A Troll in Central Park

Plot synopsis:
The film begins in a Kingdom of Trolls, where Stanley (Dom DeLuise) has a magical green thumb with the ability to bring flowers and plants to life at a touch. When he is discovered doing so, the other trolls take him as prisoner to Gnorga (Cloris Leachman), the Queen of the Trolls, who concludes that Stanley "gives a bad name to trolls everywhere" and demands that he be turned to stone. At the behest of her consort King Llort (Charles Nelson Reilly), Gnorga instead banishes Stanley to Central Park where, after a series of mishaps, Stanley hides himself under a bridge. In New York City, two young siblings named Gus and Rosie (Phillip Glasser and Tawny Sunshine Glover) learn that their father Alan (Jonathan Pryce) and mother Hilary (Hayley Mills) cannot take them to Central Park. While left alone with their nanny, Maria, Gus takes Rosie to the Park himself. While playing with Gus's toy boat, which is later accidentally smashed, Rosie befriends Stanley. When Queen Gnorga discovers Stanley happy in exile, she creates a flood to drown them by making Gus cry, but Stanley enlarges Gus's toy boat to escape. Soon after, Stanley shows the children his own ideals, depicted as a world of his own.
Determined to suppress Stanley, Queen Gnorga sends a tornado to destroy Central Park, and kidnaps Rosie. After failing to persuade Stanley to help, Gus faces Gnorga by himself. In the resulting fight, Gnorga transforms Gus into a troll. Stanley suddenly appears to rescue Rosie and challenges Gnorga to a thumb-wrestling match. Stanley manages to win, and plants roses all around Gnorga's body. As Stanley, Gus, and Rosie escape and celebrate their victory, Gnorga uses Gus's thumb to turn Stanley to stone. Gus and Rosie fall into their apartment and the last of Stanley's power changes Gnorga into a rose bush. Gnorga, Llort and their dog then return to the Kingdom of Trolls, while Gus returns to his human form. The next day, Gus, Rosie, and their parents enter Central Park. Gus and Rosie place the petrified Stanley on a makeshift pedestal. Gus attempts to revive him and appears to fail. They find him revived after a moment's pause. Restored to life, Stanley recreates Central Park and covers the entire city of Manhattan in vegetation and flowers.
In the Kingdom of Trolls, Llort takes Gnorga's place as a kinder ruler. Llort is last seen reading a newspaper with "Gnorga: Queen of Posies" written on it; as he read the headline, Gnorga's dog bites him.

Tags: cult, psychedelic

Review:
The cute plot line and message that you can do anything and be yourself makes it a cute movie for young kids.
Overall, I don't think this is Don Bluth's worst film, but it's just an unfocused mess in the animation industry.
The story has some motivational lessons at first, but the first forty minutes had little to do with it until the climax, the characters are completely uninteresting especially the villain who came across as generic, there are some cutesy filler that got on my nerves, and despite it's beautiful music score, the songs themselves are really forgettable.
Granted, the animation is beautiful with lots of nice backgrounds and good character designs and the voice acting is excellent, but those two flaws are outweighed by the flaws that I've already stated.I've seen Bluth's better films, but this one, although not the worst, is a terrible movie.
The animation is a step down from Bluth's previous films, and the character designs and animation are just terribly loose.
The only real positives about this are the voice over acting, and the lively musical score, despite only having bad songs.Stanley the troll (Dom Deluise) is unlike the other trolls.
When Queen of the trolls, Gnorga (Cloris Leachman), finds out about Stanley being a good troll, she shoots him up in the air, and he lands in Central Park.
They meet Stanley, and go on a stupid adventure with him, while Gnorga is hot on their tail, and for some reason wants them all out of the picture.Babies will probably have a good time watching this, though some parts may be too scary.
If it wasn't for Don Bluths outstanding animation and the good voice acting, this would be completely painful to watch.
The moral of the story (you have to be brave to fulfill a dream) comes in way too late, by this point my mind had already melted from boredom.There's no animation so beautiful I could watch an hour of things bouncing around and smiling.
