A Little Princess (1995)

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This is just a lovely, lovely, movie, visually sumptuous and with a positive message. Sarah is a lovely character who keeps a good attitude regardless and is both charming and kind. The movie is full of beautiful moments.My primary complaints about the film are probably due to its short running time. While I generally support keeping things short, there are times when things are simply unexplained. For example, the movie really needed to show us what the lawyer said to Miss Minchin, because without that explanation, it came across as a highly improbably turn in the narrative put there entirely to propel the story, as opposed to something that is likely to have happened (the book, from what I've read on wikipedia, makes more sense in this regard). Likewise Minchin's final moments are satisfying but highly unrealistic.But I'm okay with that, because the movie has a magical, mythic quality that makes it thoroughly enjoyable.

I hesitated in seeing this film for a very long time. I wasn't aware of it when it was in theaters, and I adored the book so much, and the BBC-produced miniseries starring Amelia Shankley, that I didn't want to ruin my image of the book by seeing a Hollywoodized adaptation, even into my teens. However, I'll try anything once, and the number of fans that it seems to have made me think that it might not be so bad. And it really isn't. Compared to a lot of live- action "family entertainment," which can be obnoxious and formulaic, it's exquisite. The cinematography is lush and warmly lit (perhaps a little too warm, when it comes to depicting Sara's somewhat gloomy life in poverty), and what the studio was able to do with such a small budget is more than some people could do with ten million to spend on a movie- ironic, considering the theme of wealth, or lack thereof. I found myself really warming up to the film's focus on the relationship between Sara and her father as they struggled to carry on in the midst of two very different sets of trials, as well as the emphasis on Sara's childhood in India, such as the "Ramayana" fantasy sequences, and the sitars reverberating alongside the more classical instruments on the soundtrack. The acting was at least passable throughout, though it sometimes veered into community theater-level skill. Even Liesel Matthews gave an endearing performance as Sara- certainly less stoicism and solemnity than the original, but thankfully with none of the dimple-faced pouting of the 1937 Shirley Temple film, which I couldn't stand for more than the first 30 minutes. At least Matthews's Sara is a real storyteller, and has the presence of one, rather than arbitrarily pretending things for her own amusement. The bad news is that, while a significant improvement on the aforementioned Little Princess "adaptation," this movie is nonetheless an Americanized version of a classic British children's novel, and its roots definitely show as a stereotypically Hollywood effort. Namely, since the screenplay resets the story in America- I suppose to make it more relatable to stateside audiences- it also deems it necessary to put "spunk" into a character who is supposed to be tenacious, but reserved, even having her occasionally talk back and pull pranks. Thankfully, this never goes into Home Alone territory, but is very uncharacteristic of someone who strives to behave like a princess. Finally, there is the much-maligned happy ending pulled straight from the Temple version, which I only had a problem with because it was too over-the-top, where most of the time, the movie had the sense to pull back and have an occasional reflective moment.To make a very, very long story short: Not my favorite, has no nostalgia attached to it for me, but I can accept it, and even enjoy it.

I read it to my daughters and now I'm reading it to my granddaughter. Where's Sara? In the book. She's NOT in this film. What a disappointment.The entire POINT of the book is that she thinks of herself as a princess... and it's all about her behavior; nothing else. That's her goal - to behave with dignity, regardless of what happens to her.In the book, she is honest, honorable, brave, and behaves with dignity. Regardless of what happens to her, she does not behave poorly. She does not try to retaliate. In this terrible film, she engages in pranks to get back at those who mistreat her.Horrible. The film is visually beautiful but horrible. Really - read the book to your daughters. Don't visit this awful film on them.

Yes, the film was visually beautiful. Truly. BUT - My issue isn't so much that her father was alive, although I thought they shouldn't have done that. Parents DO die and children are left to deal with it. That is REAL LIFE. However, I like film for escape, so okay - I'll give them a pass on that.My issue is with Sara. The Sara in the book was a MUCH better PERSON than the Sara Crewe in the film. In the film, Sara was spiteful and petty. She retaliated against those who wronged her. The whole POINT of the book was that horrible things happen and life is unfair and just because you are good doesn't mean good things will always happen to you. Unfair crap happens and it's how we RESPOND that matters.In the book, Sara Crewe had dignity and character. She took it on the chin and maintained her personal dignity. I was SO disappointed in the film. I've loved the book for my entire life. To have Sara changed so was a terrific disappointment.Given that the entire point of the book was Sara - who she was and how she handled horrible adversity - I must say I hated this film. I felt they destroyed the character.