A Troll in Central Park
From The Film Guide
A Troll in Central Park is an animated movie directed By Don Bluth. It was released September 8, 1989 by United Artists and Goldcrest.
The film features the voice talents of Dom DeLuise as Stanley, Phillip Glasser as Gus, Tawny Sunshine Glover as Rosie, Cloris Leachman as Queen Gnorga, Hayley Mills as Hilary, Jonathan Pryce as Alan and Charles Nelson Reilly as King Llort.
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[edit] End Credits
A DON BLUTH FILM
PRODUCED BY SULLIVAN BLUTH STUDIOS IRELAND LTD.
[edit] Plot
Stanley is a kindhearted troll with a magic green thumb that can create flowers with a mere touch. In the Kingdom of Trolls, all beauty is strictly forbidden and trolls are required to be mean and ugly and to scare humans whenever possible. As a result, Stanley hides all the flowers he finds or grows from the other trolls.
When Gnorga, the Queen of Trolls, discovers Stanley's secret, she banishes him to Manhattan to live a life proper for a troll. Stanley lands in Central Park, and proceeds to hide himself away from the world.
Two children, Gus and his baby sister Rosie, accidentally find Stanley hidden under the bridge in Central Park, and he befriends them; eventually carrying them in a dreamboat through the utopia he hopes to create. After Gnorga discovers he is in Central Park surrounded by beauty and happiness, she follows him there to make sure her punishment is carried out properly. She kidnaps the children. Although he is afraid to face Gnorga, Stanley ultimately engages her in a contest of wills, wherein Gnorga is changed into a rosebush and sent home unhappy. During her transformation, Gnorga changes Stanley into a stone figure of himself, only to be swept away by the undoing of her own spells.
Gus and Rosie, heartbroken, return Stanley to the destroyed park and leave his forlorn image on a tree-stump. Gus's right thumb momentarily glows green, and he uses it to revive Stanley. Restored to life, the troll covers New York City with his garden.
[edit] Trivia
- The film was referenced (and channeled) in an infamous Saturday Night Live sketch with Alec Baldwin as Charles Nelson Reilly being interviewed by James Lipton (Will Ferrell) on Inside the Actors Studio.
- Some years later, Twentieth Century Fox bought the rights to A Troll in Central Park. It is now labeled, instead of Warner Bros., as the film's distributor.