Gus is a spoiled annoying brat who spends most of the movie arguing with people and shouting "Rosie!".
Gnorga was the only somewhat entertaining character, but she doesn't spend much time in front of the screen despite the fact that she is the villain.There's also a big lack of humor, remember-able moments and inspiring dialog.
Not even a little.I cannot believe I watched this movie as a kid.
It's horribly written (I think Bluth got help from a few five-year olds to write the script.), there is no good moral, and it is sometimes confusing!Before you rate this comment negatively, let me explain the thing that gets to me most about this movie..."Why is the moral so bad?" There were actually two "morals" in this atrocity.
After all the chaos he went through, what does he teach the children watching this movie?"Dad...maybe we can do what I want to do?"Let it sink in.
But this piece of dreck marks the only time he has truly hit rock bottom.I hesitate to use the word "movie" to describe this bomb because this is not really a film.
Stanley, the troll, loves flowers, is cute and so are Gus and Rosie.
It will not be a waste of time if you like movies such as frosty the snowman and other Christmas stories of the past!.
The music makes you want to sing along but not in a cheesy, corny kind of way, the animation is grilled to perfection, and the plot is brilliant for toddlers, which we all know have active imaginations.
Having looked at titles such as The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time and An American Tail, this entire film is complete garbage.
It may not be ranked with the best animated classics, but the animation's strong as usual in this Don Bluth production, the story of Stanley (Dom DeLuise), a good natured troll who prefers planting over destruction, and the positive influence he has on two kids and vice versa.Sure it might be corny or silly in spots, but it's a harmless, inoffensive piece of fluff that will probably appeal more to the little kids than anyone else, but older folk with a kinder, more forgiving critical heart - as well as a soft spot for sugar coated fantasy - should find it a brisk viewing..
The issue is complex and I will explain it in my upcoming review of "The Pebble And The Penguin", which was the following Don Bluth film.Now, I will talk about "A Troll In Central Park".Well the technical features are high-quality, one of the things that Don Bluth kept in all his filmography no matter if his films were bad.
The film has a colorful, contrasting, lavish animation, one of the things Don Bluth never compromised.
Rotoscoping, employed in the children's parents, is also a nice thing to watch.The music also saves what otherwise would be a forgettable film.
"Gnorga The Queen Of Mean" surprises the public with the sudden modernity of a Pop rock tune like those of the '80s and '90s (why is it that most of the times, the villains have the best songs in a film?).
Gnorga has the absolutely best performance of all the film, with an outstanding job of Cloris Leachman in a rather weird role, who clearly enjoys being so hammy and troll-like.
I liked the original one for the voices of Stanley, the kids and their parents, but the Spanish dub is way better for the voices of Gnorga and Llort.
The film has many scenes and passages that seem shallow and simply don't go nowhere, plot-wise, such as Gus and Rosie playing in the park with balloons, boats or butterflies.
But you don't see in "A Troll In Central Park" the gracefulness in which Miyazaki could present those kind of stories.The film also seems to lack more soul, "Rock-a-Doodle" and "Thumbelina" are also among the failures of Don Bluth, but it was their loads and loads of characters that helped to give more substance and charm to the films.
This was one of the lowest grossing films of all time, one of the most notable box-office bombs (though not the greatest bomb of Don Bluth)So, even with the animation, the music, and Gnorga to redeem the film and lift the rating, this is such a poorly executed, so underwhelming film, with so many fails and lacks, and such a failure for costing $23.5 million and only making 71 thousand dollars, that I will rate it 3/10.
The reason I'm not rating this 1/10 is because of the aforementioned lifting factors.But luckily, even if this is the worst Don Bluth film, both critically and financially, "A Troll In Central Park" will never be among the 10 worst animated films of all time, not even among the 20 worst ever...
This movie is what gives young child audiences a bad name.The character's voices are hideous and will haunt you in your sleep, and the plot seems like something torn out of a fairy tale book for being too corny.Maybe if I were 2 years old, I'd have a different opinion, but as of now, this is one of the worst animated movies I've ever seen.This just goes to show where Don Bluth's career went after making classics such as "All Dogs Go to Heaven", and "An American Tale".My rating: 1/2 a * (out of 5 *'s).
