Berkeley Beetle

The Beetle
Background information
Feature films	Thumbelina
Voice	Gilbert Gottfried (speaking) Randy Crenshaw (singing)
Character information
Other names	Beetle
Personality	Timid, brainy, extroverted, emotional, loyal, empathetic, bold, boyish, laid-back, efficient, big-hearted, emotional, kind, efficient, encouraging, courteous, benevolent, exuberant, thoughtful, loyal
Appearance	Thin beetle, light blue skin, mustache, black top hat, suit with a purple interior, carries a gold cane
Occupation	Leader of the Beetle Band Thumbelina's "toots" Grundel Toad's henchmen (briefly)
Alignment	Neutral, possibly later good
Goal	To get his wings back from Grundel (succeeded)
Allies	Thumbelina, Prince Cornelius
Minions	His band
Enemies	Mr. Mole, Grundel
Likes	Women, beautiful women, money, balls
Dislikes	Ugly women, losing his wings, Grundel beating him
Weapons	Cane
Fate	Got new wings and is seen resuming his job during the credits
Quote	"Hiya, toots!" "Once ice cold prince, coming up! Where do you want him?" "Mole? Are you out of your mind? I’m not going down there. Do you know what that guy does to beetles? Do you have any idea what he does? He stuffs them. He stuffs them and he pins them on his walls!"

Berkeley Beetle (also known as Mr. Beetle) is a supporting character in Thumbelina.

Background

Personality

Berkely is somewhat neutral, as he was showing good manners to Thumbelina and he only helps Grundel because the latter often blackmails him. And he is also known as brainy, efficient, reasonable, keen, erudite, laid-back, emotional, roguish, brilliant, eager, extroverted, thoughtful, loyal, encouraging, tenacious, hard-working, egotistical, boastful, easy-going, even-tempered, tidy, lion-hearted and exuberant.

Role in Film

Thumbelina

Beetle courts Thumbelina, as in the original story, and abducts her to a club and disguises her as a bug. However, once the other bugs find her ugly as she is human, he lets the other bugs change his opinion of her and he throws her out. He runs into the toad Grundel, who is tracking her to the last place she was at and blackmails Beetle into working for him. The deal is, they find Cornelius, and if he is dead, then he can help him to find Thumbelina. As a means of bribery and prevention of escape, Grundel rips out the beetle's wings.

As autumn quickly becomes winter, the beetle and his team find Cornelius frozen underwater. When he finds Grundel, he is pleased that the prince is dead. But he still had to find Thumbelina. When he told Grundel about her being forced to marry Mr. Mole, he told Grundel to rescue her but he had to come along. He was terrified at this and pointed out that Mr. Mole kills beetles, stuffs them and pins them to his wall, but he goes along anyway. In the climax, Berkeley tries to catch Thumbelina for Grundel as she leaves the wedding. But when the Fairy Prince arrived - Grundel is enraged that Berkeley failed to kill him and knocks the Beetle out by humorously bashing his head in and battles Cornelius. In the credits, he returned to his normal, pop-star life and grew new wings. He might make amends with Thumbelina and Prince Cornelius and redeemed himself for good.

Gallery

Berkeley with his boss, Grundel

Berkeley's defeat

Trivia

• Gilbert Gottfried, Berkeley Beetle's voice, also did the voice of Iago from Disney's Aladdin. Gottfried is also the only voice actor who played in a Bluth movie to be a one of the panel of Tru TV’s World’s Dumbest.