An old woman wants to have a child. So, she visits an enchantress, who gives her some special magical barley seed.

After some time, the seed grows into a flower. Then its petals open and reveal a tiny sleeping young woman around the size of a thumb. She awakens and greets the old lady, who decides to name her Thumbelina.

She and Thumbelina have some sweet bonding moments. For example, the woman reads Thumbelina a story about fairies falling in love with each other. Thumbelina enjoys it but wishes she could encounter someone as small as her. She also wishes to be bigger. But her mom recommends against longing to be anything, but what she is.

That night, while Thumbelina is in bed, she notices something peculiar. She then meets this handsome fairy boy named Cornelius, whom she doesn’t know is a prince. He takes her on his bumblebee and they ride around. During the musical number, “Let Me Be Your Wings,” Cornelius and Thumbelina fall in love.

Once their ride is done, Cornelius drops Thumbelina off back at her home, and she finds out that he’s a prince. She tries to go back to sleep—only for someone to kidnap her.

When Thumbelina wakes up, she encounters a Spanish toad called Mrs. Toad and her 3 sons. Thumbelina reveals that she wants to marry Cornelius. But Mrs. Toad is against that and sings a song explaining why. She suggests marrying her son, Grundel. But Thumbelina refuses because she loves Cornelius.

Meanwhile, Cornelius discovers that Thumbelina was kidnapped. So, he not only seeks help, but also asks his parents, the fairy king and queen, to hold back winter for as long as possible. They will try—but they can only delay it for up to a day.

While on her way home, Thumbelina runs into this bug named Berkeley Beetle, who is a sleazy nightclub performer. He even calls her toots, which she dislikes.

However, he is willing to help her get home—if she agrees to sing at his nightclub. She performs for the other beetles in a butterfly costume—only for it to come off. The audience mocks her, leaving her humiliated and hurt.

At some point, she comes across this friendly French swallow, Jaquimo, who promises to find Cornelius for her. He even convinces her that nothing is impossible.

Simultaneously, Grundel meets Beetle and is unhappy with how he doesn’t know where Thumbelina is. Beetle comes up with an idea, though—that is to produce and depict a fake Prince Cornelius to lure her to Grundel.

Shortly after, winter comes, and stakes are rising. Jaquimo gets a thorn in his wing, Cornelius gets trapped in ice, and Thumbelina ends up staying with a fieldmouse—who wants her to marry Mr. Mole, despite how she doesn’t love him.

What will happen next?

In spite of its similarity to Disney classics, this movie ended up being less enjoyable than I thought. For one thing, there was sometimes too little tension. Some scenes had pretty much none at all, even though it was necessary.

The concept was also a little strange—I don’t mean the idea of a tiny person, but how she turned out. She was born a teenager already dressed and talking, although the latter details could’ve been done with magic. But she functioned more like a younger child (around 8 or under). This made her less relatable to real teens and young adults.

On the bright side, her relationship with Cornelius was very sweet. The scene where he took her on his bee and sang that romantic ballad reminded me a lot of that scene in Aladdin, during the “A Whole New World” number. I felt like they almost mirrored each other—but had some differences, of course.

Thumbelina also had a nice bond with Jaquimo. He would not only help her but also let her sleep on him.

Fun fact: Thumbelina was voiced by Jodi Benson, who you likely know also voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid. I could hear that Ariel in her.

In addition, Gilbert Gottfried did the voice of Berkeley Beetle. Seeing the characters interact with each other was interesting. It was kind of like Ariel talking to Iago.

Anyway, another strength is how the movie became more exciting during the second half. Tension levels increased, making the story feel faster.

Regardless of that, though, I think it’s important for a movie to be exciting throughout the whole duration. That means there should be just as much conflict during the first half.

Overall, I thought Thumbelina was decent. Even though this was based off an existing fairytale, I feel like certain changes would have made the film more fun.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.