Thumbelina (1994 film)

Thumbelina (also known as Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina) is a 1994 American independent animated musical fantasy film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, based on the story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. The film stars the voices of Jodi Benson, Gary Imhoff and John Hurt, with supporting roles from Gino Conforti, Charo, Gilbert Gottfried, Carol Channing and Joe Lynch.
Thumbelina was produced by Don Bluth Ireland Ltd. and distributed by Warner Bros. under its Family Entertainment imprint. The film was released in theaters on March 30, 1994 to mixed reviews from film critics, and became a box-office failure, grossing $17 million against a $28 million budget.
A lonely widow longing for a child of her own is given a barley seed by a friendly witch. The planted seed grows into a flower, and a tiny girl emerges from inside, no bigger than the old woman's thumb. The old woman names the tiny girl Thumbelina and raises her as her own. Although Thumbelina loves her mother, she craves companionship from someone her own size. One night, the fairy prince Cornelius stumbles upon Thumbelina after hearing her singing. He is the first person whom she has ever met who is roughly her own size. The two take a ride on Cornelius' bumblebee and fall in love. During this ride, Mrs. Toad and her son Grundel are enchanted by the singing. That night, Mrs. Toad kidnaps Thumbelina, desiring her to join the troupe and marry Grundel as her husband. Thumbelina is rescued by Jacquimo, a swallow. Meanwhile, Cornelius learns of her being kidnapped, and returns to his kingdom, the Vale of the Fairies, to ask his parents to try holding back the winter as long as they can, but they can only hold it for a day.
Grundel learns that Thumbelina escaped and ventures out to find her. While trying to get home, Thumbelina meets Berkeley Beetle, a singer who promises to show her the way home if she sings at his Beetle Ball. She reluctantly complies, but her bug disguise falls off during the concert, and she is denounced as "ugly" as well as being publicly humiliated in front of the audience. Beetle rejects her without helping her. She is next found by Jacquimo, who promises to find Cornelius. Beetle is confronted by Grundel and suggests that Grundel kidnap Cornelius and use him as a meal to lure Thumbelina. Grundel coerces Beetle into partnership by removing his wings.
Upon the arrival of winter, Jacquimo injures his wing and loses consciousness from the freezing, while Cornelius falls into a pond by wind and gets frozen. Beetle finds Cornelius and takes him to Grundel. Thumbelina is forced to take refuge in an old shoe, where she is discovered by Miss Fieldmouse and granted shelter in her underground house. After relaying Cornelius' fate to her, Miss Fieldmouse introduces her to her neighbor Mr. Mole, who becomes infatuated with her and desires to marry her. Devastated by the apparent loss of Cornelius, Thumbelina gives in to hopelessness and accepts Mr. Mole's proposal. Jacquimo revives and, before Thumbelina can get a chance to explain to him what happened to Cornelius, resolves to find him before the wedding.
Beetle tells Grundel of Thumbelina's wedding. When they leave Cornelius behind, a trio of friendly insect children find and thaw Cornelius back to normal. At the wedding, Thumbelina finds herself unable to marry Mr. Mole after remembering Cornelius' promise to always love her. Grundel and Beetle arrive to stop them, and a chase scene ensues. Cornelius also arrives and engages Grundel in a fight, which culminates with the two falling into a hole. Thumbelina escapes on a pile of Mr. Mole's treasure, causing it to fall at Mr. Mole and the wedding guests. Jacquimo finds the Vale of the Fairies and takes Thumbelina there. She and Cornelius reunite, and she magically grows her own pair of wings upon accepting his proposal and kissing him. With Thumbelina’s mother and the fairy court in attendance, the two marry and depart on Cornelius' bumblebee.
The credits images reveal that Beetle's wings regrew, and he resumed his pop career; Grundel survived the fall with a broken leg and married a female toad to his mom's delight, and Mr. Mole married Miss Fieldmouse.
Having watched the 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen, Don Bluth decided to adapt the fairy tale "Thumbelina" into an animated feature film. Bluth stated, "I wanted every little girl in the world to love Thumbelina, and I was determined to get an early start on the script." To write the screenplay, Bluth hired American writer Carol Lynn Pearson, who also admired the fairy tale. She arrived at the Sullivan Bluth Studios in Dublin with her family to meet with Bluth. After she had submitted a story treatment, the two held several story meetings, in which Bluth gave Pearson nine months to complete the screenplay. By the eighth month, Pearson turned in her final script draft. Bluth read the draft later that night, and held a follow-up meeting with Pearson the next morning. "There are some great moments," Bluth told her, "But there's also some stuff missing." He explained that Cornelius, the fairy prince, was a "wimp" and that Thumbelina is too pitiful on herself.
Pearson was told to improve Thumbelina and Cornelius's love story, and have Thumbelina act more optimistically. She flew back to the United States to be with her children, who were starting school. A month later, Bluth and Pearson met again in Century City, Los Angeles to discuss her script revisions. However, she held firm to her vision for the story. Bluth then decided to rewrite the script himself. In February 1991, Thumbelina went into production at Sullivan Bluth Studios Ireland Ltd. (formerly known as Sullivan Bluth Studios at that time) in Dublin. During the film's production, Sullivan Bluth faced financial difficulties when the UK-based Goldcrest Films threatened to liquidate the studio when they had failed to repay a loan statement of $300,000. The Irish High Court gave Sullivan Bluth a period of time to prove they could make the necessary payments. However, in April 1991, Goldcrest repealed its lawsuit.
