Warner Brothers' Thumbelina is an animated classic, and one that most millennials remember
well.
But there are a lot of details that kids probably didn't notice or understand in the film based
on Hans Christian Anderson's story.
Here are some things in Thumbelina that only adults would notice.
Plenty of kids probably grew up thinking Warner Brothers' Thumbelina was a Disney movie, and
this may have been for good reason.
The animation has a similar look to Disney movies of the time, and creator Don Bluth
drew inspiration from a Hans Christian Anderson story, as did the creators of Disney's The
Little Mermaid.
Thumbelina even uses some of the same voice actors as Disney.
"Have you ever seen a fairy?"
So, it's probably no surprise that Bluth actually worked as an animator at the Walt Disney Company.
He started his career at Disney drawing squirrels and birds for Sleeping Beauty and worked there
for a total of ten years.
He eventually left in 1979 to form Don Bluth Productions and later went on to make movies
like The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, and Anastasia.
When it comes to animated movies, young viewers may not recognize even the most famous voices
behind their favorite characters.
Adults, however, can probably realize just how impressive the cast really is.
Jodi Benson, who voices the titular character, was practically a household name after voicing
Ariel in 1989's The Little Mermaid.
Gilbert Gottfried, plays Mr. Beetle, was a well-known performer in his own right and
famously voiced Iago in Disney's Aladdin.
These two actors alone are enough to make Thumbelina star-studded.
But there are still some other impressive names in the cast.
"I love the sound of your voice."
The great Carol Channing voices Ms. Fieldmouse, Charo plays Mrs. Toad, and Kenneth Mars, who
was in Young Frankenstein, The Producers, and The Little Mermaid, is behind King Colbert.
Additionally, the film features lots of big names in the animated movie world, including
Will Ryan, who previously worked on The Land Before Time and An American Tail.
June Foray, who plays Queen Tabitha, famously voiced Rocky the Squirrel, and she would later
voice Grandmother Fa in Mulan.
With book to movie adaptations, the film doesn't always match the original story, and Thumbelina
is no different.
While the team kept a lot of the same plot points, they expanded on the story quite a
bit.
For one thing, Mrs. Toad and her sons don't perform as a band in the original.
In fact, they only play a small part in the story.
The only words Mrs. Toad says to Thumbelina, or "Tiny" in Hans Christian Anderson's story,
are:
"Here is my son, he will be your husband, and you will live happily in the marsh by
the stream."
So much for romance?
Mr. Beetle, called "the cockchafer" in the original story, doesn't perform in a nightclub.
He doesn't even go to a nightclub.
Instead, he acts more like a traditional beetle.
And the prince doesn't appear until much later in the original story.
Towards the end, the swallow, who's portrayed as Jacquimo in the movie, carries Tiny away
from Mr. Mole's home and they head to, quote, "warmer countries."
There, she meets the prince of the flower people.
"What is the matter, Thumbelina?"
"I'm cold... I'm lost... and I'm hungry!"
Even in just one of the film's opening songs, Thumbelina nearly dies, multiple times.
She's so light that a farm animal's breath sends her into a water trough, where she's
only saved from drowning by a bull who, luckily, was there in time.
Then she dances on the edge of that same trough and nearly falls into the water again.
The dangers don't end there, though.
Seconds later, Thumbelina falls through a hole and onto a pile of hatching eggs.
It's a good thing she landed in a nest because falling onto a harder surface after such a
long drop could have been fatal.
And before the song is over, she almost gets baked into a pie, but escapes just before
being put in the oven.
All those dangerous things happen when Thumbelina's safe at home, before she's kidnapped and before
she's almost drowned in a waterfall or gets stuck in a snowstorm without shelter.
"Once upon a time, there was a lonely woman who longed to have a child to call her own."
That's how Thumbelina's mother is first described.
Her wish comes true when she goes to see a fairy, who gives her a seed to plant.
When a flower grows and blooms from the seed, Thumbelina pops out of the flower.
Kids watching the film might see Thumbelina's mother simply as a woman who wanted a child,
but adults watching can see how heart-wrenching her storyline is.
In the beginning, she's seen looking over an empty cradle.
Once Thumbelina is born, the tiny character sleeps in a walnut shell inside a cradle in
a nursery.
The presence of these cradles makes it appear as though the woman had lost a child, or that
she had always wanted a child but wasn't able to have it.
The mother's storyline gets even sadder when the child she waited for vanishes without
a trace.
Thumbelina's mother sings a song — a reprise of the movie's song "Soon" — that's all
about heartbreak and the hope that Thumbelina is safe.
The animals in Thumbelina have inconsistent speaking abilities.
While almost all of the animals and insects Thumbelina encounters speak and sing as well
as she does, two of the animals, Hero the dog and Prince Cornelius' bumble bee, don't
talk at all.
These two take on more traditional pet roles, with Hero acting like any other pet dog and
Cornelius' bumblebee acting something like a horse.
"Would you like to go for a spin?
Come on, let's go."
One might explain Hero's and the bee's lack of language with the fact that they're meant
to be pets.
It's similar to the way Mickey Mouse's dog Pluto doesn't talk, but his pal Goofy does,
which may be something the film's writer and director learned from Disney.
When Mrs. Toad kidnaps Thumbelina, she takes her to a boat where she lives with her three
sons:
"Mozo, Gringo, and Grundel."
There, the toads sing a jaunty tune, encourage Thumbelina to join their showbiz family, and
try to arrange her marriage to Grundel.
But these toads aren't actually toads at all.
