Children's Film Review - Thumbelina

Title: Thumbelina
Release Date: March 30th, 1994

Summary:  In this film, a young girl named Thumbelina feels alone as the only small person she knows.  As her mother reads her a story at the beginning of the film, she asks, "Oh, mother, please. Are there any stories about... about little people?" (DioGuardi).  Her mother begins to read her a story about people that are her size, but have wings instead.  Thumbelina learns about these fairies, and then begins to yearn for these wings that she doesn't have herself.  That night, she falls in love with a boy who comes in through her window and then finds herself pining for him.  After a family of toads hear them singing, Thumbelina is kidnapped and ends up on a twisting journey through the entire forest to find her way back home.  A minimum of three other characters "fall in love" with Thumbelina and fight for her hand in marriage.  Thumbelina is steadfast in her ways of being set on marrying Cornelius, because he is not only her size, but also a fairy.  Cornelius finds his way back to Thumbelina, then marries her and they live happily ever after.

Analysis:  Instantly, I picked up on the amount of times Thumbelina commented on how her size was a negative factor for her.  She suggested that her mother read her a story about people that were "like her" as well as picked up on that she was the only human her size around her.  She assumed happily ever after could only happen for people of the same size, and that she could not be happy with someone who wasn't like her.  Thumbelina states, "I... I must be the only little person in the world. I wish I were big." and her mother reassures her by saying "Oh, no, Thumbelina. No. Don't ever wish to be anything but what you are" (DioGuardi).  I feel that her mother was trying to reassure her that it is perfectly okay to be exactly who you are, but Thumbelina just wouldn't accept any of that as an option.  I feel that from this film, children could be picking up on the idea of falling in love the moment you meet someone that is just like you is what is bound to happen.  Thumbelina fell in love with Cornelius because he was the same size as her.  In a sense, this projects some of the stereotypes of sizeism, telling children that if you're shorter, you're not meant to be with someone who isn't a mirror image of yourself.  Throughout the film, a frog, a beetle and a mole all try to marry Thumbelina for various "love at first sight" reasons, but Thumbelina is set on Cornelius and won't give any of these other critters a second glance at any sort of conversation or friendship.  Additionally, it shows that falling in love is only based off of physical and vocal qualities, as none of these individuals that set their hearts on marrying Thumbelina know her for more than her appearance or her singing voice.

Outside Response: A few reviews that I found in regards to this film is that it was considered to be sexist, as Thumbelina is unable to do anything for herself.  She finds herself almost in multiple arranged marriages, and is usually saved by Cornelius or the sparrow who appears sporadically throughout the film.  I have to say, I agree with this label for this film, because Thumbelina had so many opportunities to thrive on her own and be her own person.  Instead, she felt she needed a man to guide her in her life, and wasn't standing up for herself.  At first she fought being kidnapped by the toads, but by the end of the musical number, she was enjoying the situation she was in.  She allowed the beetle and other bugs to decide for her how she should feel about herself, whether she was pretty or ugly in the course of one song.  Mrs. Fieldmouse wanted Thumbelina to understand that she needed to marry the Mole to keep him company, and that marrying for love was overrated and would simply end in death like Romeo and Juliet.  In the song, Mrs. Fieldmouse even tells her, "Poor Thumbelina, you're brain's so itty bitty.  I hate to be a pest, but I know what's best for you"(Feel Like a Kid Again HD).  Money is a main "selling point" for her reasons to marry the mole, which she almost goes through with to please those around her.  It is very unfortunate that this character who was told in the beginning of the film to be just who you are and nothing more, finds herself changing herself time and time again to please those around her to fit the female typecast. 

A second factor that some consider appearing in this film is the racist profiling of some of the characters.  Primarily, the toads are said to be poor representations of Latin culture.  The mother toad is portrayed as curvaceous bodied frog with an elaborate hair do and the three sons are very costume-esquely dressed.  A review in the New York Times states that in creating this sort of Latin singing group gave the composer of the film (Barry Manilow) the ability to create a song in the style of his own hit "Copacabana" from the 1970's.  I find the racial tones to be a little less than the sexist ones, but I can absolutely agree that they exist in this film as well.
One last thing that was pointed out was that the Fairy King & Queen were noted to be strongly enforcing gender norms towards their son, and not allowing the idea of his gender identity to waver (Lange).  In the film, the son Cornelius is noticed to have run off again, and the King tells the Queen, "I think he feels a bit silly riding that white butterfly we gave him... It doesn't quite make the right impression on the young ladies" (DioGuardi).  In this instance, the King seems to be telling the Queen that it wasn't quite manly enough to be riding around on a butterfly, and that is something much more feminine than what a prince should be doing.  Instead, Cornelius is seen to be riding around on a bumble bee that his mother seems to resent, much like a motor cycle in the real world.

I found it interesting that I couldn't find anything on my original statement of feeling that the movie was heavy on Thumbelina not feeling like she was able to do anything because of her size.  I presume that this is because sizeism isn't as widely known as things like racism or sexism to viewers, and people would think more of those being considered harsher stereotypes to apply to films.  

References:DioGuardi, Jamie, (2014, November 29). Don Bluth's Thumbelina - Full Movie HD. [Video File].  Retrieved from http://youtu.be/iieJoCOTWV0

Feel Like A Kid Again HD, (2014, November 29). Thumbelina - Marry The Mole. [Video File].  Retrieved from http://youtu.be/SjJNpk73vhk
Golbarg, Bashi. (2013, October 20). No Title. [Blog Posting]. Retrieved from http://golbargbashi.tumblr.com/post/64592095557/the-1994-cartoon-thumbelina-by-don-bluth-earns
Holden, Stephen (1994, March 30). Hans Christian Andersen s Thumbelina (1994)

Review/Film; The Great, Big Worries of Such a Tiny Girl. The New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B0DE2DE143FF933A05750C0A962958260 

James. (2008, May 7). Thumbelina, or How to Deal with a Sexual Predator [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://ayearofamilliondreams.tumblr.com/post/42968077491/thumbelina-or-how-to-deal-with-a-sexual-predatorLange, Ariana. (2014, March 30). "Thumbelina" Is Actually A Terrifying Movie. Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/arianelange/thumbelina-is-actually-a-terrifying-movie
strawberryummies (2013, February 16). Member Reviews [Msg 10]. Message posted to https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/thumbelina/user-reviews