Däumlienchen (1954) - full transcript

NARRATOR: ln 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.

l will fetch my son.

(CROAKlNG)

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.

(FlSH LAUGHlNG)

(CROAKlNG)

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.

lt 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.