‘Thumbelina’ (G)
By Rita KempleyWashington Post Staff Writer
March 30, 1994
"Thumbelina," the tiny girl spun from the gossamer imagings of Hans Christian Andersen, has not fared as well as her comely cousin "The Little Mermaid," who splashed so enchantingly from the paint pots of Disney animators. Sad to say, the wee lass has landed on a screen canvas tended by 'toonsmith Don Bluth, whose jaunty pop style is much more compatible with such modern features as "An American Tail" and "The Land Before Time" than with this classic fairy tale.
Once a Disney animator himself, Bluth is not altogether without a sense of magic, most of which he paints into an exquisite rendering of Paris 150 years ago. The Seine, twinkling with the soft lights of the old city, promises poetry and romance. But the spell is all too soon broken by the entrance of a great silly swallow, Jacquimo (voiced by Gino Conforti), who is both Thumbelina's best friend and biographer.
There is a second glorious burst of animated alchemy, also early in the story, when the thumb-high heroine (Jodi Benson) meets the fairy prince (Gary Imhoff). The sparks literally fly as they climb toward the moon aboard the prince's bumblebee to the strains of "Let Me Be Your Wings," the pretty title tune performed by Barry Manilow. Otherwise, the songs by Manilow, Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman are neither enthusiastically performed nor especially memorable.
Andersen's story, which has endured for generations, is largely abandoned by Bluth, who produced and co-directed "Thumbelina" from his own screenplay. His is a burlesque rendering of the Danish fairy tale, beginning rather idiotically with the ending of Andersen's story -- the little girl finds and accepts love. Everything that comes afterward is fairly anticlimactic, except for Charo as the voice of a frog who promises to make Thumbelina a Las Vegas-type superstar.
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.
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