Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Thumbelina Blu-ray Movie Review

Hans Christian Andersen Did It Better

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 11, 2012

In 1979, it was big news when animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman defected from Disney to go their own way. In those days, the Mouse House still reigned supreme in feature-length animation, and challenging them was considered a fool's errand. If one looks only at the subsequent careers of Bluth and Goldman (plus co-defector John Pomeroy), the folly of defying Disney seems self-evident. Their first new venture, Don Bluth Productions, produced the moderately successful The Secret of NIMH (1982), but still couldn't avoid bankruptcy. Their second, the Bluth Group, created some impressive arcade games using laserdisc technology, notably Dragon's Lair, but was also forced into bankruptcy when the arcade business crashed in the mid-Eighties.

Their third venture was initially called Sullivan Bluth Studios, and its first releases were successful, no doubt due to a creative partnership with Steven Spielberg that yielded An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988). But after the collaboration with Spielberg ended, Sullivan Bluth produced a string of flops. One of them was 1994's Thumbelina, for which Bluth wrote the script, Bluth and Goldman co-directed and Barry Manilow composed the songs. The film was originally distributed by Warner, but Fox now owns the rights, probably as a result of Bluth's work at Fox Animation Studios (of which more below).

Thumbelina was released in the same year as The Lion King and just one year before the first Toy Story. You don't have to be an expert in the history of animation to spot that Bluth and Goldman were swimming against the tide. Despite extensive credits for computer technicians, the film obviously aims for the texture and style of an earlier era at Disney when everything was drawn by hand on individual cels. It's as if, having returned to the fairy tale well from which Uncle Walt had drawn so much inspiration, Bluth and Goldman couldn't imagine drawing things differently. The only concession they made to contemporary sensibilities was the Broadway musical score similar to what had so energized audiences when Alan Mencken and Howard Ashman created their songs for The Little Mermaid. Unfortunately, even if you like Manilow's compositions for Thumbelina (and I rather enjoy them), they don't quite fit with the characters, which may be why Thumbelina bears the distinction of being the only animated film ever nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Original Song (for Carol Channing's rendition, as Ms. Fieldmouse, of "Marry the Mole").

Bluth's script takes the basic elements of Hans Christian Andersen's tale and makes them hugely more elaborate. Thumbelina (Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid) still grows from a kernel given to a peasant woman (Broadway legend Barbara Cook) by a beggar, and she's still no bigger than a thumb. She's still stolen away by Mrs. Toad (Charo), who wants her as a bride for her oafish son, Grundel (Joe Lynch)—only now the son is one of three, and the family is a circus act of singers and acrobats. Thumbelina still escapes on a lily pad, only to encounter Mr. Beetle (Gilbert Gottfried), who also wants to marry her, except that his friends won't accept her, because she doesn't look like a beetle. In this version, however, Mr. Beetle owns a nightclub; so more singing and dancing. When winter comes, Thumbelina is sheltered by Mrs. Fieldmouse (Carol Channing), who tries to marry her off to Mr. Mole (John Hurt), whom Thumbelina finds repulsive. As in the Andersen story, her savior is a swallow named Jaquimo (Gino Conforti, another Broadway regular). In the end she marries a fairy prince named Cornelius (Gary Imhoff).

Now all of that should provide plenty of material, but Bluth decided to add more. So . . . he starts the story in Paris, even though none of the action will take place there. But Paris is the city of love, and Bluth wants to turn Andersen's tale of adventure into a love story narrated by Jaquimo, who keeps flying in and out of the film to provide Gallic-accented shtick that passes for exposition. Instead of meeting her prince at the end, Thumbelina attracts him at the outset through the sweetness of her singing, and she's expecting to see him the next day and meet his parents (I kid you not!), when she is abducted by Mrs. Toad and Grundel. The remainder of the film cuts frantically back and forth between Thumbelina's wandering and Cornelius' efforts to find her, all the while imploring his mother and father, the elf Queen Tabitha (June Foray) and King Colbert (Kenneth Mars), to hold back the winter until Thumbelina can be rescued. Of course, they can do no such thing, and Cornelius ends up frozen in an icy pond, until a troop of wildlife thaws him out, and with Jaquimo's help he rescues his true love from Mr. Mole's wedding.

