Reviews

I have a special taste for movies from the late '60's and early '70's, and this is becoming one of my favorites. The sets, and the artworks in them, are beautiful. The scenes are genuinely creepy with great use of editing. The story is narrated and reminds me of an H.P. Lovecraft tale. There is a bit of scenery chewing in the acting, but I can overlook that in light of the other things about the film that I love. It's amazing that the screenwriter for this movie went on to write such big blockbusters as American Graffiti and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He should have stuck to this arty stuff instead, but I guess there was less interest in this sort of film after the psychedelic era ended. (A shame, in every sense.)

There's no mystery or suspense in this film at all, the characters are utterly vapid, and Ye Gods! but the music has to be the worst I have EVER heard in a film. The guy who is somehow supposed to come off as an attractive psycho is ugly as sin...It's hard to believe this movie was ever even released in VHS. It seems as though it may have been scriptless. I highly suggest watching the Rifftrax version of this, if you want to see it at all - it's the only way it will be tolerable. Very, very cheesy ending, too. (Note: The above reviewer who calls the female lead 'plump' must be hallucinating - she is just another anorexic looking 80's chick!)

Anything made in the late '60s or early '70s is not necessarily 'psychedelic' and this is coming from an expert. I found it charming for its amateur quality and anyone who knows certain aspects of the Thumbelina story, particularly certain terminology related to her origin, the case could be made that if she seems 'psychedelic' it's because of that.

Those who know the story and anything about what the first generation of hippies were called will know exactly what I mean.

The only downside here is that it was obviously created as some sort of advert for a defunct Florida amusement park and that interferes with the framing of the film. It was later made into part of an even more confusing "Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny".

I'm the sort of person who enjoys a certain sort of amateurishness in movies, so your mileage may obviously differ. As to potential for giving kids nightmares, there's nothing violent at all here. NOTHING.