A Troll in Central Park

A Troll in Central Park
DVD cover for the film
Directed by	Don Bluth Gary Goldman
Produced by	John Pomeroy Don Bluth Gary Goldman
Written by	Stu Krieger
Starring	Dom DeLuise Phillip Glasser Tawny Sunshine Glover Cloris Leachman Charles Nelson Reilly
Music by	Songs: Robert Folk Barry Mann Norman Gimbel (lyrics) Cynthia Weil (lyrics) Score: Robert Folk
Editing by	Fiona Trayler
Studio	Don Bluth Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (theatrical) Warner Home Video (VHS) 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (DVD)
Release date(s)	October 7, 1994
Running time	76 min.
Country	United States ‹See Tfd› Ireland
Language	English
Budget	$23.5 million (estimated)
Box office	$71,368

A Troll in Central Park (also known as Stanley's Magic Garden) is a 1994 animated fantasy film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, creators of Thumbelina, The Land Before Time, and An American Tail. It was released on October 7, 1994 by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment.

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. It is the last Don Bluth film to star Dom DeLuise. The film did very poorly at the box office, failing to even earn back 1% of its budget, and was widely panned by critics.

Plot

The story begins in an area known as the "Kingdom of Trolls", where a troll named Stanley (Dom DeLuise) resides. Stanley has a magical green thumb producing beautiful flowers at a touch. When he is discovered doing so, the other trolls take him a prisoner to Gnorga (Cloris Leachman), the Queen of the Trolls, who concludes that Stanley "[gives] a bad name to trolls everywhere" and demands that he be turned to stone. At the behest of her consort, Llort (Charles Nelson Reilly), Gnorga instead banishes Stanley to Central Park; where after a series of mishaps in New York, Stanley hides himself under a bridge.

In Manhattan, two children named Gus and Rosie (Phillip Glasser and Tawny Sunshine Glover) learn that their father (Jonathan Pryce) and mother (Hayley Mills) are busy and cannot take them to Central Park; whereupon, being left alone, Gus takes Rosie to the Park himself. While playing with Gus's toy boat, Rosie discovers Stanley, and befriends him. When Queen Gnorga discovers that Stanley is happy in exile, she causes Gus to cry a raging sea to drown them all; but Stanley changes Gus's toy into a larger boat wherein to escape, and therein shows the children a vision of his own ideals, manifest as a world of his own.

Determined to suppress Stanley, Queen Gnorga sends a tornado to destroy Central Park, and seizes Rosie; whereupon Gus, having failed to persuade Stanley's help, goes to face Gnorga and rescue Rosie from her. In the resulting fight Gnorga changes Gus into a troll, while Stanley rescues Rosie. Having arrived, Stanley challenges Gnorga to a thumb-wrestling match, which when Stanley gains advantage places roses on Gnorga's body. As Stanley, Gus, and Rosie escape, Gnorga uses Gus to turn Stanley into stone; whereupon Gus and Rosie fall into their apartment and the last of Stanley's power changes Gnorga into a rose bush. Gnorga, Llort, and their dog then return to the Kingdom of Trolls, while Gus returns to his human form. The next day, Gus, Rosie, and their parents enter Central Park, where Gus and Rosie place the petrified Stanley on a makeshift pedestal, and attempt to revive him without apparent effect; only to find him revived after a moment's pause. Restored to life, the troll recreates Central Park and covers Manhattan with flowering plants. In the Kingdom of Trolls, Llort takes Gnorga's place as ruler.

Cast

• Dom DeLuise as Stanley
• Phillip Glasser as Gus
• Tawny Sunshine Glover as Rosie
• Cloris Leachman as Gnorga
• Charles Nelson Reilly as Llort
• Jonathan Pryce as Alan
• Hayley Mills as Hillary

Production

When production began in 1990, Don Bluth said to his animators that they should put their best in this film, but if they don't, they can plant themselves in another garden. A while after he said that, some animators left to work at Disney on Beauty and the Beast.

Buddy Hackett and Robert Morley recorded their voices for Stanley and King Llort, but were eventually replaced by Dom DeLuise and Charles Nelson Reilly.

Reception

The film met with extremely poor performance at the box-office, only grossing $71,368 domestically (with a budget of $23 million it grossed less than 0.33% of its budget), making it not only Don Bluth's lowest-grossing film to date (though not his film to lose the most money overall), but one of the lowest grossing films ever to be released by a major studio. Gary Goldman has said the reason for this was because the film was released without any sign of promotion and release was limited. He also stated that its distributor Warner Bros. did not have any confidence in the film.

The film was widely panned by critics. It currently has score of 0% at Rotten Tomatoes based on five reviews. The film's score among the website community is higher, at 49%.

References in other media

In a comedy sketch in a 2001 episode of Saturday Night Live, Alec Baldwin played Charles Nelson Reilly in a parody of the show Inside the Actor's Studio. During the course of the sketch, host James Lipton (as played by Will Ferrell) comments on how he loved A Troll in Central Park — he says watching it "is like looking into the face of God and seeing him smiling back, saying: 'You are my most wondrous creation'" — and asks if he can "speak to King Llort". Reilly accommodates by holding index cards to his ears and saying: "Well, hello, James Lipton! I'm King Llort! There's a troll in Central Park! I'm King Llort!".

See also

• List of animated films

External links

• A Troll in Central Park at the Internet Movie Database
• A Troll in Central Park at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Troll in Central Park at AllRovi
• A Troll in Central Park at Box Office Mojo