After the release of Rock-a-Doodle (1991), and its disappointing box office performance, the studio (which was renamed Don Bluth Entertainment) filed for bankruptcy protection in October 1992. Due to Bluth Entertainment's liquidation proceedings, the production staff had been laid off. A month later, John Boorman's production company Merlin Films, along with the Hong Kong-based Media Assets, made bids to spend $14 million to acquire the studio. By this time, Bluth had three films in development—Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park (1994), and The Pebble and the Penguin (1995). The acquisition was approved by the Irish High Court, with Merlin Films and Media Assets spending $6 million to immediately complete the first two films, though financiers wanted Thumbelina released first. With Boorman as the company's new chairman, the production staff of 500 people, who had lost their jobs, were rehired to finish the film.
Jodi Benson, best known for voicing Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), was cast as the title character, and began recording her role in early 1992. Gilbert Gottfried was cast as Berkeley Beetle. According to Entertainment Weekly, Gottfried was hired for the role before he had been cast as Iago in Disney's Aladdin (1992). John Hurt, who lived in Ireland at the time, was cast as Mr. Mole. He recorded his part at the Windmill Lane Studios.
Betty White was initially hired to voice the character Mrs. Fieldmouse, and recorded her part in Los Angeles. Bluth however felt her voice "lacked energy" and flew back to Dublin. Without informing White, Bluth hired Carol Channing for the role. Channing and White had been lifelong friends, so Channing called her stating: "I just recorded the voice of a field mouse for an animated movie. It was so fun." White replied she did the same, and Bluth was soon met with an angry phone call from White's agents. Regretting how he handled the situation, Bluth wrote an apology letter to White.
Thumbelina was originally slated for a Thanksgiving 1993 release, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as the film's distributor in North America; J&M Entertainment was to be the film's international distributor. However, by the time it was completed, both companies dropped the arrangement due to concerns about the bankruptcy of Bluth's studio. During Sullivan Bluth's bankruptcy proceedings, the court trustee presented the film to Disney's film distribution unit, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. The trustee ultimately declined Disney's offer to distribute the film as they were also trying to find a new owner for the studio.
In March 1993, Warner Bros. acquired the film's distribution rights. During test screenings, the film reportedly received higher scores when Warner Bros. replaced its logo with that of Walt Disney Pictures.
The film was released in theatres in the U.S. on April 1, 1994, accompanied by the Animaniacs short, I'm Mad.
On July 26, 1994, Warner Home Video released Thumbelina on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States and Canada and internationally throughout the 1990s. The film was re-released on VHS in the United Kingdom on March 20, 1995. Warner Home Video released the film on DVD on September 21, 1999. Thumbelina was re-released on VHS and DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on February 19, 2002 alongside Anastasia and FernGully: The Last Rainforest as part of the Fox Family Features lineup and on Blu-ray on March 6, 2012.
The film was available to view on Disney+ when it launched on November 12, 2019, following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox earlier that year. It has been intermittently available on the service since then. It was also available to view on Disney+ via the international brand Star when Star was launched on October 27, 2021 in Japan.
Barry Manilow agreed to compose the songs for three Don Bluth pictures. Thumbelina was the first, followed by The Pebble and the Penguin, and the third, a retelling of the story of Rapunzel, in which Manilow would also have a voice role, was canceled. The film's soundtrack was released for a limited time and has since gone out of print. "Marry the Mole" won the Razzie Award for Worst Original Song.
During its opening weekend, the film opened at eighth place at the box office, earning $2.3 million. During its second weekend, its weekend box office grosses fell by less than 4 percent, and earned $2.2 million. It ultimately earned $11.4 million within the United States and Canada. In 24 markets internationally, it grossed $5.2 million for a worldwide total of at least $16.6 million against a budget of $28 million.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 36% of 15 critics' reviews were positive, with an average rating of 5.2/10.
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called Thumbelina "another success from Bluth and his partner Gary Goldman." He further wrote the film "is a work of lilting pace and charm with an array of enjoyable rather than memorable songs, with lyrics by Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman and music by Barry Manilow." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film three stars out of four, and wrote: "Thumbelina is close to, but not quite at, the level of The Little Mermaid, the weakest of Disney's recent entries". Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film three stars out of four, writing: Thumbelina "rivals some of Disney's best work". He felt the film's best moments were "its star-studded comedic cast and a memorable score by Barry Manilow. Most notable is the voice of Thumbelina, melodically performed by Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of four, concluding his review: "It is difficult to imagine anyone over the age of 12 finding much to enjoy in Thumbelina". Stephen Holden of The New York Times favorably compared Manilow's music to Alan Menken's in The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast (1991), but felt the lyrics "lack the chiseled-in-stone wit of Howard Ashman's brilliant lyrics for those films." Rita Kempley of The Washington Post criticized Bluth's deviations from the original fairy tale, writing: "By turning the story upside down, Bluth has stripped away its natural tension. The Lilliputian heroine never really grows or changes; she just wanders about the forest fighting off horny toads, marriage-minded moles and other quirky little critters. There's plenty of talent here -- Carol Channing, Barbara Cook, Gilbert Gottfried and John Hurt -- but it's wasted on this fallow ground."
It won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song for the song "Marry the Mole", sung by Carol Channing. It was also the only animated film to win a stand-alone Razzie until 2017's The Emoji Movie, which won the awards for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screen Combo, and Worst Screenplay at the 38th Golden Raspberry Awards.