It's easy enough to poke fun at the plot of a musical, because a certain amount of winking artifice is inherent in the genre. But the emotional impact of a musical, whether live or animated, comes from the songs, and the purpose of the plot is to set up the songs as efficiently as possible and then get out of the way. The problem with the plot of Thumbelina is simply that it's too busy. The film's plot is both inefficient and, like Jaquimo, always in the way. The movie is only 87 minutes long, but it would be much improved with ten minutes less of this annoying fowl who says far too much for what little he contributes. A streamlined narrative might have given the animation a chance to cast its spell and the Manilow songs room to breathe, but in its current version, Thumbelina just fills up its running time and leaves little impression except the vague sense that the story you remember from childhood was better.

Thumbelina Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The good news is that Fox's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Thumbelina won't spark any outcries of "revisionism", as has occurred with the Disney restorations of its classic animated features. That's also the bad news. I didn't see the film during its theatrical run; so I can't say whether the soft, slightly faded image is the look intended by Bluth and Goldman or results from source materials several steps removed from an interpositive or OCN. In motion and at a reasonable viewing distance from the screen, the image appears reasonably sharp and detailed, but it never achieves the density or three-dimensionality we associate with the best animation from either classic Disney or the contemporary breed of computer whizzes led by Pixar. Maybe Bluth and Goldman simply weren't able to achieve that level of detail, but the entire conceptual design suggests they were aiming for it.

Colors tend to be on the dull side, the better to highlight certain bright elements and let them shine, e.g., the red rose from which Thumbelina is born, the bright blues of Jacquimo's feathers, the royal outfits worn by Cornelius, and the profusion of blooms announcing the arrival of spring. Artifacts of any kind were nowhere to be seen.

Thumbelina Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

It's possible that Thumbelina was released with a 5.1 soundtrack, but these formats were still relatively new in 1994, and it's more likely the film was released in stereo surround. This would account for the presence of a separate DD 2.0 surround track on the Blu-ray. Certainly the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track does not attempt to add any rear-channel gimmickry to a mix that is essentially front-oriented. Where the DTS lossless track excels, however, is in the delivery of a full and enveloping orchestral presence for Barry Manilow's songs and the underscore by Manilow and William Ross (and also by Mark Isham, according to IMDb). At the high, mid and low ends, the instruments are heard with presence and clarity, a tribute both to the original recordings and the Blu-ray track's clarity. If the songs are to your taste, you'll enjoy the experience. If you're one of those people who would have voted for the Razzie, well, maybe you'll reconsider.

Some of the performers' speaking voices actually suffer by comparison, because the sound engineers have obviously tweaked them to suit the character, resulting in an obviously unnatural and engineered sonic quality. For example, John Hurt's Mr. Mole is much more gravelly than Hurt's voice at that stage of his career. (He could probably do it on his own now, as demonstrated by his recent performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.)

Thumbelina Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• TV Spots (SD; 1.33:1): Both bear the Warner logo and prominently mention Warner Bros. in the voiceover.
• Storybook (0:34)
• Once Upon a Time (0:34)

Thumbelina Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While Sullivan Bluth Studios was struggling under the weight of failures like Thumbelina, Fox offered Bluth a leading role in the newly created Fox Animation Studios. It was the Nineties, and after The Lion King, everyone was trying to emulate Jeffrey Katzenberg's success at the newly revived Disney animation department (except, of course, Disney itself, with which Katzenberg had a famously acrimonious parting that resulted in a bitter arbitration, a lot of juicy gossip and the founding of what became Dreamworks Animation). Bluth gave Fox one genuine hit in 1997 with Anastasia, but after the expensive bomb Titan A.E., Fox abruptly announced that it was shuttering Fox Animation. Bluth hasn't directed an animation feature since.

Given that history, it's not surprising that Fox has released Thumbelina without any features to speak of, but it's disappointing. (The DVD was also featureless.) As a case study in the gap between intention and realization, the film could be fascinating. At the very least, it would be worth learning what Bluth and Goldman were trying to achieve and why they made the choices they did. With the lack of features and the film's flaws, I suggest a rental.