A friendly troll called Stanley is banished to Central Park for having a green thumb.
But the evil troll queen, Gnorga, arrives to spoil their fun.Stanley, voiced by Bluth stalwart, Dom Deluise, is a sweet enough character, if sometimes a little irritating.
I would just like to say that this movie is beautiful -- Stanley is one of the best leading characters of an animated film ever!
funny story: when i was a child i would always wish for a green thumb on every birthday --- the of the film is the most touching thing you will ever see EVER -- I recommend this movie to the whole family --- The thing that really surprises me is that fact that not many people know about this movie ....
It should also be said that Don Bluth who was the director of this film is also the director of my favorite none Disney movies.....
mine are 10 & 11 and still don't understand what, why and how somethin happened in an animated movie made for children.
I still want to see this movie any given day just because it makes me feel like a kid again...
There's no denying that Don Bluth has always been very talented, with so many great films like "The Land Before Time" and "The Secret Of Nimh", but there's one film that is a huge low in his career, and that is, of course, this garbage.
Also, this whole film has a slew of events that just have little to no reason of happening, since this movie absolutely fails in constructing any sort of cohesion whatsoever, because there are so many holes in the plot, that it starts to not make any sense and becomes very muddled.
Do yourself a favor and stay away from this piece of hot garbage, as almost every other animated film around the time is better than this in every way.
The overly cute filler will do nothing but anger parents, and the lack of cohesion and good takeaways makes this a far from ideal film for kids.
Now that I've watched it, it deserves the hate it gets from critics.The best way to describe this film is it's Don Bluth's "filler" movie aimed at a young demographic (from ages 0-3).
The middle of the film is basically just one long scene with the main troll character and the two kids.While I wasn't as infuriated with this as Rock a Doodle, it's still a really terrible movie.
Secret of NIMH is still one my all-time favourite animated movies.
But this looks like the table scrapings from the studio dog.I'm sorry Mr. Bluth, but my soul died a little bit with this film.
A very good voice cast and some nice music save an otherwise forgettable film!.
I don't think that Troll in Central Park is as bad as people make it out to be, as a matter of fact it's very sweet, but anyone who loved Secret of Nimh and Land Before Time like I did, will be disappointed.
All in all, one of the weaker Don Bluth films is redeemed by a very good voice cast, and some nice music.
As a Don Bluth film it is among his weakest, because he goes against his own philosophy of making bleak movies where he did not hide sad or brutal sides of things, but challenged kids' patience and intelligence and then rewarded that with a happy ending.
He is banished from the kingdom of trolls to Central Park in New York for being too nice and wanting to grow flowers by the evil troll queen Gnorga.
The time with the kids and Stanley is a lot of cutesy filler which will make Bluth fans vomit.
I was close to, but through out the movie the rather nice animation and the fine character designs were kind of redeemable.
I see why fans of Bluth hate this movie, but even though I don't like it, I would slightly prefer it over Thumbelina and Rock-A-Doodle due to its nice animation and character designs..
I still have an imagination so I liked the movie despite being at the troll age.
The loss of a point is because the animation may not have been first rate.This movie is nothing more than a harmless piece of fluff at worst or a mirror to look at yourself at its best.
Now if you say that movies must have story lines I can sympathize with you but for animated fantasy films you are some times supposed to provide some of that yourself.
Immorals maybe but no decent good morals.The movie starts when Queen Gnorga catches the troll named Stanley creating beautiful flowers.
"A Troll in Central Park" looks great thanks to Don Bluth's animation style, but there's nothing else going on in the movie that's worth noting.
Ask yourself if you really remember this movie as fondly as beloved animated films like "Snow White", "The Little Mermaid" or even Don Bluth's own "The Land Before Time" and I think you'll find that you can't recall very much about this movie at all.
When there are other, genuinely good movies you could be showing them, I can't recommend that you check out "A Troll in Central Park".
Sure it has its flaws, but overall it's still a very enjoyable movie with great animation, musical score, voice acting and presentation.
