Thumbelina

The other day I felt inspired to revisit the movie Thumbelina, a childhood favorite, and I was surprised at how different it seems now that I am older and hopefully wiser. I don’t remember finding it odd that the main character was born out of a flower fully grown (a whole two inches) and dressed or that her farm friends also all wore clothes and sang songs as they went along about their business as livestock. Even the little chicks are hatched from their shells wearing bonnets and singing. The personification of the animals makes them more relatable and likeable for the young audience no doubt. It also serves to teach about categories of people through the medium of the animal kingdom. The mischievous toads are Latino performers in clown costumes, and the evil beetle is dressed in all black with a hairline that resembles that of Dracula.

Thumbelina bounces from one predicament to the next with no knowledge or know how about how to save herself. She relies on the kindness of birds and fish to save her lily pad from going over a waterfall, she relies on the adorable little jitter bugs to save her from the beetle, Miss Mouse saves her from freezing to death, and for the whole movie she’s pretty much waiting for the fairy prince to come along and be her wings for the rest of her life. Not only is this a fairly anti-feminist message but it also paints nature as a terrifying place, a veritable death trap. However, towards the end of the movie everything takes a turn when we meet the reclusive mole. He lives deep underground surrounded by his piles of gold with a sign that says “what’s mined is mine.” Yet even surrounded with riches he finds himself “lonely for companionship” to which Miss Mouse replies “what could be more natural?” To remedy this problem he tries to marry Thumbelina and trap her in his sun-less world. As usual she is going right along with it with no convictions of her own.

When they stumble upon her little bird friend apparently dead in one of the tunnels her fiance is glad of it saying “one less bird to twitter, twitter, twitter.” This is the first trigger in her much needed epiphany which leads to her running away from her underground wedding and climbing up to the sunlight. Although she has given up hope that her prince is still alive, she finally has found the value in nature and how to appreciate it for herself rather than just the reflection in others. Of course in the end the prince shows up, she gets her wings, and her wedding and takes over her role as fairy princess controlling the seasons. All in all it seems an odd message to give to impressionable young minds: animals are only worth something as humans, tiny people control the seasons, nature is a scary place full of danger, but greedy people end up alone and in the dark.