In the animation, the toads rush in pursuit of the floating sheet with the girl and catch up with him, the book does not say so.
In the book, the leaf stem of the water lily, on which Thumbelina swims away from the toad, snacks by fish. But in the animation they cannot do this and turn to the hermit crab, who is not in the original fairy tale, for help.
In the book Thumbelina changes the name at the end of the fairy tale, in the animation this does not happen.
The mole in the book has no friends, whereas in the animation they are.
In the 1980s, the animation film was released on VHS by the video company "Video Program Goskino USSR" in the collection of animation fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen.