The Odd Life of Timothy Green

With all the emphasis on fairy tale film retellings like Mirror, Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Jack the Giant Killer, Maleficent etc there's one fairy tale inspired movie that may have slipped past your radar.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green definitely has echoes of Tom Thumb, the main difference being that Timothy/Tom grows to normal boy proportions so the focus of the story becomes different (ie not all about a miniature person in a world of giants), though his appearance is just as magical.

The official synopsis is as follows:

Cindy Green and Jim Green, a childless couple, become frustrated with their inability to conceive, so one night they dream up their ideal offspring and write the child's characteristics and life events on pieces of paper, including "scoring the winning goal." The couple places the notes in a box and buries them in their backyard. After a stormy night in Stanleyville, a 10-year-old arrives at their doorstep, claiming the Greens as his own. Soon they realize that the child, named Timothy, is far more special than they originally thought.

Sounds a little yawn-worthy but I'd be very surprised if there wasn't more to this movie than first meets the eye (just like Timothy Green). The movie was originally the idea of Ahmet Zappa (who is the multi-talented son of Frank Zappa and has a long association with Disney in various capacities) and the script was written by Peter Hedges (About A Boy, Dan In Real Life, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?).

Here's the trailer:


This is a Disney movie and was in production well before the edgy side of fairy tales became vogue again but it's clear that this film's theme focuses on things that aren't as they appear to be (and is PG) , so we may be surprised beyond the normal family fare one might expect. Overall the images released for the film so far are almost all of idyllic family photo ops but clearly that wouldn't sustain an entire movie so I'm wondering what we're not seeing. The additional colorful images I've found below (also shown in the trailer) certainly hint at more other-worldliness to come.

There hasn't been a lot of buzz about it to date, at least not since the poster was first released, and I'm curious to see how it will be marketed for a summer release now the tide of public interest has shifted toward fairy tales that show their shadows.

The Odd Life of Timothy Green is due for release on August 15, 2012.