Lantern Hill (1990)

Lantern Hill is based on the novel Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery, the same author who wrote Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon. The movie was produced by Sullivan Entertainment, like Anne was, and just like Anne, this movie is a great find. I'm actually surprised I hadn't heard of it before acquiring it by chance and watching it. It really is very good.

The story follows a girl named Jane who lives in Toronto with her mother in the early 1900's. Her mother comes down with a serious illness however and Jane is forced to leave her middle class home to move in with her very wealthy grandmother while her mother recovers. Jane doesn't fit in very well here and, much to her grandmother's horror, would much rather spend her time in the kitchen or doing housework than socializing with other girls from elite families. She is also frequently bullied by her cousin who one day tells her that her father, whom she was told passed away, is alive. Her grandmother receives a letter soon after that from her father, requesting that Jane comes to live with him for a time in Prince Edward Island. Fearful of legal issues that could arise, her grandmother has no choice but to send her away. Jane of course goes along and, like many heroines in LMM books we get the sense that she isn't really wanted or needed (unlike many heroines though she does have both parents alive). Jane arrives and is picked up by her father's sister, who Jane seems not to gel with immediately. Jane meets her father, who is a writer, and he's a scatter brained person with a big dog and a house by the sea on Lantern Hill. At first she feels just as ostracized and out or place as she did back in Toronto, but as her relationship with her father gets a little better and she slowly settles into island life she feels happy. She also finds out that there is a potential woman in her father's life now, but he has never remarried since her mother. Jane of course wants her parents to reunite.

This movie is fantastic. It has the same level of production as Anne of Green Gables, but the story and character types are different so it has a different feel to it. Jane is a really great heroine. She's a good heroine because even though she loves doing domestic things (unpopular even today as something a woman should aspire to or even enjoy in some circles) she doesn't give in to the situations she's thrust into. She isn't very vocal about what she wants, but she stubbornly stays true to herself.

Also, a young Sarah Polley has a role in the film as a young scullery maid who befriends Jane. As fans may know, Sarah Polley stars in another successful Sullivan production called Road to Avonlea, which is a series featuring the town Anne was a part of, though she's not in the show at all.

The Gypsy Princess by Phoebe Gilman

This is a cute story about a little gypsy named Cinnamon who is free-spirited and fun. She can play musical instruments and dance with bears, but what Cinnamon has always wanted is to see what it's like to be a real princess. One day her wish is answered when a princess comes to get her fortune told by Cinnamon. The princess is so entertained by Cinnamon that she invites her to come live in the palace. Cinnamon goes to live at the palace obviously and delights in the fancy dresses and parties, but after a while she starts to feel sad and misses the freedom she had as a gypsy. The princess soon tires of her and gets new companions and the gypsy girl starts to feel very homesick. So one day instead of letting the maid dress and fuss over her, she leaves the palace in search of her home. She finds the bear she used to dance with and takes down her hair hoping he'll recognize her, and of course he does and they begin to dance.

This is a great story for young girls because, especially for the 'girly' girls, being a princess is such a big deal. They dress up as princesses, obsess over Disney princesses, and want so badly to be a princess themselves, and it's good to let them explore that part of their imagination. It is also important to let them see or realize the goodness in themselves that they may not necessarily need to be a princess to be great, though playing can be fun.

The Secret of Kells (2009)

This is the story of a young boy named Brendan who lives with him uncle who is the head of the monastery, Kells. They are living in a time where invaders are pillaging and killing small villages and Brendan's uncle is obsessed with building a wall he thinks will keep them out. He has forbidden Brendan from ever traveling outside of the walls. Then another monk, brother Aiden, comes to Kells and he is the holder of a book that has the most amazing illuminations in it. The book is supposed to change with life of anyone who reads it, but it isn't finished yet. Brendan's uncle has also forbade Brendan and the other monks from doing any illumination because he wanted everyone to be as consumed with the building of the wall as he was. When brother Aiden came however, he inspired Brendan to want to see his illuminations. Aiden sent Brendan into the forest to find berries he needed to make ink, and he went. This was Brendan's first rebellions against his uncle and he was very nervous and got lost in the forest. There he meets a wolf who turns into a girl, named Ashley. She's a fairy and befriends and helps Brendan. On the way back to the monastery they come across an evil presence which we deal with later. So Brendan studies illumination under the tutelage of Aiden and things are progressing quite well until Aiden realized he lost a glass that helps him do the most intricate work, and the name of the glass shares the name of  the evil presence Brendan and Ashley passed in the forest. So Brendan takes it upon himself to fight this beast for the sake of the book that will change the world.

