Thumbelina (Don Bluth)

Thumbelina is the main protagonist of Don Bluth's Thumbelina.

She is a tiny, thumb-sized girl who wants to marry Prince Cornelius who lives in the Vale of the Fairies.

Why She Sucks

 * 1) Right off the bat, her original book counterpart, as well as many other characters from Hans Christian Andersen's stories (with the notable exception of Gerda from The Snow Queen), isn't a well-written character to begin with for animated film standards, since most of Hans Christian Andersen's characters are basically reactive characters where things happen to these characters instead of the characters doing something to drive their plot, which doesn't make an interesting or compelling character for the screen. But here in Don Bluth's film adaptation, she has been drastically flanderized to become much worse than her book counterpart by making her a lot dumber and more passive than her book counterpart, due to the various reasons as listed below.
 * 2) She is a very weak and whiny protagonist who is unable to stand up for herself because she is dumb and passive and gets demotivated whenever something goes wrong for her.
 * 3) * Worse, she cries way too frequently throughout the film to the point that it gets annoying after a while, even over stuff that aren't that big of a deal, such as when Berkeley Beetle calls her ugly and when she gets lost on the way home.
 * 4) *Even the Disney Princesses created before and after her (e.g. Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine) do have scenes where they break down and cry, though at least they have valid reasons which are relatable to audiences and they still remained strong no matter what unlike Thumbelina, and not to this extent of oversaturation that it gets annoying.
 * 5) She is way too much of a weak damsel in distress, even when compared to past heroines in other media created before her, so much to the point that it makes these past heroines much stronger in comparison, which is absolutely ridiculous and also unacceptable since most female characters created in the 1980s and beyond are strong female characters in any way, regardless whether it is physical or inner strength, or both.
 * 6) *Even the earliest Disney Princesses created before her such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, despite their more reactive nature compared to the later Disney Princesses created after them since Ariel, are shown to have moments of inner strength and resilience which makes them strong female characters, such as how they managed to stay optimistic and courageous no matter how much bad luck and abuse they had to endure throughout their respective films. Thumbelina, on the other hand, has none of that AT ALL.
 * 7) She gets little to no character development, nor does she have any personality outside of being with her love interest Prince Cornelius, hence making her a bland, flat character for the most part. Does that sound familiar?
 * 8) Despite that she is the main protagonist and gets a fair amount of screen time, she barely has any agency of her own nor does she have an active role throughout her film, hence making her more of a plot device than a character.
 * 9) She is so dumb and super-naïve beyond belief, that she displays a lot of questionable moments of stupidity throughout the entire film. For example:
 * 10) *Why does she happily dance to all the villain songs with her enemies when they are the one who force her to marry them against her will?
 * 11) *After the musical number "On The Road" with the toads, why did she even thank Mama Toad once she becomes famous for her singing voice among the pond creatures despite the fact that Mama Toad was the one that kidnapped her earlier that night?
 * 12) *Her butterfly dress falls off during "You're Beautiful Baby" and she is seen wearing her underwear, but keeps on dancing anyway.
 * 13) *She is so clingy and dependent on almost anyone, to the point that she is blind to the fact that some people she's heavily dependent on are potential abusers. This is widely reflected in the scene following Prince Cornelius' presumed death, she, under persuasion from Ms. Fieldmouse, decides to marry Mr. Mole in hopes that he could take care of her, despite the fact that she doesn't even love him at all, as well as the fact that Mr. Mole himself is heavily implied to be an evil serial killer who outright kills insects and other small living creatures for taxidermy purposes.
 * 14) **Worse, her stupidity isn't funny, cute or endearing in the slightest, but rather irritating and frustrating.
 * 15) She feels like a rip-off of various Disney Princesses created before her, specifically Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Ariel from The Little Mermaid at some parts (the latter character is also both voiced by Jodi Benson). In fact, if you take away both of Snow White and Ariel's respective intelligences, maturities, resilience, inner strengths and resourcefulness, you are basically left with Thumbelina in a nutshell.
 * 16) Her love story with Prince Cornelius is quite rushed and cliché because they don't take their time to know each other and get married too soon; Thumbelina and Cornelius meet for only one night and the latter spends the rest of the film looking for Thumbelina, after she gets kidnapped, but winds up in danger while trying to find her way home. The two meet again and get married at the end of the film, even though that they've known each other for only one night.
 * 17) *Throughout the film, she is very clingy and dependent on Prince Cornelius without logic or reasoning. Speaking of male depending, she gives the bad message to girls that "you only need a man to have happiness", which is absolutely not true. Again, does that sound familiar?
 * 18) *Because of this, she outright literally "marries the guy she does met", which gives a bad message to kids since romantic relationships do not happen instantly and instead takes time and therefore can't be rushed.
 * 19) **On the topic of "marrying the guy she does met", though the Disney Princesses created before (and to a lesser extent, after) her do have rushed romantic relationships with their respective love interests, at least they take their time to know each other and therefore forming believable romantic chemistry (as with the case of Ariel and Eric (The Little Mermaid), Belle and Beast (Beauty and the Beast), Jasmine and Aladdin (Aladdin), Giselle and Robert Phillip (Enchanted), Tiana and Naveen (The Princess and the Frog), Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder (Tangled) and Anna and Kristoff (Frozen)), or if they do have extremely rushed romances because of the royalty laws demanding either one of them or both of them get married ASAP which is a circumstance beyond their control (as with the case of Cinderella and Prince Charming (Cinderella) and Aurora and Phillip (Sleeping Beauty)), or is left completely ambiguous whether they got married at the end (as with the case of Snow White and The Prince (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and Mulan and Li Shang (Mulan), though the latter couple eventually got married in the sequel)). And though Anna did attempt to marry Prince Hans right after meeting him for no valid reason reason whatsoever in Frozen just like Thumbelina, at least she did receive some repercussions for her action in said film when Prince Hans turned out to be the villain who betrayed her whenever she needed him most. In contrast, Thumbelina literally did married Prince Cornelius right after meeting him for no valid reason whatsoever and is outright rewarded for it, which gives a bad lesson to kids.
