Berkeley Beetle is the (possibly former) secondary antagonist in Thumbelina, though he is somewhat a neutral character, as he is first showing good manners to the heroine and he only helps Grundel Toad because the latter often blackmails him.
Background[]
Physical Appearance[]
Personality[]
Berkely is somewhat neutral, as he was showing good manners to Thumbelina and he only helps Grundel because the latter often blackmails him.
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, popstar life and got his wings back. It was most likely that Berkeley Beetle reformed and join Thumbelina, Prince Cornelius and the good side for good.