I found myself sympathizing with Stanley (Dom DeLuise) as he is banished from the Troll Kingdom into New York City and later pursued by Queen Gnorga who wants him turned to stone.The songs are beautiful, especially Absolutely Green.
For example quite a bit of it consists of filler scenes such as flowers dancing and Stanley showing the children Gus and Rosie his magical dream boat.
But unlike others, I wasn't too bothered by these flaws.Overall, I found A Troll in Central Park to be a lovable, entertaining children's film.
I am currently scouring numerous kids' movies I've seen and determining whether they're good or bad for children, much less YOU.This one...
Like many children of the 1990's, I grew up with awesome animated movies for children, such as The Lion King, The Land Before Time, Aladdin etc.So we have a friendly troll named Stanley who lives in a land where trolls are mean and scary (think The BFG), and it is ruled by none other than a no-nonsense evil queen who believes bad is good and good is bad (Geesh, that sounds hard to say).So the message in this movie is "If you believe in yourself and dream well enough, things will magically happen." which I really am struggling to look at without upsetting fans of this movie.
In fact, the animation is good, the voice acting is not bad, I did mention in one of my other reviews that one of my favourite actors is/was Dom DeLuise, and of course Cloris Leachman as the evil queen Gnorga, whose name I recognize from Castle in the Sky.But the story seems a little rushed, some moments are drawn out and the story was just a little bit too simple for me, but it's aimed at kids so I'm not irked over that.
So, if you want to show it to your kids, then I think it would be a good idea to talk with them afterwards and explain to them the true meaning of "believing in dreams"..
This movie suffers the most attacks among Don Bluth's films, and it's not hard to see why.
Tots movies are often filled mindlessly with clichés and treacle, but Bluth, a passionate animator, was never one to resign himself to that.The settings are a kingdom of trolls, where bad=good and vice versa, and New York city.
The main character is Stanley, apparently the only good troll, who can magically grow things with his literally green thumb.
And take a good look at the main character, Stanley.
A Troll in Central Park also known as Stanley's Magic Garden is one of those film, that I watch as a child and really didn't like it, then.
I think the movie was unintelligent, too cutesy pandering, and just not what I wanted from a Don Bluth film.
The reasons why 1982's The Secret of NIMH, 1988's Land Before Time, and 1986's American Tail; works, is because it had a complex story with depth that makes it watchable for both adults and children.
If the movie target audience was toddlers, sure it was success, but if the target audience was kids like myself, at the time, it sure was a failure.
The movie is about Stanley (Voiced by Dom DeLuise) whom been exile from the Kingdom of Trolls by Queen Gnorga (Voiced by Cloris Leachman) & King Llort (Voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly).
I have to say, I do love Queen Gnorga opening song 'Queen of Mean', you truly get why trolls like upsetting people.
Not knowing of them, Stanley finds himself in Central Park where two children named Gus and Rosie (Voiced by Phillip Glasser and Tawny Sunshine Glover) help him find his happy place.
That the movie waste so much paper to animated this film, to bring a message of saving trees.
The movie wants you to dream for a better world, but the film doesn't give you, any tools or life lessons to make that happen.
The movie kinda underhand the song message, by having Stanley go as low as Gnorga, by doing violent acts toward her.
Don Bluth had to be trolling when making this movie..
Though it was not the final nail in the coffin for Mr. Bluth's animation studio - that came with "The Pebble and the Penguin" - "A Troll in Central Park" certainly was the handwriting on the wall, with it's terrible reviews and a horrible box office take.
I don't think ANYONE would have any confidence in the film, when it looks so sappy it makes "The Secret of NIMH 2" look like the original!
In this movie, a troll called Stanley is sent to Central Park for being too nice, and spends the day with a baby called Rosie, and her big brother Gus. I'm not kidding.
Building the movie, A Troll in Central Park taught us this lesson, but indeed the hard way.
Young children under the age of 7 would probably fall asleep or not pay attention to the film until they start screaming at Gnorga rocking up at New York's Central Park to turn Dimitri's son into a troll, thumb wrestle Stanley and turn him into stone (I'm not joking, thumb wrestling is the real climax of this film).