Fixing Fairy Tales- Don Bluth's Thumbelina Part One
Part One, Because This is a Mess.
One of my favorite movies as a child was Don Bluth’s Thumbelina. Yes, I am embarrassed. And to be honest, I think Mr. Bluth is a bit. This movie was in development heck for three years, ran out of money, money had to be borrowed (from JOHN BOORMAN, no less) and was turned out in a hurry to try and make the money back. The resultant film has AMAZING animation, but a very shaky script.
And just for fun, I want to fix that issue.
The film begins with Jacquimo, a jaunty French swallow, singing his theme, “Follow Your Heart” telling the audience that if they follow their hearts, nothing will be impossible. He arrives in his home and shows off his collection of romances which includes the stories of Sampson and Delilah (WHAT?), Romeo and Juliet, Dante and Beatrice, Apollo and Daphne, Cupid and Psyche, and Hero and Leander… only one of these ends up with a happy ending, bird! Let’s back things up.
Enter Jacquimo, singing his song, extorting the audience to believe in themselves, then he arrives in his home and shows his books. Instead of Sampson and Delilah and Romeo and Juliet’s impossible romances, he turns to Cupid and Psyche and Belle and Beast as examples, before opening the book of Thumbelina.
From here, we can follow the original set up of the movie.
Thumbelina’s mother wants a baby, a good witch (in the story a good fairy) gives her a seed that sprouts into a flower, which gives birth to Thumbelina. From there, we head into the operetta number “Thumbelina”, nothing really to suggest here. Pretty standard 90s animated musical fare.
One thing I would’ve wanted the writers to be clear about is how long Thumbelina has been alive. From the tone of Thumbelina’s question “Are there any stories about little people?” I always assumed that she’s been around a decent amount of time and heard a few stories from her mother’s fairy tale book.
Anyway, cut to Thumbelina singing about wanting adventure and romance. Cute song, I have nothing to say. Then we move to the Fairy Court, roaming around and turning the leaves for autumn. Here we meet King Colbert and and Queen Tabitha- let’s get them some proper fairy names, they are now Finvarra and Mab- fretting about their feckless son Cornelius- Who also might need a better name, I’m not sure. The young prince prefers buzzing around on his bumblebee Buzzby than attending his duties, and indeed he is off flying at high speeds, when he comes by Thumbelina’s window.
And now for the meet-cute! There’s not much to this scene, it’s rather reminiscent of the scene where Aurora and Philip meet in Sleeping Beauty, so the only thing should be perhaps a knock at the window. After some light banter, Thumbelina and Cornelius take off on Buzzby for their big romantic musical number “Let Me Be Your Wings”. This sequence is GORGEOUS, the song’s a cheese-fest but the animation is wonderful, so we’ll let this sit too. During this song, Thumbelina catches the eye of a cringe inducing Hispanic toad. We’ll come back to him in a bit.
When Cornelius and Thumbelina arrive back at her house, Cornelius wastes no time in gushing about what a great time he had, and Thumblina enthusiastically agrees. They exchange gifts, Thumbelina gives him a necklace of forget-me-nots and he gives her a ring (These become important later). They hear Queen Mab and King Finvarra calling for Cornelius, and Thumbelina, poor ditzy thing, deduces her new boyfriend is the Fairy Prince. He promises to come the next morning to take her to meet his parents, then flies off.
Meanwhile, in the night, a toad hops into Thumbelina’s window. How she managed to track Thumbelina this far is a mystery, let’s just assume she followed the sound of 90s love ballad all the way from the creek. Anyway, despite the efforts of Thumbelina’s guardian Hero the dog, the toad makes off with the girl, trapped in her walnut shell bed.
When our heroine comes to herself, she finds herself dozens of feet from her house (The movie does do a good job of emphasizing that Thumbelina was never far from her house, but because of her size, she can’t find her way back) on a literal showboat inhabited by an oddly voluptuous toad and her three sons, one of whom is smitten by Thumbelina and all of whom have grating accents. (I can forgive Charo, who plays Mrs. Toad, her accent is genuine) The encourage her to come “On the Road” with them, telling her to leave the responsibilities of marriage to Cornelius behind and marry her son Grundel (Fair, they couldn’t have kids… Y’know, let’s not think about that too hard). Thumbelina strenuously objects, screaming as the toads sail off to find a priest “Doesn’t anybody care what I think!?”
Enter Jacquimo! Passing by on some business of his own, the bird hears Thumbelina’s cries for help and rescues her from the toads with help from some fish and the Jitterbugs, a tribe of anthropomorphic insects. Jacquimo constantly tells Thumbelina there’s nothing she can’t do if she follows her heart throughout this sequence, even putting on this big musical number “Follow Your Heart”. He then volunteers to find the Prince while she tries to find her way home.
So, here’s the part that gets me the most. This bird can organize a HUGE number with dozens of birds and Jitterbugs, but he can’t organize a search party? So, here’s what we’ll do. He asks for volunteers and sets up search parties to spread out and find Cornelius, knowing they don’t have much time before the frost sets in.
“Bon voyage, Thumbelina! Never fear, we will find the Prince!”
To be Continued…