Studio: Don Bluth Ireland Limited (Sullivan Bluth Studios)
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Short Synopsis
In the kingdom of the trolls, Stanley is different: he is kind, and with his "green thumb" he can make flowers grow wherever he touches. The evil Queen Gnorga, who hates anything beautiful, banishes him for it to the human world, specifically to the worst place she can imagine, New York City, where he is trapped under a bridge in Central Park. Stanley makes a hidden garden there. A neglected boy, Gus, whose busy parents never have time for him, runs away to the park with his little sister Rosie, and the children find Stanley. He teaches Gus to believe in himself and to stop being afraid of his dreams, and the children help him in return. But Gnorga discovers that Stanley is happy, and comes to New York with her husband King Llort to destroy him and his flowers. She kidnaps Rosie, turns Stanley to stone and fills the park with thorns. Gus, finding the courage Stanley taught him, uses Stanley's power of the green thumb to defeat Gnorga, who is turned into a tiny ball, and Stanley comes back to life. He returns to his garden, and Gus's parents make time for their children.
Why It Matters
- The film has the lush, painterly colour that marked Don Bluth's work, and Dom DeLuise's warm Stanley is a gentle, likeable hero, but the story is slight, and the film is mostly remembered as an example of how far the studio had fallen from its triumphs of the 1980s.
- It was one of the films that ended Bluth's Irish studio. It earned barely $71,000 at the American box office, one of the worst results for any wide-release animated film, and Bluth and Goldman soon moved to 20th Century Fox, where they made Anastasia (1997).
Notes and Trivia
- It was finished in 1992 but sat on the shelf for two years before release.
- Dom DeLuise had also voiced characters in Bluth's All Dogs Go to Heaven and The Secret of NIMH.
- See also: All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993).