This film is a visual masterpiece. Everything is geometrical. At first glance the animation looks juvenile and simple, but the scenes are so well laid out and intricate. The characters are very geometrical in nature, and when they run in a group they form a single shape. The cracks or shapes in between objects or objects themselves are all patterned.

One flaw I found in the film was that the monks were all of different nationalities and the portrayal of their different nationalities was really racist, almost offensively so. They weren't a large part of the film though, so it didn't bother me as much as they would have if they'd played a larger role.

Sailor Moon Season 1

Many years ago the universe was at peace but the universe's enemy, the negaverse, was unhappy with this and tried to destroy the moon kingdom, the set of power in the universe . The queen of the moon kingdom, Serenity, defeated the negaverse by capturing their greatest warriors in crystals and scattering them on earth. She also sent her own daughter, Serena, as well as her court to earth so that they would escape the destruction of the moon kingdom and would live to see another day. Unfortunately they would forget ever having lived on the moon kingdom and everything having to do with their past lives. Queen Serenity also sent two cats to earth to find and protect her daughter and the sailor scouts (each princesses of their respective planets who serve the moon) and reawaken them if the negaverse were ever to strike again.

The idea of this show is really imaginative and inspiring. That some random and slightly flawed girl on earth is the princess of the universe and is the earth's principle warrior to fight against evil. The problem, for me at least, is that Serena is such a weak heroine. She can't do anything on her own, and when she is faced with even the slightest hardship she breaks down crying. She's always whining and is never even slightly interested in protecting anyone or fighting anything. She runs from evil more than she fights from it. And as if that isn't enough, when the other sailor scouts don't come to her defence, or when they are all defeated, some random guy they don't know throws a flower at the bad guy and everything is better. Not only can she not fight her own battles, even though she is the protector of the universe she needs a man to come rescue her from the bad guy. This is a horrible role model. In the beginning I thought that maybe she would only start out this way and would slowly grow stronger with each episode, but she doesn't. The sailor scouts are a bit more mature than Sailor Moon is, and even comment on this several times, but they are still boy-crazy and squabble a lot. The villans are also pretty bad. They could've killed the scouts many times over if they just killed them themselves instead of sending these weak minions. If the cat wasn't there the Sailor Moon would've died many times over.

Despite all of this, I still don't mind watching the show. The last episode or two was pretty good and kind of made up for the rest of the season by putting it into perspective, if only the whole show was like that. It's sort of qualifies as a guilty pleasure show I guess. The transforming and twirling are fun to watch in all of the girly glory, and those parts in particular made me really love the fact that this is a good old-fashioned hand-drawn animation and not cgi. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the cg every now and again, but I still love the older animation style.

So while I don't particularly enjoy some of the personality traits presented here, the show is still fun to watch. And at the end of each episode there's a small 'sailor says' segment where Serena says some moral or other about treating people well or saving the environment. And to give credit to the show I watched the US dubbed version which sort of ripped off the original Japanese version by cutting out scenes or whole episodes and changing some of the language to suit a younger audience. I know the same thing has happened to a lot of shows, Cardcaptors and Anne of Green Gables for instance were changed to suit US tv. So I'll give the show the benefit of the doubt and that the original is better than the US version. But a good show regardless.

