this movie is so great!! I love the animation in it and I love the songs in it as well. Jodi Benson is a fantastic voice actress. She is so sweet and innocent as Thumbelina and you want her to meet her true love and fall in love. The prince in this is so great too and they have amazing chemistry! This is such a sweet and a simple story. I will always love it and it will always be a classic to me.

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!

I watched it for the first time today, so I don't have the nostalgia a lot of reviewers do. In fact, the only Thumbelina movie I ever saw as a kid was a knockoff one with parts done in live-action, probably from about the same time. A few things about it were really annoying for me. There are a few plot holes, (Why can't Jacquimo just fly Thumbelina back home? How does winter come the day after Autumn begins?) some characters were really annoying, (the little bugs, the toads, the beetle, Jacquimo, etc.) and how hard the moral was nailed into my head from beginning to end. Take a drink every time you hear "Nothing is impossible!" or "Follow your heart!", you'll be wasted in no time. Also, don't listen to Marry the Mole. It's not sung well, the background music isn't too good, and the lyrics are just plain bad. But it's an okay, cute movie for the kids. It's no Disney Princess movie, but it's decent.

This film is amazing to put it bluntly. Speaking as a 17 year old girl, I first watched this film when I was around 5/6 and instantly fell in love with the protagonist (Thumbelina) and the extremely catchy songs throughout. Around 11 years later, I'm still completely besotted with the film.It is a beautiful film and definitely worth a watch. People who have slated the film for different reasons have taken the film too seriously considering it is intended for a younger audience, which needs to be taken into consideration. Over all, however, I give this film a 10. Guaranteed it is worth a watch, you will love it.