Thumbelina

Sometimes you just have to pay the devil his due. When it comes to feature length, family-oriented animated movies, Disney Studios has the formula under a virtual copyright. That especially becomes obvious when watching a copycat rival production like Thumbelina.

It has many of the same elements as such Disney movies as Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, but some­thing is missing. The whole movie comes across more as hard work than fun, and is lacking any endearing charm.

Not that Thumbelina doesn't try to charm. But the movie gets real sweaty in making the effort. Everything is just a little too coy and too cute, and the movie is stuffed full of one too many moments when the viewer is supposed to be emotionally touched. That, combined with nearly a dozen songs by Barry Manilow, threatens the audience with a one-two punch of blandness and sugar overdose.

Admittedly, the flat script to Thumbelina doesn't help. Vaguely adapted from the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale (always be wary of any movie that puts the author's name up front), Thumbe­lina stumbles through a series of minor incidents that has a spookily odd resem­blance to the old adult novel Candy (minus the sex, natural­ly). Everywhere that Thumbelina goes in the movie, there's a man who wants to marry her. Her heart belongs to the Fairy Prince, but he's a bit of a dip who can't get his act together to rescue her for most of the film. Instead, Thum­belina spends her time being pursued by a randy toad who speaks with a really bad Mexican accent.

The animation work in Thumbelina is actually quite good, including some impressive three-dimensional effects. The designs, however, have been largely culled from two very divergent sources: Walt Disney and the Fleischer Brothers. Considering the degree to which Disney and the Fleischer Brothers worked in opposition to each other, it's not surprising that their mix of styles results in an uneven — and slightly schizoid — look. The drawings are well done, but the material doesn't exactly come together.

Thumbelina is a production of Don Bluth, who also created An American Tail. Years ago, when Bluth and his fellow ani­mators originally bolted from the Mouse Factory, he was very vocal about the declining quality of animation at the Disney Studios. It may be time for Bluth to rethink this notion.

Let's face it, there's no zip to his Thumbelina's zip-a-dee-doo-dah.