My little sister went through a stage when she was about four where she insisted on watching a movie two or three thousand times. We endured so many viewings of The Lion King, All Dogs Go To Heaven, and Balto that the songs were indelibly stamped into our brains and we could say the lines along with the characters. We endured my sister's voracious viewing habits with varying degrees of grace, but the breaking point came when she started watching Thumbelina.
The movie plays like some sort of grotesque nightmare. Sure, you can try to describe Gilbert Gottfried's beetle character and Carol Channing's nagging mouse, but the sheer horror of the movie can't be comprehended until you actually SEE the scene where Thumbelina is mocked in an insect music hall. Trust me, it really must be seen to be believed. The plot, which follows Thumbelina's "mis-adventures", isn't terribly coherent or consistent, and you will feel serious loathing for each character within moments of their entrance (especially Prince Cornelius). The one person whom I didn't absolutely hate by the movie's end (which was viewed many, many times) was Thumbelina herself, who was such a pathetic, rag-doll of a figure that she only inspired an uncomfortable sense of pity. Really, there's absolutely nothing entertaining about this movie, and it ranks right around Rock-A-Doodle (which my sister thankfully was NOT attached to) as "Things Don Bluth Should Leave Off His Resume".
My sister has since grown past this habit and I haven't seen the movie in years, but the thought of the singing frogs still gives me chills.
The movie plays like some sort of grotesque nightmare. Sure, you can try to describe Gilbert Gottfried's beetle character and Carol Channing's nagging mouse, but the sheer horror of the movie can't be comprehended until you actually SEE the scene where Thumbelina is mocked in an insect music hall. Trust me, it really must be seen to be believed. The plot, which follows Thumbelina's "mis-adventures", isn't terribly coherent or consistent, and you will feel serious loathing for each character within moments of their entrance (especially Prince Cornelius). The one person whom I didn't absolutely hate by the movie's end (which was viewed many, many times) was Thumbelina herself, who was such a pathetic, rag-doll of a figure that she only inspired an uncomfortable sense of pity. Really, there's absolutely nothing entertaining about this movie, and it ranks right around Rock-A-Doodle (which my sister thankfully was NOT attached to) as "Things Don Bluth Should Leave Off His Resume".
My sister has since grown past this habit and I haven't seen the movie in years, but the thought of the singing frogs still gives me chills.