Obscure Animation: A Troll in Central Park

Hello my fellow animation buffs.  It is time for a game. Name your favorite animated movie.  Now off the top of your head answer this simple piece of trivia that almost everyone about it, name the director.  If your favorite is early Disney, then no.  Walt Disney did not direct any of them.

Directing animated movies gives nowhere near the recognition as live-action movies, and as a result I once checked the director of every film in the Disney animated canon. The only ones where I knew the director were the Musker/Clements movies, that Chris Sanders and someone else did Lilo and Stitch, that Mark Dindal did Emperor’s New Groove, and that Richard Moore did Wreck it Ralph.  Absolutely nobody seems to know that Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale directed Beauty and the Beast or can name the guy who directed The Lion King and then failed at Kingdom Under the Sun.  For Pixar movies you might be able to guess it for Toy Story 1 and 2 or Incredibles and that is probably it.  For Dreamworks you probably just think Katzenberg.

I think their are only three animated movie directors who branded themselves, Myazaki (always the same company and they are the real brand), Ralph Bakshi, and Don Bluth.

Don Bluth directed his 11 movies for MGM, United Artists, Universal, and 20th Century Fox, and he went back and forth between them.  He is the man most responsible for ending the dark age of animation and making animated movies focus on the breakout song.  He made a film that became the highest grossing animated film ever (not counting rereleases, and then his next film made even more money.

He is my favorite director.  I have praised his moves more than anyone else’s movies, since he has influenced me on movies more than anyone.  Without him I never would have got into movies, as the most influential movies in my life are The Land Before Time and All Dogs go to Heaven, 1 and 3 on my personal list as the best animated movies ever, and now it is time to discuss a part of him I normally ignore, his flaws.  He had an amazing start to his career as a director, but he then has a horrible middle with four flops. The biggest was A Troll in Central Park with 0% critical approval rating and it made back less than 1% of its budget at the box office.  Bluth himself hates it.  Time to see where one of my great heroes failed and remind myself not to put him on a pedestal.  This is not going to be fun.

A common saying about Bluth is he always casts Dom Deluise in every movie, when he really cast him in 4/11. This is the last time Don cast Dom, and he then made four more movies making this a bad sign. Time to quit stalling.

I actually really like this opening, and I am seeing many names from Don Bluth films I like such as Stu Krieger, the script doctor for The Land Before Time now being the writer, T.J. Kuenster from All Dogs go to Heaven, and Robert Folk from Rockadoodle (granted I did not like the songs in that movie making that not really a good sign). The animation looks magical and the designs look cool. The opening credits work to the movie’s biggest strength, backgrounds, and it does not draw attention to the greatest weakness, unity of plot.  I heard they made this without a plan hoping it would inspire creativity, but instead it is just way too slow paced and most scenes seem like they are setting up a better movie.

This image of the troll kingdom appears to have a creepy inhuman face and resembles an iron stalagmite surrounded by dead trees setitng up the anti-nature part. i am enjoying this until it shows a sign saying flowers are banned.  I am not a fan of environmentalist media partly because my dad is the biggest environmentalist I know, and he hates it very much.

We get to our possible protagonist, Stanley the troll.  Design wise I think he looks like a punching bag, but he also looks very vulnerable.  He is introduced sneaking illegal flowers into the kingdom and then his house.

I like the flower animation.  The living ones are adorable, and the realistic ones remind me of looking at real planets.  Unfortunately their story and simply helpful personalities are just not compelling.  He then gets greedy for green and accidentally maks a huge flower that gives his underground green market away, resulting in his trial with Queen Gnorga as judge.

She is introduced with a poor song, “The Queen of Mean.” It is overly long and highlights why she is a bad villain, she is evil for evil’s sake and not fun about it like Pete was last review.  She is meant to be taken seriously, yet she is just too cartoonish.  While Stanley has a literal green thumb she has a gray thumb that turns living things into stones and wants to stone him.  Her husband (he is killer from All Dogs go to Heaven in all but design and name) convinces her to instead send him to New York where nothing grows.

Here is how I would change the movie.  Since the villains come to regret and chase down Stanley they look indecisive and short sighted.  I would have made Stanley escape them and found some magic object that transported him to New York and the Queen would later chase him down.

They send him to the one place in New York City with planets everywhere, Central Park.  Did I mention the villains are really stupid?  That is probably an understatement. Thankfully for the plot we then get a good chase scene where Stanley has to flee form everything. It has the irony of him ending up in a salad bowl and almost getting eaten, establishes how small he is, and it establishes that New York is a very dangerous where everything wants him dead.  Even an off colored Charlie Barkin tires to eat him.  Stanley hides in a hole in a bridge and is determined to stay there for life after he sadly rescinds himself to just that area and the small patch of grass he made.  Based on how the film fades there was supposed to be a passage of time. This makes me think that at some point in the plot he was going to become a legendary creature. He is a troll living under a bridge (troll bridge).  Use this.

We are then introduced to our real protagonist Gus voice by Fievel himself, Philip, Glasser.  Since he sounds considerably younger here than he did 6 years ago (the film was finished in 1992) I would have guessed he was voiced by an imitator if not for the credits, but it is Tiger and Fievel reunited.  I relate to him more than I wish, and enjoy watching him.  He gets his heart set on doing X and it makes him very bratty when Y happens, and I had this flaw too.  Don Bluth stated a major flaw of the film was Stanley was not flawed enough, and Gus is flawed.  His plot is that his workaholic parents are dead… They are just workaholics.  Like me Gus has issues when people make and break promises, as they promised to play with him but instead are do work for the whole day.  Bluth almost always gives his characters an object with symbolic value to them, Mrs. Brisby’s stone, Fievel’s hat, Littlefoot’s treestar, or Charlie’s watch.  Gus regularly carries his toy boat, which symbolizes his dream of a fun time.  Gus sneaks out with his toddler sister, Rosie to the park.  There is potential in this story, but again; it is not that interesting and needs a better subplot.