 * 20) Despite the fact that she's supposed to be a teenager around the age of 16, she is extremely immature and never acts her age, since she is extremely clingy (especially to Prince Cornelius) and cries a lot over things that aren't that big of a deal to begin with.
 * 21) * She is supposed to be 16, but she has the mentality of a 4-year old.
 * 22) *To add salt to the wound, she is very easy to be emotionally broken down at the smallest of misfortunes, something which no teenage girl her age would be this emotionally fragile and vulnerable, like how Berkeley Beetle calling her ugly and being left stranded alone out in the wide open world even when nothing scary of frightening ever happens to her is enough to easily send her off crying and spiraling into a self-pity crisis! Not even Disney's Snow White was this emotionally vulnerable when she got stranded in the forest with intense fear all by herself unlike Thumbelina herself.
 * 23) *While this is understandable, given that she is actually less than a week old, it doesn't excuse the fact that she has little to no control over her life and is too dependent on others for the most basic things, such as relying too much on Jacquimo for finding her way home, despite that Jacquimo, who isn't any better, often gives completely vague advice to her such as "following her heart", and for some reason doesn't bother to fly her home on his back until near the end of the film.
 * 24) She gets a lot of up-skirt shots due to her skirt constantly going up and down from above her waist and therefore exposing her bare legs in the process many times, which is considered sexualization.
 * 25) She can be considered a Mary Sue in some way, as she immediately gains the romantic attention of all the guys (specifically Grundel Toad, Berkeley Beetle, Mr. Mole, and even her love interest Prince Cornelius) because of her physical beauty and beautiful singing voice, and has nothing else to her aside from these two aforementioned quirks.
 * 26) Since she gets miserable over getting lost far from home and being unable to be with her love interest Prince Cornelius throughout most of her film, this causes her film to get too dark and depressing for younger children, despite being rated G, mainly due to her constant sadness and misery going on non-stop throughout her film without even taking a break from it. Not helping is the fact that her constant whining and crying over her predicaments throughout the film makes things even worse.
 * 27) Most of her dialogue is incredibly stupid and laughable, such as her infamous "DOESN'T ANYBODY CARE WHAT I THINK?" line.
 * 28) The wedding dress she wears to marry Mr. Mole near the ending looks very laughable.
 * 29) At the end of the film, she magically grows fairy wings and gets everything she wants. Not only does the film never explain how she got her fairy wings upon agreeing to marry Prince Cornelius, but has done nothing worthy to earn fairy wings when all she ever does is whine and mope around throughout the film, which conveys a bad message to kids: "If you only whine and mope around, you'll eventually get what you want", which just influences young children, especially girls, to become mopey, whiny spoiled brats (similar to in vein of other spoiled brat characters in other media such as Caillou, Gus and to some extent, Bella Swan) in order to get what stupid thing they want.
 * 30) Because she is always constantly forced to marry various perverted male characters against her will throughout the film, combined with how her problems are made worse by her dumb but well-meaning bird sidekick Jacquimo, she can already be considered a punching bag in some way.
 * 31) While not necessarily a bad thing, a lot of things that happen to her and around her are all out of pure dumb luck and plot contrivance, mainly as the result of her film's badly-rushed writing:
 * 32) *For no particular reason whatsoever, her beautiful singing voice is automatically able to attract the attention of various male characters, specifically Grundel Toad, Berkeley Beetle, Mr. Mole, and even her love interest Prince Cornelius (see WSS #9).
 * 33) *For no explained reason whatsoever, her beautiful singing voice is able to melt all the ice and frost covering the Vale of the Fairies near the end of the film.
 * 34) *Her film never even explains and elaborates on how she gets her own fairy wings at the end of the film once she agrees to marry Prince Cornelius.
 * 35) Her voice by Jodi Benson can be shrill and annoying at times, mainly due to her voice being high pitched to the point where she sounded like she is on helium, especially whenever she yells or screams.
 * 36) Although she was tolerable in the first 22 minutes of the film, she went downhill once Mama Toad kidnaps her while in her walnut bed when the film reaches the 22 minute mark for reasons above.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite her poor portrayal due to her being whiny and annoying, she is sweet and kind and does care about those around her.
 * 2) Her design is cute.
 * 3) Jodi Benson performance as her isn't too bad.
 * 4) She has a beautiful singing voice.
 * 5) Despite crying way too much throughout the entire film, there's only one instance where Thumbelina has a valid reason to cry, and that's the scene where she finds out the news from Ms. Fieldmouse that her love interest Prince Cornelius is found stone-cold in the snow and presumed dead, which is relatable to audiences since losing a love interest to (presumed) death is incredibly heartbreaking in real life.
 * 6) Near the end of the film when she is forced to marry Mr. Mole, she finally stands up for herself to leave the mole at the altar because she doesn't love him, as well as to outright reject the lustful Grundel Toad who chased after her to her wedding, which is her only act of agency throughout the entire film, meaning she does have some minor character development, though that isn't saying much.
 * 7) To be fair, she acts the way she is in the film is because she was practically a newborn in most of the events of the film despite having the physical appearance of a teenager.
 * 8) Like mentioned before, she was tolerable in the first 22 minutes of the film.