A Troll in Central Park
A Troll in Central Park
G | 07 October 1994 (USA)
A Troll in Central Park Trailers

A friendly troll with a magic green thumb grows one flower too many for the queen, whose laws require all trolls to be mean ugly and scare humans whenever possible. As a punishment, he is exiled to a world of concrete, where he should live a life of proper trolldom: Manhattan.

Reviews
Hellen

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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GamerTab

That was an excellent one.

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Phonearl

Good start, but then it gets ruined

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CrawlerChunky

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

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Elevator Music

In the starry sky of the history of animation, Don Bluth stars as one of the greatest directors to ever grace with his works. He achieved the record for the highest-grossing animated film outside Disney not once, but three times (An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Anastasia).It is said that Don Bluth was the sole major factor that turned Disney to re-organize their strategies, make "The Little Mermaid", and ultimately lead to the Renaissance Age Of Animation.But sadly, now that Disney was awaken again, Don Bluth was overwhelmed with the competition against them. The issue is complex and I will explain it in my upcoming review of "The Pebble And The Penguin", which was the following Don Bluth film.Now, I will talk about "A Troll In Central Park".Well the technical features are high-quality, one of the things that Don Bluth kept in all his filmography no matter if his films were bad. The film has a colorful, contrasting, lavish animation, one of the things Don Bluth never compromised. It even has that style of the '30s-'40s (Snow White, Pinocchio, etc. ) feature films and short cartoons in the gestures and mannerisms of characters. Rotoscoping, employed in the children's parents, is also a nice thing to watch.The music also saves what otherwise would be a forgettable film. "Gnorga The Queen Of Mean" surprises the public with the sudden modernity of a Pop rock tune like those of the '80s and '90s (why is it that most of the times, the villains have the best songs in a film?). "Absolutely Green" is a poignant song of the kind that makes your eyes watery, complete with a children choir. The fact that is played in two powerful, nicely executed moments in the films surely will make, at least, the youngest of the children cry. Also the background music, just like the animation, is employed here just like Dumbo and other films of the early Disney era.Now, it is when you start analyzing the human features that the film starts showing its lacks... Tiger and Fievel had an excellent chemistry going on in "An American Tail"... but it's hard to tell why the same voice actors (playing Stanley and Gus, respectively) didn't work as well here. Gnorga has the absolutely best performance of all the film, with an outstanding job of Cloris Leachman in a rather weird role, who clearly enjoys being so hammy and troll-like. Llort is the other performance that passes the exam, although Gnorga wins all the awards by far. As an Argentine I tried to find the dub for this film, but it was never screened in Latin America so only the Spanish dub from Spain was made. I watched the Spanish dub and then the original English. I liked the original one for the voices of Stanley, the kids and their parents, but the Spanish dub is way better for the voices of Gnorga and Llort. Wow, even the Gnorga's song is upgraded from their pretty simple original lyrics and adds way more vocabulary and intricate things!Now, about the story... well, it's hard to call this a "story". And mind you, I'm a Don Bluth fan but even I admit this film failures. The film has many scenes and passages that seem shallow and simply don't go nowhere, plot-wise, such as Gus and Rosie playing in the park with balloons, boats or butterflies. The musical number of the flowers to cheer Rosie, in another passage, also qualifies. All these scenes make the film seem more like an "anecdote" of the children stroll in the park, but then again, this method can still be done well. Miyazaki proved in "My Neighbor Totoro" that you don't have to have a plot-driven, rather "Western-style" kind of storytelling, but also you can go in another way, with a rather "anecdote" or "trip" kind of story. But you don't see in "A Troll In Central Park" the gracefulness in which Miyazaki could present those kind of stories.The film also seems to lack more soul, "Rock-a-Doodle" and "Thumbelina" are also among the failures of Don Bluth, but it was their loads and loads of characters that helped to give more substance and charm to the films. Here you have too few characters, in a film with many claustrophobic sceneries (a dark kingdom, an underground cave, barren lands...)And when all is said and done, you have to look up to the info and find that this film budget was of $23.5 million, but only made $71,368... no words. This was one of the lowest grossing films of all time, one of the most notable box-office bombs (though not the greatest bomb of Don Bluth)So, even with the animation, the music, and Gnorga to redeem the film and lift the rating, this is such a poorly executed, so underwhelming film, with so many fails and lacks, and such a failure for costing $23.5 million and only making 71 thousand dollars, that I will rate it 3/10. The reason I'm not rating this 1/10 is because of the aforementioned lifting factors.But luckily, even if this is the worst Don Bluth film, both critically and financially, "A Troll In Central Park" will never be among the 10 worst animated films of all time, not even among the 20 worst ever... for Don Bluth, even in the misery and the mediocrity, still had his signature charm and willpower that made him one day leave Disney, and start an animation studio of his own.

