A Troll in Central Park

A Troll in Central Park
Theatrical release poster by John Alvin.
Directed by	Don Bluth Gary Goldman
Written by	Stu Krieger
Produced by	John Pomeroy Don Bluth Gary Goldman
Starring	Dom DeLuise Cloris Leachman Charles Nelson Reilly Phillip Glasser Tawny Sunshine Glover
Edited by	Fiona Trayler
Music by	Robert Folk
Production company	Don Bluth Ireland Ltd.
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	October 7, 1994 (1994-10-07)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$71,368

A Troll in Central Park (released in some countries as Stanley's Magic Garden) is a 1994 American animated musical fantasy-comedy film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, creators of Rock-a-Doodle, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Secret of NIMH and An American Tail. It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label on October 7, 1994. The film grossed $71,368 at the North American box office.

The film features the voice talents of Dom DeLuise as Stanley, Cloris Leachman as Queen Gnorga, Charles Nelson Reilly as King Llort, Phillip Glasser as Gus, Tawny Sunshine Glover as Rosie, Hayley Mills as Hilary and Jonathan Pryce as Alan. It is the last Don Bluth film to star Dom DeLuise.

Plot

Stanley is a troll who has a magical green thumb with the ability to bring flowers and plants to life at a touch, which is forbidden in his home, the Kingdom of Trolls. When he is discovered doing so, the other trolls take him as prisoner to Gnorga, 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 King Llort, Gnorga instead banishes Stanley to Central Park where, after a series of mishaps, Stanley hides himself under a bridge.

In New York City, two young siblings named Gus and Rosie learn that their parents cannot take them to Central Park. While left alone with their nanny, Maria, Gus takes Rosie to the Park himself. While playing with Gus's toy boat, which is later accidentally smashed, Rosie befriends Stanley. When Gnorga discovers Stanley happy in exile, she creates a flood to drown them by making Gus cry, but Stanley enlarges Gus's toy boat to escape. Soon after, Stanley shows the children his own ideals, depicted as a world of his own.

Determined to suppress Stanley, Gnorga sends a tornado to destroy Central Park and kidnaps Rosie. After failing to persuade Stanley to help, Gus faces Gnorga by himself. In the resulting fight, Gnorga transforms Gus into a troll. Stanley suddenly appears to rescue Rosie and challenges Gnorga to a thumb-wrestling match. Stanley manages to win and plants roses all around Gnorga's body. As Stanley, Gus, and Rosie escape and celebrate their victory, Gnorga uses Gus's thumb to turn Stanley to stone. 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 visit Central Park, where Gus and Rosie place the petrified Stanley on a makeshift pedestal. Gus attempts to revive him and appears to fail. They find him revived after a moment's pause. Restored to life, Stanley recreates Central Park and covers the entire city of Manhattan in vegetation and flowers.

Cast

• Dom DeLuise as Stanley
• Cloris Leachman as Gnorga
• Charles Nelson Reilly as Llort
• Phillip Glasser as Gus
• Tawny Sunshine Glover as Rosie
• Jonathan Pryce as Alan
• Hayley Mills as Hillary
• Neil Ross as Generic Pansy
• Will Ryan as Boss, Guard
• Pat Musick as Snuffy

Production

Work on A Troll in Central Park began in 1990, following the near completion of Rock-a-Doodle. Buddy Hackett and Robert Morley recorded their voices for Stanley and King Llort, but were eventually replaced by Dom DeLuise and Charles Nelson Reilly. Even though the film was completed in 1992, it was not released in theaters until 1994. At that time, the film was originally slated for a March 1994 release, but due to production difficulties and the producers deciding to release Thumbelina first, the film's release date was changed to October 7, 1994.

Soundtrack

A Troll in Central Park
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	February 14, 2012
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	64:27
Label	Intrada Records
Producer	Robert Folk
Don Bluth Music of Films chronology
Thumbelina (1994) A Troll in Central Park (1994) The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)

The music for A Troll in Central Park was composed and conducted by Robert Folk, who previously provided the soundtrack for Rock-a-Doodle (1991), and was performed by the Irish Film Orchestra. Although a commercial soundtrack was not released alongside the film in 1994, a limited edition CD containing 15 tracks from the movie was made available on February 12, 2012, by Intrada Records as part of their Intrada Special Collection. The tracks were taken from the original digital session masters, with three songs ultimately omitted due to being permanently wedded to sound effects and dialogue from the film.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $71,368 in North America. It was Don Bluth's lowest-grossing film to date, though not his film to lose the most money overall. Gary Goldman has said the reason for this was that the film was released without any sign of promotion and its release was limited. He also stated that its distributor Warner Bros. did not have any confidence in the film.

Critical reception

A Troll in Central Park holds an approval rating of 17% with an average of 3.6 out of 10 based on six reviews from Rotten Tomatoes. TV Guide gave the movie two out of five stars and felt that the film's appeal was very age-limited, calling it "Pastel-pretty and cloyingly sweet," and that "A Troll in Central Park is strictly for the youngest members of the moviegoing audience." The A.V. Club wrote that A Troll in Central Park is "widely considered to be [Don Bluth's] worst film."

In the July 2001 issue of his magazine ToonTalk, Don Bluth said that "the development of a story is like the development of a child in a womb; it takes time and it must be done right and building A Troll in Central Park, taught us this lesson, the hard way."

Home media releases

On January 10, 1995, Warner Home Video released A Troll in Central Park on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States and Canada. In the UK, the movie was released on VHS under the title Stanley's Magic Garden. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film on DVD for the first time on February 19, 2002. Currently, a Blu-ray version of the film has yet to be announced. The film is not part of Warner Archive Collection.

External links

• A Troll in Central Park at IMDb
• Template:Bcdb title
• A Troll in Central Park at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Troll in Central Park at AllMovie
• A Troll in Central Park at Box Office Mojo