Madeline (1998)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

I saw it when I was 8 or so, more than once I believe since I remember it perfectly (around 10 years ago) and I can say that this was a great movie, with a great message, movies like that are missing these days. Sometimes I'm just sorry for some films supposedly "for children" but with plots or a storyline that I think are an insult to their intelligence."Madeline" was an innocent, simple and funny movie that I really enjoyed and highly recommend to families, reminded me of "Matilda". I can't wait to see it again when I have kids....I didn't see that little girl (Hatty Jones) in any other movie which I think is very sad for child actors, but Frances MacDormand is very funny.

I remember seeing this when I used to go to a children's club, we always had a film time, and I guess I just I wanted to watch it again to remember how lame and kiddie it was. Basically Miss Clavel (Fargo's Frances McDormand) is the head-mistress nun who looks after twelve children at the orphanage in France, and the youngest, smallest and at many times most troublesome is red-headed, parent-less and fantastic problem solver Madeline (introducing Hatty Jones). Every moment of this film sees Madeline getting into quite a few situations, and she proves that she has hardly any fear, and she can stand up for herself in front of the grown-ups, especially Lord Covington, aka Lord Cuckoohead (The Madness of King George's Nigel Hawthorne), who is trying to sell the school/orphanage. Also starring Ben Daniels as Leopold the Tutor and Stéphane Audran as Lady Covington. Think Annie (which I absolutely detest) meets Home Alone (a very good family comedy), and that is pretty much the film in a nut-shell, Jones is cuter than Aileen Quinn was, but I suppose the most watchable character for adults is McDormand, a good once-in-a-while (or just once, period) family film. Okay!

The cartoon series are good but not as good as the movie that is life action and also makes you think how it feels having no blood related family and you have to live in an Orphanage even though it is sort of good fun. Madeline is a orphan that lives in an orphanage and the owner is dead,so the owners sister decides to look after the Orphanage and her big brother in law wants to sell the Orphanage.I just loved this version of Madeline, with the inimitable Frances McDormand and Nigel Hawthorne. Funny, attractive movie that is lively enough for adults to enjoy as well as just children.Madeline:Good Morning Cucu face. Lord Covington: What did you call me?

The fixation with turning any old cartoon or TV series into a contemporary movie continues with this adaptation of the classic chidren's stories and cartoons. So much care and attention has been lavished on getting absolutely everything right that you can't help but think to yourself, why did they bother? Sure, it's reasonably pleasant while it's on, and overwhelmingly inoffensive, but do we actually gain much from having a 1998 live action version of Madeline? What does it add exactly?At least Frances McDormand gets to dabble a little in gentle comedy. Nigel Hawthorne wanders in and out only long enough to pick up his paycheque. However, in one all-too-brief scene Stephane Audran shows how it should be done. Little Hatty Jones is charm itself as Madeline, engaging in various misadventures that lack the urgency of most other kiddie movies, and almost certainly the same level of violence.It's a film about 9 year old girls. And because of its inoffensive nature in all areas, that's precisely who's going to like it the most.