In an overly long scene Rosie finds Stanley and goes down his hideout. Gus, full of big brother instinct, chases her into the hole. Unfortunately for us he is too big and has to make the hole bigger.  Rosie and Stanley play with the plants, and this scene is very slow. The music is repetitive, the visuals are just fine, Rosie and Stanley are not interesting. Stop putting your best character in the background.

After a very boring scene we get to the signature song, “Absolutely Green.” I disliked it the first time, but on a re-watch when I knew the real moral I found myself liking it.  Stanley’s story arc is that he has to learn to fight for his dreams instead of hoping his problems will go away.  Here says exactly what he wants.  In contrast Gus thinks he wants a period of wild fun when he really needs to spend more time with his parents.

We then have an overly long scene of trying to make Rosie stop crying, as Gnorga decides to go to New York in person and stone Stanley.  She then tries to flood them out (not as fun to watch as it sounds), as we then get to the parts where I have some nostalgia for.  My Maw-Maw found this movie on TV at this part where they are on a flying boat due to being inside Stanley’s dream.

By this point a moral about dreams has taken over from the environmentalist moral.  In Stanley’s dream everyone is happily an environmentalist, as he does not support free choice apparently.  When he changes it to Gus’s dream things get more interesting. He is happily steering a boat and fleeing pirates, which panics Stanley.  They then decide the pace has gotten too fast, as they nap.

Do Something!

I have been thinking that all movie.  Stop napping as soon as you have momentum.  Gnorga decides to give us some plot, as she comes in the form of a tornado that wrecks Central Park. Meanwhile Stanley sleeps through the best part of this bad movie.  As a kid I was scared of this next scene, but now I am mixed on.  The music is scary and good.

The backgrounds are great, but…

That is stupid and not scary.  At least it is a suspenseful chase, and this next image really stuck with me all these years.

Granted I remembered some details wrong, as I remembered the voice being more subdued and slow, the camera focusing on Rosie’s face more, and Gnorga’s grip making Rosie’s cheeks swell.  Rosie’s face looks mildly sad, as even she knows Gnorga is not that threatening.  The scene ends With Rosie being captured Gus escaping, and then in horror realizing what happened, and he runs off to save his sister from the supernatural troll proving why he is the most moral character in the movie. On the TV they then cut to a commercial, and I had to leave.  I cannot say for sure if I would have liked the rest as a kid.

 

Gus goes to Stanley for help who refuses in fear, and Gus angrily calls him a coward who will never have a dream come true.  He throws down his boat which cracks, as he leaves to save his sister, and this symbolizes that he has learned what is really important, someone to share a dream with rather than fun. The scene is mostly good except for the flowers gasping when Stanley is called a coward like it is not the truth

There really is a great movie hidden in here and not that deep. The movie is very bad due to its atrocious pacing, mostly poor script, lack of depth on Stanley, Rosie, and villains.  Yet we have a good dynamic between the main two characters, a real sense of dread and helplessness, relatable protagonist, and several good small touches.  That does not mean it is not a one star movie.

The Climax is really up and down. First the idiot villains get distracted allowing the flowers and Gus to break Rosie out.  It is refreshing that the heroes for once has the mooks on his side.  Gnorga gets mad and turns Gus into a troll, which gives him the gray thumb powers.

Some have fairly criticized the decision to give your enemy powers in a fight, but he uses them against useless king, whom she cares nothing for, and it is in her sick mind’s character to do that. For once I like her move. Then it looks down when Stanley runs there, and then pointlessly runs back.  Rosie… just falls off a cliff.  Rosie, are you trying to break the record as most heavy load ever?

Stanley shows up in a giant version of Gus’s boat, which is now flying with two leafs acting as wings.  He saves Rosie and battles Gnorga in a thumb war.

Stanley is clearly winning, yet he then runs off like the coward he still is.  Everything looks fine when they escape in the boat, but apparently Gnorga can control other Trolls’ gray thumbs, and she makes Gus turn Stanley into a troll. Despite the randomness it has some good stuff like Stanley looking more and more horrified and when his statue gets thrown into a trash can.

I guess the effects of the green thumb needed some time,as Gnorga is turned into a plant. Then out of nowhere a tornado sucks the villains up, and Gus is turned back into a human.  In shame of his thumb’s actions he sucks it for a while to the shock of his parents.

Gus somehow gains a green thumb (I presume from giving up his play time to spend time mourning with his family, it is not clear), and he turns Stanley back to a troll.  Stanley then fixes the damage in Central park (good), and…

Does this.

I would give this either a high 1 star or a low 2 star rating.  It is very bad do to several failures in the basics of movies such as pacing, and the concept is just not interesting.  In spite of that there is a lot I like here. It really is a better experience done with the fast forward button, and if the planning I think this could have been a notably good movie.  Unfortunately that did not happen, and this is Bluth’s worst or second worst movie.  Sure it has some good scenes, but my most hated movie ever also brought three smiles to my face.

 

this did make me wonder what movies I do love with a terrible pace, and only 1776 came to mind. It works due to its terrific concept, which this movie lacks.

 

Next time.  It will be on August 1st, as I am busy and want to get some smaller projects finished.  Next movie review will be

A work that show how good Bluth can b…

No, you promised another review all the way back in December.  

On August 1st it is a different example of one of my favorite creators learning from something really bad to give something really good.