Irishchatter I have never seen this version of Thumbelina before. I remember being in playschool, the other little kids and myself watched another version in which I can't seem to find on the Internet. 22 Years later in 2016, I managed to come across this little movie. This movie came out the year I was born so there was no way I couldn't have watched it! Anyways I will tell you what I have a thought about it!I honestly didn't know Jodi Benson aka Ariel was on this, as usual she always has her incredible singing voice. Seriously, I'm so glad she took part in being involved as Thumbelina. She is an amazing actress and singer. I thought the songs were quite nice but could easily be forgettable since this movie is quite a hidden classic gem. The drawings were absolutely beautiful. It's too bad nowadays, we normally use 3-D for movies. When I have my own kids, I will definitely show this to them! They would absolutely love to see it!

Ruairidh MacVeigh What a strange and paradoxical little movie this is, for a girl who's most important purpose throughout the film is getting home, she certainly takes a roundabout way of doing it, not exactly helped by utterly useless accomplices who spend more time singing poorly written songs rather than lending her an actual hand!So what's the mango? The film starts with a lonely old woman who yearns for the company of a child to love. In response, the Blue Fairy (I would call her something else but the similarities between this and Pinocchio are beyond obvious) gives her a seed to plant in the garden. The seed grows into a plant, inside of which is a tiny girl the size of a thumb named Thumbelina (which to me seems like a massive con if I'm honest, a girl the size of a thumb, that's nice!). Anyway, one night she's visited by a fairy prince who immediately falls in love with her and takes her for a ride on his Bumblebee steed. Whilst riding, they garner the attention of a Mexican Mariachi band of Toads, who kidnap her after one of them falls obsessively in love with her too. The rest of the film is spent basically following the same story as Pinocchio, trying to get home whilst constantly being distracted by showbiz, marriage to a rich Mole, etc, etc.The biggest problem with this movie is the sad fact that it's shamefully ripping off Pinocchio. A fairy gives a kind elderly person a child who's obscure in some magical way who is either lost or kidnapped and has to find their way back home whilst being distracted by the glamours of a better but ultimately bad life. The only problem is whilst Pinocchio had the excuse that he was a wide- eyed child who saw things at their exciting face value with no consideration for the consequences, Thumbelina looks and acts like a grown woman in her 20's! The thing I found most jarring as well is the fact that when she does get dragged into various different situations, she really seems to get into it! No attempt to escape, even siding with the prospect in some cases!One example is when she's made to perform for a Beetle played by Gilbert Gottfried. With little to no convincing she has to dance while disguised as a bug, seems to enjoy dancing as a bug, only to be revealed as a human, laughed off stage, and then she sits and mopes about the fact that the bugs think she's ugly. Who cares what the bugs think? Aren't you supposed to be getting home?! Wasn't that your main objective? Or did you think you'd just failed the Garden's version of the X- Factor?And again later, she's confronted by the prospect of being married off to an affluent old Mole played by John Hurt, but rather than making a break for it, she joins in the utterly awful song sung by a Mouse and dances around before committing and going up to the altar with him, after only sharing about three lines with the darn Mole!I thought this girl wanted to get home? From the looks of things I think she needs to be continually reminded!But this isn't helped by her side characters, all of which seem to serve absolutely no purpose but to spew irritating songs. One of particular annoyance and uselessness is Jacquimo, a bird who constantly sings and fails to do the most obvious thing, pick up Thumbelina, and fly her home! He doesn't explain why he can't do that? It's not like she's too heavy for him or anything, he instead chooses to sing songs, even when she's pleading with him not to go! It's also very obvious that he's just a blatant rip-off of Jiminy Cricket, trying but failing to teach Thumbelina various morals and life lessons, even down to the fact that he's telling the story through flashback!To summarize, this movie is one without any guidance for its characters, and even though in other movies that would be only a minor problem, in this it's a major one because the movie could have been over in the first 10 minutes, but instead the characters voluntarily give themselves to the obvious problems! Aside from that, the story is very much a rip-off of Pinocchio and the songs are rubbish. I will give it two points though for some very good animation, which is really quite pleasant to look at, and the fact that Gilbert Gottfried throughout this whole movie was a constant source of entertainment. When he was on screen I really couldn't take my eyes off him.Other than that, I strongly suggest you give this a miss because it will leave you both annoyed and confused at the same time! Not a good combination!

Gavin Cresswell (gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297) As of 2011, Don Bluth continues to live as one of the best animation directors of all time. The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go To Heaven were his most successful films yet and one of the most decent movies he has done was "Thumbelina" based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson.It revolves around Thumbelina, a small person, who meets a fairy prince named Cornelius and have now fall in love. Later, she stumbles upon an adventure as lots of furry creatures try to marry Thumbelina.Now, I haven't read the story or The Little Mermaid at all, but for a animated adaptation, this one is just a decent movie.I'll go for the bad parts: The story line was butchered and underdeveloped it attempts to be a Disney-clone and the characters were also underdeveloped. The dialogue was so lame it makes the characters lose their personalities.The good parts are: The animation and art design were very colorful and creative, the songs may not be the best I've heard (especially with Let Me Be Your Wings and I'll admit it was a "Whole New World" ripoff) but they were OK for the most part, the characters were very decent, and the voice acting wasn't that bad with the best coming from Jodi Benson.Thumbelina isn't as good as Bluth's successful works and I do understand the criticism it received, but it's not as terrible as I thought it would be. Yes, the story and characters could've been better, but at least the music score makes the movie kind of watchable and only for little kids. So, I'll give this a decent rating.6/10

akmom Good Grief- where to begin. Many of the critical reviews here have touched on most of what I disliked so immensely about the movie. Stupid dialogue, annoying characters (even Thumbelina herself), very odd pacing to the movie (holes), and Thumbelina couldn't keep her dress down. Weird scenes- she just meets the Prince Fairy and starts singing and they put their hands all over each other. She later is kidnapped but instead of being upset that she can't marry her prince she starts dancing and singing and thanking the mother toad- what??!!! Now, I love most of the princess movies and cartoons out there- but this one is very, very poorly made. It was torture to sit through it with my 6 year old daughter- it will be "disappearing" from our shelf this week.