Jonathan, a poor but honest lumberjack, lives in the forest with his loving wife Anne. One day, while chopping down a tree, the mystical Forest Queen appears before Jonathan and begs him to spare the tree as it is a home to a family of birds. As selling wood is his livelihood, Jonathan is initially reluctant, but after the Queen demonstrates her magic powers, Jonathan agrees. In gratitude, the Queen tells Jonathan she will grant Jonathan and his wife three wishes. Jonathan races home to tell Anne about the incredible encounter. Unfortunately, Jonathan and Anne accidentally squander the wishes while bickering over dinner. As they turn in for bed that night, they look over the second bedroom of their cottage, which is fully stocked with toys for the child that they dearly wanted but were never able to have. Anne laments their previous squandering of their magic wishes, which they could have used to wish for a child, but Jonathan consoles her that the Forest Queen may yet show them kindness and grant them one more wish. Anne remarks that she would love any child that they would have had "even if he was no bigger than her thumb." Later, they are roused by a soft knocking at the door and find before them a young boy who is literally the size of a thumb, who addresses Jonathan and Anne familiarly as "Father" and "Mother". Anne instinctively knows that the little boy's name is Tom. In the following days, best family friend Woody takes Tom into town where a carnival is being held. Tom is carried off by a balloon up to the top of the nearby castle's treasury tower, where two thieves, Ivan and Antony, are conspiring to steal the gold. They realize that due to his size, Tom will easily be able to slip between the bars of the grill on the treasury roof and trick him into believing that they need the gold to help poor orphans. As a reward for his assistance, Ivan gives Tom a single gold sovereign from the stolen loot. Tom returns home late at night, to find his parents distraught over his disappearance from the carnival. While he sneaks in through the window, he accidentally drops his sovereign into a cake that his mother had been baking. By the next morning, the robbery has been discovered and guards are scouring the countryside searching for the thieves. A unit stops at Jonathan's cottage to ask if he or Anne have seen anyone suspicious in the area. Anne offers the guards some cake and one guard bites into the slice containing the sovereign, instantly recognizing it as part of the stolen treasure. Jonathan and Anne are wrongly accused of theft, arrested and taken away to be flogged in the town square. With his best friend Woody's help, Tom tracks down the real thieves and, thanks to his ability to control animals, especially donkeys and horses, eventually manages to bring them back to the town square, along with their loot, thereby exonerating his parents. Ivan and Antony are arrested and the gold is returned to the treasury. The movie concludes with Woody marrying the already former Forest Queen, whom he has been clumsily romancing throughout the movie.
Cast
Russ Tamblyn as Tom Thumb
Alan Young as Woody
Terry-Thomas as Ivan
Peter Sellers as Antony
June Thorburn as the Forest Queen
Bernard Miles as Jonathan, Tom's Father
Jessie Matthews as Anne, Tom's Mother
Ian Wallace as the Cobbler
Peter Butterworth as Kapellmeister
Peter Bull as the Town Crier
Stan Freberg as Yawning man
Dal McKennon as Con-Fu-Shon
Production
Pal said he had the idea to make a film out of tom thumb in the late 1940s when making Puppetoons for Paramount. He filmed scenes in England in early 1958, taking over every one of the seven sound stages at MGM's London studios, and using two crews. He moved his unit to Los Angeles in April 1958.
Soundtrack
"Tom Thumb's Tune"
"After All These Years"
"Talented Shoes"
"The Yawning Song"
"Are You a Dream"
Reception
Variety wrote, "film is top-drawer, a comic fairy tale with music that stacks up alongside some of the Disney classics"; and Time called it "unusually fresh and appealing; it is kid stuff, but it will probably sell a lot of popcorn to the grownups, too." The film was the 8th most popular movie at the British box office in 1959. According to MGM records the film earned $1,800,000 in the US and Canada and $1,450,000 elsewhere, making a profit of $612,000.
