: 8/10
Characters: 3/10
Songs: 4/10
Overall: 4/10