hilemandavid Wow! Don Bluth, what have you done? Anyway, here yea, here yea! All rise! The Animation Court is now in session! Many critics, vs. "Troll in Central Park" for ruining the career of the famous director! The right, and honorable judge David T. Hileman presiding! 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. It couldn't even make 0.32% of it's $23,500,000 budget, only grossing $71,368! It was known as the biggest animated box office bomb, until, suddenly, 14 years later, "Delgo" came along. Gary Goldman, Bluth's partner, blamed the distributors at Warner Bros. Family Entertainment for it, for lacking any confidence in the film, releasing it without any sign of promotion, and only giving it a limited release. 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! I mean... Gus, he's a spoiled brat! A spoiled, rotten, rude, impudent piglet! I don't recommend this film. Don't let the good music by Mr. Robert Folk fool you.

Elevator Music In the starry sky of the history of animation, Don Bluth stars as one of the greatest directors to ever grace with his works. He achieved the record for the highest-grossing animated film outside Disney not once, but three times (An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Anastasia).It is said that Don Bluth was the sole major factor that turned Disney to re-organize their strategies, make "The Little Mermaid", and ultimately lead to the Renaissance Age Of Animation.But sadly, now that Disney was awaken again, Don Bluth was overwhelmed with the competition against them. 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. It even has that style of the '30s-'40s (Snow White, Pinocchio, etc. ) feature films and short cartoons in the gestures and mannerisms of characters. 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?). "Absolutely Green" is a poignant song of the kind that makes your eyes watery, complete with a children choir. The fact that is played in two powerful, nicely executed moments in the films surely will make, at least, the youngest of the children cry. Also the background music, just like the animation, is employed here just like Dumbo and other films of the early Disney era.Now, it is when you start analyzing the human features that the film starts showing its lacks... Tiger and Fievel had an excellent chemistry going on in "An American Tail"... but it's hard to tell why the same voice actors (playing Stanley and Gus, respectively) didn't work as well here. 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. Llort is the other performance that passes the exam, although Gnorga wins all the awards by far. As an Argentine I tried to find the dub for this film, but it was never screened in Latin America so only the Spanish dub from Spain was made. I watched the Spanish dub and then the original English. 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. Wow, even the Gnorga's song is upgraded from their pretty simple original lyrics and adds way more vocabulary and intricate things!Now, about the story... well, it's hard to call this a "story". And mind you, I'm a Don Bluth fan but even I admit this film failures. 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. The musical number of the flowers to cheer Rosie, in another passage, also qualifies. All these scenes make the film seem more like an "anecdote" of the children stroll in the park, but then again, this method can still be done well. Miyazaki proved in "My Neighbor Totoro" that you don't have to have a plot-driven, rather "Western-style" kind of storytelling, but also you can go in another way, with a rather "anecdote" or "trip" kind of story. 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. Here you have too few characters, in a film with many claustrophobic sceneries (a dark kingdom, an underground cave, barren lands...)And when all is said and done, you have to look up to the info and find that this film budget was of $23.5 million, but only made $71,368... no words. 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... for Don Bluth, even in the misery and the mediocrity, still had his signature charm and willpower that made him one day leave Disney, and start an animation studio of his own.

morphricky If it wasn't for Don Bluths outstanding animation and the good voice acting, this would be completely painful to watch. And that is being nice, since this movie is mind-numbingly boring and it seems to make very little sense. 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. At least half an hour of this movie consists of just this and it's not like it's very spectacular to watch.Plot? I couldn't find one. Things pretty much happen at random. The characters aren't very likable either. Stanley comes off as annoying and too cowardly. Gus is a spoiled annoying brat who spends most of the movie arguing with people and shouting "Rosie!". Rosie is cute, but that's it. 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. It's like stuff just happens, the characters talk because they have to and... well, that's it.What crowd was this movie aimed for? It's pointless and boring for anyone over five, but the movie is too scary towards the end for anyone at that age to enjoy.It's hard to imagine this movie and "The Land Before Time" had the same directors. How is it even possible?

Tommy Nelson This has to be one of the most pointless and boring animated feature films of all time. Don Bluth had directed some stinkers in the past, but this was by far the worst. By the end of the movie, it feels like nothing happened. 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. He's more interested in planting flowers and making the world pretty, where the other trolls only want to cause misery. The trolls have black thumbs that turn things to stone, but Stanley has a green thumb for bringing plants to life. 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. Meanwhile, a little boy Gus wants his dad to take him to the park, but his dad is busy, so he and his infant sister Rosie go off on their own. 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. Older kids will despise this, unless it has a nostalgia factor to them, which it does to me, and I still hate it. Everything is overly corny, and cheesy and sappy. The plot....heck, what plot. It's pretty much just, little boy and girl go to park, meet troll, he teaches them about imagination, bad troll comes in, chaos ensues. The songs in the movie are really bad, which is weird because the musical score is quite pretty. The voice over acting is actually pretty good, with Cloris Leachman in an almost unrecognizable voice over role, Charles Nelson Reilly doing the same likable voice he'd done in so many other cartoons and Dom Deluise with his normal, over the top voice. Other than the music and voices though, this is an utterly ridiculous movie.I dislike the beginning, and I downright despise the ending of this sappy kiddie junk that should have had less put into the direction, and more into the writing.My rating: * out of ****. 75 mins. G.