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Gavin Cresswell (gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297)

Overall, I don't think this is Don Bluth's worst film, but it's just an unfocused mess in the animation industry. The story has some motivational lessons at first, but the first forty minutes had little to do with it until the climax, the characters are completely uninteresting especially the villain who came across as generic, there are some cutesy filler that got on my nerves, and despite it's beautiful music score, the songs themselves are really forgettable. Granted, the animation is beautiful with lots of nice backgrounds and good character designs and the voice acting is excellent, but those two flaws are outweighed by the flaws that I've already stated.I've seen Bluth's better films, but this one, although not the worst, is a terrible movie. Unless you have kids who would like to watch something nowadays, fans of Bluth would most likely to avoid this at all costs.

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Ric

This movie suffers the most attacks among Don Bluth's films, and it's not hard to see why. A Troll in Central Park is childish, short, and, well, flowery. But at the same time, there's a charm to it, a sense sincerity, even inspiration, that pays off in the end. Tots movies are often filled mindlessly with clichés and treacle, but Bluth, a passionate animator, was never one to resign himself to that.The settings are a kingdom of trolls, where bad=good and vice versa, and New York city. The main character is Stanley, apparently the only good troll, who can magically grow things with his literally green thumb. He's caught growing flowers and taken to the Oscar the Grouch gone extreme villain, queen Gnorga, who sends him to a place where nothing grows; New York City. But he lands in central park, where he meets the cute toddler named Rosie and her older brother Gus, who's sorta wild. Thus the (short) plot is set in motion, with Stanley entertaining his two new friends and Gnorga deciding to just finish him off.There are a couple scenes, such as the trip on Stanley's boat that's made of "a dream", that can be a little intriguing. And the songs are surprisingly memorable. Gnorga's "Queen of Mean" has a nice beat to it, and manages to ride out her "terrible is wonderful" gag for just over two minutes with some amusing images. And Stanley's twice sung "Absolutely Green" is warm and bright. While a basic description would probably make one think "syrupy clichés", the song as a whole actually seems inspired. And when coupled with the animation of the scenes, there's little question of its sincerity. (The idea made me think "John Lennon's 'Imagine' for young kids".) But that doesn't mean it's not flawed. Sometimes it's too cutesy, mainly with Rosie, and at times it overextends the ho-hum comedy, as with Gnorga's comic relief sidekick, King Lort. It isn't breathtakingly exciting, despite some engaging moments, and there's not much beyond the environmental stance that reaches out to older viewers. I wouldn't call any of the characters deep either, except maybe Gus and Stanley. And while the climax (stepping up the intensity a bit to become a little creepy) and ending were good, the very last bit went too far with New York City itself. (I prefer to think of it as a vision, rather than what actually happens.)Overall it's a decent, worthwhile kids movie. So if you need a film to watch with kindergarteners, give it a chance. It may charm you more than you care to admit. But if I'm wrong, I'm still glad there's a movie for those seven and under that treats its audience like children, not morons.

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ultrarobbie-1

A Great Family Movie. When I was a kid, I Always watched this movie. Stanley is a troll, but he is different from the others. He is Kind. He and his two new friends Rosie and Gus must defeat the Evil Troll Gnorga. The movie is Very well drawn, and the story is just very entertaining, and does spread a good message about having a Greener World. I would recommend this to all young ages, as it is a great tale and is a Must see, but may not be that appealing to older audiences. The characters are Great. Gnorga is Evil, and a great Enemy, and Stanley is a perfect Mood Uplifter, and Gnorga's Husband King Llort is really a kind Troll, but acts evil around her and is treated badly by her. Although some parts of the movie can be a bit scary for younger audiences, the movie is perfect for all.

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