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Stanley is the titular protagonist of A Troll in Central Park. He is a good-natured and timid little troll who literally has a green thumb that can grow flowers, something that he, unlike any other troll, really loves. He was voiced by the late Dom DeLuise.

Background[]

He is a lover of all Nature, and good and honest things, but others don't see that, He has been given a great gift, a green thumb that can grow plants, and do all sorts of magic, he has been in fear of the queen for years, but gain the courage from his friends and from his beliefs.

Role in Film[]

The film begins in a "Kingdom of Trolls", where Stanley (Dom DeLuise) has a magical green thumb producing beautiful flowers at a touch. When he is discovered doing so, the other trolls take him as 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 King Llort (Charles Nelson Reilly), Gnorga instead banishes Stanley to Central Park where, after a series of mishaps, Stanley hides under a bridge.

In Manhattan, two children named Gus and Rosie (Phillip Glasser and Tawny Sunshine Glover) learn that their father Alan (Jonathan Pryce) and mother Hilary (Hayley Mills) cannot take them to Central Park; whereupon, left alone, Gus takes Rosie to the Park himself. While playing with Gus's toy boat, Rosie befriends Stanley. When Queen Gnorga discovers Stanley happy in exile, she creates a flood, through Gus, to drown all three; but Stanley enlarges Gus's toy boat to escape, and shows the children his own ideals, depicted 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, himself faces Gnorga. 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 an advantage, places roses on Gnorga's body. As Stanley, Gus, and Rosie escape, Gnorga uses Gus to turn Stanley to 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, Stanley recreates Central Park and covers Manhattan with flowering plants. In the Kingdom of Trolls, Llort takes Gnorga's place as a kinder ruler.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Stanley is the third Don Bluth protagonist to not have a love interest after Banjo the Woodpile Cat.
  • Buddy Hackett was considered to voice Stanley.
  • Stanley’s voice actor, Dom DeLuise, also voiced Jeremy Crow from The Secret of NIMH, Tiger, from An American Tail, Fagin from Oliver and Company and Itchy from All Dogs Go to Heaven. Like the aforementioned three characters, he is the primary comic-relief character of his movie.
  • Bluth originally wanted Stanley to have a darker side that he was struggling with.
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