Thumbelina

Thumbelina- 1994
Directed by: Don Bluth

"A girl no bigger than her mother's thumb feels all alone in the world knowing she is the only person her size. Her wish for a companion at last comes true when the prince of the fairies arrives at her window sill. However, the niave Thumbelina's life goes downward from there when a toad kidnaps her. While she tries to find a way home, she begins to grow up and learns about hope with the help of the friends she always wanted."

The story is set in Paris, France, yet, the only character with a French accent is the very first one, Jacquimo, the swallow. All of the other characters have fairly diverse accents; Hispanic toads, a beetle with what seems like a 'Brooklyn' accent, an English mole, the rest however have 'regular American' accents. 

Only The Size Of A Thumb, She Receives The Name, Thumbelina!

This story starts with an elder woman longing for a child. She buys, from a fairy, a flower to keep her company. As the flower blossoms, a tiny girl awakens and calls her 'mother'. As the beginning plays out Thumbelina realizes that in order for her to be happy she must marry someone of her size and she is down-trodden as she believes she is the only person her size in the world. This can play into the stereo-type that people cannot marry outside of their race, or at the very least be happy marrying outside of their race. Now, I know from personal experience that children won't catch on to this stereo-type as I didn't when I was younger. However, as the movie plays out you can see that she is very uninterested in the other pursuers (not of her race much less her species!) of her heart.


As the movie plays out, Thumbelina meets the very enchanting Fairy Prince, Cornelius. At one point we flash to the King and Queen Fairy, who are disgruntled at their son for not acting like an appropriate Prince; it seems to me that they want him to grow up too fast, he is 16 but they are saying that he behaves inappropriately for a Prince. Another thing I noticed about the fairies, who are all 'good', is that they are all white; an attribute of the fairies is their helpfulness as they are 'season' fairies. I think that children won't outwardly notice that all the fairies are white and that they are 'pure' and 'good', but I feel that they will later relate that fairies can't be colored. 


After Thumbelina meets Cornelius she is kidnapped by an evil, fame hungry toad who wants Thumbelina to sing, make her rich, and to marry her eldest son. Now, I can't think of any negative stereotype to why the frogs would be Hispanic. I tried very hard to rationalize the stereotype that Mexicans are in America as a means of getting free money; well Mrs. Toad wants to use Thumbelina for her beauty, her enchanting voice, and as a means of making money. It is far-fetched theory but in a critics point of view, it can be possible. Mrs. Toad also plays into Thumbelina's walk to fame and is finding ways to make her better, for instance in the song, "On the road" she says that "perhaps we'll make her blonde!" this plays into the stereotype that blondes have more fame, that they are more beautiful, or that being blonde makes you more glamorous. Later on, somehow the toads leave Thumblelina and she is left to go home on her own. 

Thumbelina As A 'Beetle'

On her adventure home she is swooned by a haughty beetle named Mr. Beetle, who is immediately attracted to her beauty and her lovely voice. He takes her into his 'village' and has her put into a beetle costume. She is so gorgeous that she is widely accepted in the beetle culture. A colorful song called, "you're beautiful, baby" is sung by the beetles about Thumbelina as a beetle. The audience is wowed by her beauty and her voice. As soon as Thumbelina starts dancing her costume begins to tatter away leaving her with only fully body undergarments. As soon as she is seen by the audience as something other than a beetle she is considered ugly. All the audience is disgusted by her and even the beetles who changed her appearance no longer found her attractive. I think this entirely buys into preferring ones own race over another but also conformity of the beetles who were first attracted to her, then when others didn't like her, neither did they.

The Contenders for Thumbelina's Heart

After getting booted by the beetles, Thumbelina finds herself stranded with no way home. Falling asleep in a shoe, she wakes up inside the quaint home of Ms. Fieldmouse; a talkative little mouse who talks Thumbelina into marrying Mr. Mole, a blind and very rich mole who desires a wife. Something I have noticed with Thumbelina is her willingness to conform with each and every 'culture' she has been exposed to, I find this a somewhat admirable trait, she isn't afraid to try to things. The issue I have with her doing that is that she is extremely naive about it; she ultimately allows bad things to happen because it seems as though she has no control. In a sense she has no sense of herself. She is a 'chameleon' in her society and just blends into wherever she is currently at. Where this isn't bad, like I said earlier, it just isn't healthy to her finding out who she is. 

Thumbelina Becoming A Fairy

As the rest of the movie plays out Thumbelina and Cornelius are finally reunited and she finally discovers who she is as she grows wings. Her and Cornelius live as she has always longed, Happily Ever After. 








The above examples of stereotypes that I came up with are severely unique; I had the most difficult time finding what people had to say about Thumbelina and racism or stereotypes! I talked with my mom and my fiance and together we came up with this list. The examples we found are very subtle unless you are seriously looking for it you will not find blatant racism or stereotypes in this movie. I enjoyed this movie as a kid and I have let the girls that I nanny watch it and they enjoyed it. Do I feel that this will change/distort a kind of racism or stereotype in them? Nah, I think this is a good movie to just enjoy and laugh at, you have to admit, Thumbelina is not the smartest girl!
 


**Summary of movie quote: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111419/