A Troll in Central Park

image credit: IMDb

Perhaps one of the most interesting experiences one can do is go back and watch a film from their childhood. This experience can go one of two ways: either the movie stands up and is just as good as you remember, or you realise that you had no taste as a child. This has happened to me on many occasions and there have been so many times when I’ve come away from a film thinking ‘huh I really didn’t mind trash when I was young.’ In fact, I had one of these experiences only last night when I came across A Troll in Central Park on Netflix and decided to indulge in a little nostalgia…

The film tells the story of Stanley, a good troll who is exiled from his home because of his kind nature and his penchant for gardening. Exiled to the mean streets of New York Stanley finds a space underground with the intent of hiding away forever. That changes when a toddler named Rosie and her cynical brother Gus stumble across Stanley’s cave and make friends with him. But as soon as he finds happiness the evil troll queen Gnorga goes on the warpath to hunt Stanley down and make an example of him by turning him to stone.

I can’t remember ever really loving this film as a child, but I definitely remember enjoying it: it being a video we used to rent out all the time. True to a lot of Don Bluth films, A Troll in Central Park is pleasing enough for the kids, but doesn’t offer much for adults. The story is very simple with the character journeys not really going through the proper trials and tribulations to sufficiently grow: they just sort of magically change their ways. The characters themselves are pretty weak, though I’d totally get on Gnorga’s bandwagon if she wasn’t so mean in a family-friendly way, and because there’s no real effort put into the story or the characters it’s very hard to call up any emotional responses -even during the movie’s sad parts.

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Actually, as an adult I found the whole film boring and the characters all really annoying. Stanley’s a wuss, the kids are typical annoying kids, and the villains aren’t pushed far enough because it’s a G-rated film with toddlers being the prime audience. Sadly, it’s a family movie that doesn’t stimulate the entire family. However, I will give it snaps for its message about spreading kindness rather than cynicism, and the fact that this comes from a good troll teaching it to young kids that are already jaded and cynical before the age of ten gives the movie a unique edge in the social commentary department.

Director: Don Bluth, 1994

Cast: Dom DeLuise, Cloris Leachman, Charles Nelson Reilly, Hayley Mills, Phillip Glasser, and Jonathan Pryce