Jack and the Beanstalk (1974)

This is a Japanese cartoon adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk. I don't know what it is about it, but I think I will always remember watching this film. It's not traumatizing or overly weird, I felt more hypnotized than anything while watching it. It's just like any other film, but I just re-watched it recently after about a 15 year gap of having no seen it and I was hit with huge wave of nostalgia, every line and song and movement was familiar. I thought it was just me of course as I am sometimes told that I have a very esoteric taste in... everything, but after browsing through some forums I discovered that almost everyone who watched this film when they were younger loved it intensely and it has affected them in someway or another. And as I re-watched it I'd have to say that I agree with the sentiment.

The story is a familiar one. A poor boy and his mother live in a little shack of a house trying to make ends meet when one day their cow stops giving milk. The mother sends the boy, Jack, to the market to get a decent price for it. On the way to the market however, the boy is intercepted by a man playing weird piano (the note from which I can always remember so clearly as they were so queer), who convinces him to take a handful of magic beans in exchange for the cow. His mother is furious and throws the beans out the window, and after disciplining Jack, goes to bed. In the night the beanstalk grows and a little mouse comes running down it. The mouse motions to Jack's dog of trouble up the beanstalk and Jack comes out of the house marvelling at what had grown in his backyard. Jack, his dog, and the mouse all climb up the beanstalk. When they get to the top they come out of an old well in the courtyard of a castle and see this girl standing there watching them with an oddly vacant expression. She is the princess of castle and she tells Jack of the joy she will have when she marries her beloved prince Tulip. Jack soon discovers that Tulip is a giant and that his mother is an evil witch who is trying become queen by enchanting the princess to want to marry her son. Jack then faces the dilemma of whether or not to help the princess or leave with his gold.

I enjoyed the characters a lot, but what I like about it is there are two stories going on at the same time, one involving people and one with animals. Jack can't understand what any of the animals say and he doesn't even pay much attention to them most of the time because he's busy with his own plot line and agenda, but there are animals throughout the movie and the all have very vibrant personalities. Even the audience can't understand what they're saying, but through movements and expressions you can tell what they're trying to say. A lot of story lines with both people and animals bridge the gap between them and let them talk to each other  or let the audience understand them if the people in the film don't. The animals in this film actually have their own sub-plot.

The music in this movie is captivating. It's not an award-winning score by any means, but there is just something odd about it that catches at one's interest. It's not quite unsettling, but it doesn't fade into the background either. The music is definitely one of the aspect that will draw you into the film to make you love it. The characters are good and the plot is very interesting, but the music is what will get you. The artwork too. There's just something about the movements of the characters and the setting, especially in the castle.

As I said, this isn't the best movie I've ever seen, nor is it even the best Jack and the Beanstalk story I've heard. Despite that, this is the kind of film that you'll remember after you've grown up. I don't know what exactly it is about it, but I do know that I enjoy watching it and will probably try to obtain it at some point on dvd.

Christmas Playlist

These films aren't in any particular order, but they are all films I watch around Christmas time to help me get into the Christmas mood.

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)- A reindeer born with a red nose is bullied as he grows up. He and an elf who wants to be a dentist decide to leave and find other misfits like them and they find the island of misfit toys. When Rudolf finds out that his girlfriend and his family are in trouble, they go back to save them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6IAY9bSP7s

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1948)- A Fleischer cartoon. Rudolph is made fun of by the other reindeer until one Christmas night when the fog is too thick and Santa can't fly out to deliver presents and only Rudolph's nose can provide enough light for Santa to see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22ZYhvOK0bI

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970)- This is the story of how Santa Claus came to be. He was actually an orphan who was dropped off on the doorstep of some toy making little people called the Kringles who name him Kris. As he grew up he learned various things from the animals, like how to laugh from the seals. And when he grew up he  took on the family uniform consisting of a red suit trimmed with white. He goes down to a small village and discovers that the evil town mayor burgermeister miesterburger is outlawing toys because he tripped on one. Kris of course finds this to be abominable and finds various ways to deliver toys to the children, which explain the Santa we know such as stockings and the chimney bit. He also befriends the evil wizard in the woods, who loses his powers after he becomes good, and this wizard gives some reindeer magic corn to help them get out of a tight spot. