Thumbelina

Thumbelina (1970)

* (out of 4)

If you're a fan of Something Weird Video then it's more than likely that you've ran into a few films from director Barry Mahon. Much like Herschell Gordon Lewis, Mahon made a wide range of films including nudies like THE BEAST THAT KILLED WOMEN, NUDE A GO-GO and he's also the man behind the infamous CUBAN REBEL GIRLS. Later in his career, much like Lewis, he also made some children movies, which this adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson tale falls into.

I'm not going to waste my time with the "story" but we have Shay Garner playing Thumbelina and I guess she's the best thing going for the film. She has a nice enough of a voice to help make the songs somewhat better but it's really doubtful anyone is going to want to sit through this film. Even children will either be bored or terrified of how "bad" this movie is. The production values are obviously very low and it appears everything was mostly shot on the same set. It should go without saying that quality wasn't what the producers of this were going for but it's just not entertaining.

Anything made in the late '60s or early '70s is not necessarily 'psychedelic' and this is coming from an expert. I found it charming for its amateur quality and anyone who knows certain aspects of the Thumbelina story, particularly certain terminology related to her origin, the case could be made that if she seems 'psychedelic' it's because of that.

Those who know the story and anything about what the first generation of hippies were called will know exactly what I mean.

The only downside here is that it was obviously created as some sort of advert for a defunct Florida amusement park and that interferes with the framing of the film. It was later made into part of an even more confusing "Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny".

I'm the sort of person who enjoys a certain sort of amateurishness in movies, so your mileage may obviously differ. As to potential for giving kids nightmares, there's nothing violent at all here. NOTHING.

Sure it does tell the story of Thumbelina except it's narrated by an audio speaker at a crappy exhibit room at the now long demolished Pirates World theme park. This teenage girl who also plays the title character observes each diagram that depicts each scene of Thumbelina. And I guess she's using her imagination to envision herself as Thumbelina as the lady on the audio speaker tells the whole story. The characters of the Thumbelina story all look like they were paid very little cause no one famous was even casted for this movie cause I bet it didn't cost anything to make it. All of the sets which are suppose to be the dioramas at the exhibit all look as crappy as if they really as made out of color paper, Styrofoam, and paper ma-shay. The costumes aren't too appealing cause they all look like they were constructed at some Drama theater class in Florida. The weirdest costumers would have to be these bugs(if they are bugs) the look like multi-arm birds that hop around. Those creatures are the weirdest ones you'll ever see in the story. Plus the singing was a little unbearable too. It'll make you wish the story could rap up right about now.

This make the Don Bluth Thumbelina look like a classic. Cause for this one it just looks like the director was paid by Pirates World to promote their theme park rather than just tell a plain version of Thumbelina. There's not much trivia given for this movie, but it's certainly a movie that'll weird kids out. If you're looking for the worst Thumbelina film, then you succeeded in your search.

Parents, unless you want your child to have nightmares, do not let your kids watch this movie. I remember watching this movie several times as a child in the early 1980s. All I can say is that I am scarred for life! I remember this movie as scaring the hell out of me for no good reason. The psychedelic quality of it was over my head and didn't end up mesmerizing and delighting me as promised, but confused and scared me. This from a kid who by that age had seen more horror movies than anyone should have. I really think this movie was made by a bunch of hippies who were all hopped up on drugs and thought that they were thinking in childlike ways, but really were just stoned. Scary, scary, scary. Terrible movie that I still get uncomfortable thinking about to this very day!