The Adventures of Tom Thumb & Thumbelina [G] [2002]
Overall movie: 0 (Yep, this is the one)
EJW content: We can only hope Happy Feet will erase it from our memory (major character here, I'm afraid). [Note added November 2006: Thank you, Mumble!]
This is an animated movie, and Elijah provides the voice for Tom Thumb and Jennifer Love Hewitt for Thumbelina. Two things made me initially suspicious: (a) It had its VHS/DVD release on August 6, 2002, but the copyright is 1999. (b) You have to read the fine print to find the "Buena Vista Home Entertainment" name. IMVHO, there's one good reason that (a) it wasn't released until EJW had high name recognition and - coincidentally? - on the very same date a lot of people would be buying another of his movies; (b) the people responsible for it wanted to make that responsibility as inconspicuous as possible. Let's just say I'm now even more grateful to every person and any higher power that had anything to do with Elijah getting cast in LotR, for the simple reason that he'll never have to make another movie like this as long as he lives! And he'd better not!
I honestly was not biased against this movie ahead of time. I knew it was geared toward children ages 3-7 and was prepared to view it in that light; I was really hoping, in fact, that I could give it a good recommendation for children that age. But, alas, it was not to be. IMHO, the songs aren't even "catchy"--there's only one I can imagine a child wanting to sing along with, and its words are too complicated. The movie opens with a prologue that's entirely "tell, don't show." It couldn't hold my attention--I can't imagine a 3 year old being captivated by it.
Judging from the credits, JLH does her character's singing, but EJW doesn't. What about Elijah's acting in this one? Well, he reads the lines fine. That's about all there is for him to do. It's not as if his character actually does a lot or has varied emotions. Thumbelina is the real hero of the movie.
When I first heard about this movie, I wondered how the script would combine not only two completely separate stories, but two completely different types of fairy tales. The answer, I'm afraid, is that it didn't. It was nice to see the mole king pop up in something similar to his traditional Thumbelina role, but I didn't recognize much of anything else from the originals.
The plot is scattered and at times doesn't make sense (something children of its targeted age group can be very good at spotting). The only character I felt any warmth toward was Tom's foster father (voiced by Robert Guillaume--I'd been hoping for a good performance from him and was not disappointed), but even his part of the story is illogical, unless we want children to get the idea that a loving parent will set a child loose in the woods with no preparation when it's time for the child to "grow up."
Please believe me when I say that I wanted to like this movie. And I hate to put one of Elijah's recent efforts at the bottom of his list of films (God willing, it will always hold that position). But I really don't feel I have a choice. Even counting North and Paradise, this is the only one of EJW's movies that I've actually felt was bad.
If you just have to see for yourself:
