Sekai Meisaku Douwa: Oyayubi Hime

I stumble upon this on youtube and gave it a watch, an anime movie from the 1970s is really charming

The story is simliar to the book, Thumbelina no bigger then a thumb made friends with the animals during her adventure.

Character designs is made by the late talented Osamu Tezuka. Famous for Kimba the White Lion and the very well known Astro Boy (Mighty Atom) and the backgrounds are just so very beautiful, they feel magical.

I can't say anything bad about it, its just a charming anime movie from the 70s
If you love fairy tales give this a watch.

So the movie itself wouldn't be considered bad but kind of cute and I understand it's mostly for childern (I also enjoy the atmosphere and the style that's why I kept going). The main issue I have with this is how they changed the story. I know adaptations don't always need to stick to the original 1:1. It's just that they completely missed the entire purpose of the story. During her journey Thumbelina is forced by anyone to marry someone and always barely escapes. While the prince is the only one who asks her if she wants to marry him and truly considers her feelings. ... (Which the animated "Thumbelina" version from 1994 captured perfectly. That's why I might feel that version is superior). While in this anime version... well... They also kind of took the whole point of the prince changing her name out of context. Meeting someone for the first time, asking them for their name and then being like: "Nah. Let's change your name." Just NO.

This whole issue is also why the characters are boring, one-dimensional and quite the opposite of what they are supposed to be.

I know you could think that I'm taking this much too serious for such a light-hearted movie but maybe I do (because Hans Christian Andersen is one of my favoirte writers of all time so I'm very critical over his story adaptations).There's actually one animated version of "Thumbelina" which is so lovely (mentioned above). And I know for a fact that animes from this era can do much, much better than this one (story-wise).

Overall not completely a waste of time but there are too many flaws to fully enjoy it.

It seems that during the seventies and eighties, practically every Western fairy tale (particularly those from Hans Cristian Andersen) were ultimately made into an animated movie by the Japanese - and Thumbelina is no exception.

A very light and carefree adaptation of the classic tale, this movie is aimed at a very young audience, where there is almost no real conflict and eventually everyone lives happily ever after. The story is a bit rambling, the artwork and artwork are serviceable, about the only thing that is really notable about this production are the Osamu Tezuka character designs. Not a bad ... movie, but unless you are under the age of six it is unlikely you'll be particularly enchanted.