NARRATOR: In a forest
once grew a beautiful flower.
And from that flower
was born a beautiful and tiny little girl,
who was so small
that she was called Thumbelina.
A large wet toad climbed out of the river
and saw Thumbelina.
What a lovely wife for my son.
[CROAKS ]
Suddenly, the toad grabbed Thumbelina
and carried her off to the river,
where she imprisoned her on a water lily
in the middle of the water.
I will fetch my son.
[CROAKING]
Thumbelina was very frightened and cried.
The fishes heard her and had pity on her.
They decided to help her
by gnawing away the stem of the water lily.
Thumbelina was free.
And soon she was floating
down the river, far away,
where the toad could not reach her.
She is gone.
[FISH LAUGHING]
[CROAKING]
A butterfly came by and
offered to help her.
Thumbelina tied her sash to the butterfly
and was pulled gaily down the stream.
At length, Thumbelina left the river
and climbed out on the land
and said goodbye to the butterfly.
All summer,
Thumbelina played happily by the river.
The beetles helped her.
The birds and the bees sang to her.
And all the animals, the hedgehogs, the
rabbits and the squirrels, played with her.
But summer was ending.
Poor little Thumbelina was cold
and hungry and alone.
And the swallows flew
south to the warm sun.
A field mouse asked her
if she would help her in her house.
She was expecting a visitor
and everything must be clean and tidy.
Soon, something could be heard
scratching at the trap door in the corner.
It was the visitor,
a rich mole who lived deep under the earth,
and who had built a long tunnel
from his house to the field mouse's.
The mole was delighted with Thumbelina
and was anxious to marry her
and take her with him to his house
deep under the earth.
Poor little Thumbelina
was afraid of the mole.
She didn't want to marry him
and live deep in the ground,
away from the sun and the sky and the air.
But the field mouse told
her not to be silly.
She must take the mole's ring
and promise to marry him.
He was rich, he had a large house.
He was a person of importance.
So poor Thumbelina agreed
to marry the mole.
On the day of the wedding,
Thumbelina was allowed to go out
for the last time.
She looked around sadly
and said goodbye to the sun
and goodbye to the sky.
The poor swallow was
too tired to fly any further.
He was all alone and had lost his friends.
Thumbelina spoke to the swallow
and told him about her marriage
and that she was to live under the ground
forevermore.
SWALLOW: Oh, would you fly away with me
to the south, where the sun is?
On my back.
Ready?
So, off they flew, high into the air.
And swooping over the
astonished mole and field mouse,
they headed for the warm sun.
High over the snowy Alps, flying southward.
At last they came to Greece,
where the sun was warm and kindly.
And here the swallow had his nest,
high up in the column of a ruined temple.
But it was too high for Thumbelina
and the swallow carried her down
to a bed of flowers.
From the flowers came the flower spirits
to greet her.
And the loveliest of them all
asked her to dance with him.
The other spirits
brought Thumbelina a pair of wings
and they asked her to join them
and become one of them.
And instead of Thumbelina,
they called her May.
Thumbelina (1954)
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