At least, they don't appear to be.
Mrs. Toad and her family live on a boat on the water, which would be a good place for
a frog to live, as they are mostly aquatic, but toads are known to live on land.
The four characters' smooth skin looks more like the slimy skin that frogs have and not
like the dry, bumpy skin of toads.
So, it seems that these characters are actually meant to be frogs.
But then again, maybe these creatures aren't frogs either.
Mrs. Toad is clearly shown to have breasts, and frogs, being amphibians, would certainly
not.
While Thumbelina eventually marries Prince Cornelius, the film doesn't follow a typical
boy-meets-girl narrative.
Prince Cornelius plays a large role in the movie, but the story doesn't revolve around
his relationship with Thumbelina.
Thumbelina is faced with many options for what path to go down in life.
With Cornelius, she finds love, but with Mrs. Toad and her son, she's given a chance to
pursue fame.
When Mr. Beetle takes her under his wing, she could choose to enjoy a life of being
celebrated for her beauty.
Then, when she considers marrying Mr. Mole, she knows that, though she may not love him,
at least she will be comfortable financially.
The movie is all about life choices and the paths a person can go down.
The fact that Thumbelina is reunited with her love in the end may be beautiful, but
Thumbelina isn't necessarily about romance.
Thumbelina doesn't have the type of villains often found in fairytale-inspired animated
movies.
The antagonists in this film include the toad family, Mr. Beetle, and Mr. Mole, but none
of these characters are the bad guys that viewers are probably used to finding elsewhere.
Mrs. Toad is the most villainous, as she's the only one to actually do something illegal,
when she kidnaps Thumbelina.
It's unclear, however, if she intended to keep Thumbelina captive.
If Thumbelina didn't want to join the toads on the road, Mrs. Toad could have planned
on returning Thumbelina to her home.
After all, she doesn't seem particularly ruthless.
"Buenos dias.
I hope you sleep very, very good.
“Huh?”
Meanwhile, Mr. Beetle is guilty of some serious harassment, but Thumbelina seems to be willing
to perform at the Beetle Ball, and she appears to be happy until she's rejected.
And while Mr. Mole may not be as handsome as Prince Cornelius, the only thing he actually
does to Thumbelina is try to marry her.
These characters aren't evil.
They're just selfish, and they don't act in Thumbelina's best interests.
They may be less frightening characters for a movie, but they're more realistic villains.
Thumbelina's physical beauty and singing voice are heavily emphasized throughout the film.
Prince Cornelius first meets her because he hears her singing, Mrs. Toad kidnaps her because
her son sees and hears her, Mr. Beetle makes her dance in his club because he thinks she's
beautiful, and Mr. Mole, who's blind, decides he wants to marry her after hearing her sing.
"I wonder if…"
"Yes?"
"If I could ask you to help me persuade Miss Thumbelina to be my wife."
None of Thumbelina's suitors seem to care about her personality.
With the film's strong focus on attractiveness, one would think that Thumbelina would address
the skewed idea of physical beauty, but even in a scene where Jacquimo comforts Thumbelina,
there is still importance placed on her looks.
Thumbelina complains that Mr. Beetle says she's ugly, and Jacquimo tells her not to
worry about him.
"You love the beetle?"
"No."
"Then never mind the beetle."
Thumbelina is further comforted by the fact that Cornelius thinks she's beautiful.
"Does Prince Cornelius think you're ugly?"
"No.
He thinks I'm beautiful."
"Hm. And so you are!"
The thought puts her in a better mood, but it's still shallow.
While Mr. Mole probably isn't evil, per se, he does have a terrifying home.
Unlike Ms. Fieldmouse's underground home, Mr. Mole's home is pretty dark.
The inscription over his door reads, "What's mined is mine."
It isn't exactly as friendly as a welcome mat, and his random collection of unusual
items makes the space look cold and sad.
When Mr. Mole shows Thumbelina more of his residence, there are dead bugs pinned to the
wall.
This is certainly macabre, especially since we know some of them to be Thumbelina's friends.
For most of the film, little Thumbelina wants to get home, but she has a hard time finding
her way there.
So it's a good thing she's friends with a bird, Jacquimo, who can fly her home.
Oh wait... he doesn't fly her home, and he doesn't even try to fly her anywhere until
the very end of the movie when he finally takes her to the veil of the fairies.
Being flown home would have easily solved Thumbelina's problems, so it doesn't make
sense why neither she nor Jacquimo had this idea.
"How can I be of service to you?"
When Thumbelina and Jacquimo meet, Thumbelina is trapped on a lily pad after the toad family
leaves her behind.
Instead of picking her up, Jacquimo helps her get off the lily pad by cutting its stem.
When the lily pad and Thumbelina head toward a waterfall, Jacquimo still doesn't think
to pick her up.
What gives?
No great animated movie is complete without a fabulous soundtrack, and the music in Thumbelina
is certainly memorable.
With catchy songs like "Let Me Be Your Wings" and "On the Road," the soundtrack is sure
to inspire kids to sing its songs over and over.
But what young viewers probably don't realize is that the music in Thumbelina was arranged
by the great music icon Barry Manilow, who's famous for hits like "Mandy" and "Can't Smile
Without You."
While the lyrics were written by Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman, the music was arranged and
produced by Manilow himself.
Unfortunately, the soundtrack for Thumbelina didn't end up winning any awards, except for
a Razzie for worst original song for "Marry the Mole."
Still, the catchy tunes brighten up the movie and make it the lovable film it is.
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