Barbie: Thumbelina
To encourage her little friend, Barbie tells the classic story of a tiny Twillerbee who finds herself uprooted from her wildflower patch and taken to an apartment in the city. Now they have to find a way home to prevent the destruction of their homeland with the power of nature.
Those Barbie movie fanatics amongst my readers may be wondering if I’m missing something or if I miscounted. Just to clear things up, I have not missed anything. But the title in between this and the previous film was an adaptation of a Christmas Carol and it is far from December. As much as it would be nice to keep things in order, I honestly can’t justify watching something Christmas themed when it’s August. Christmas comes earlier every year, I don’t intend to give it any more territory. You may also be asking “Wait, didn’t this series START with a Christmas movie?” And you would be entirely correct. I was able to justify that because it was the BEGINNING of the series. Just like you can’t start a Disney marathon with Pinocchio, I had to start with the Nutcracker.
Back to the matter at hand now I’ve explained things, I have to ask if it is just tradition for every company to cover Thumbelina if Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are taken? I’ve just noticed that it’s a pattern when I was reviewing the Don Bluth films. What’s more, this is not the accurate retelling of this fairytale but in all honesty, fairytales have always been malleable so that doesn’t concern me at all. What I do find strange is Barbie’s character is given a drastic new design with a bigger head and a smaller, thinner body more reminiscent of the Polly Pocket toys that I remember being fascinated by. It’s a massive switch up compared to what I’ve watched previously and the animation is noticeably more expressive.
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By contrast, the humans are given very different shapes and sizes, though there is a very limited cast of them in this. They also have a reluctant ally in Makenna, the little girl who ordered their flowers relocated. She’s a human child who is spoiled by her parent’s so that they can essentially ignore her. A large element of the comedy comes from her dog and as someone who has seen plenty of pugs cause chaos, I know how much damage those squat furry crack missiles. Watching him crash around the place is very on point for a dog like this.
Thumbelina is gutsy to the point of suicidal, as Makena starts as being a truly unpleasant child with no regard nor comprehension that she’s basically kidnapped three living, breathing creatures and that her parent’s plan to destroy their home. Still, the central message of the film is that despite being small, they are capable of doing anything. It’s interesting to watch her move around on her homemade wings and I think if the film was given a bigger budget, we would see noticeable damage be done to them over the course of time. Opposite her, there’s Myron, the foreman with an allergy to the field’s flowers and what seems to be a Napoleon complex, given that he’s shorter than the other workers. He’s also got some interesting tantrum scenes with his squash and stretch animation. I honestly have to wonder if this grudge against the field is personal, given how determined he is to destroy it.
The use of plant magic is incredibly inventive, transforming flowers, manipulating vines and leaves and even transmuting them into different objects completely. What’s more, the Twillerbees are incredibly creative, able to take apart the machines trying to tear apart their homes over the course of a night! I’ve always thought that earth and, by extension, plant life is incredibly underrated. When you have the power of the planet itself at your disposal, there is very little that can possibly stop you! It just happens that a lot of Earth users are pacifists who don’t push their powers to their utmost potential.
Behind the flower power, there’s a rather beautiful B-plot of Makena reconnecting with her parent’s after being spoiled and ignored so much. Through a very cute montage, Makena and the Twillerbees spend the night doing up the greenhouse at her apartment and lure her parent’s inside. It’s a lot of work but when the two have spent every waking minute surgically attached to their phones, it can take something drastic. Such as revealing the existence of a magical race that you are unwittingly about to exterminate.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this film as much as I did. I’ve always had a very soft spot for this fairy tale and seeing it retold with a more environmentalist bent is interesting. I would be interested in seeing a more fairy tale accurate movie but for now, this is entertaining. If you find that you wish you could spend more time with your kids, it might be worth turning this flick on and relaxing on the couch with the ones you love.
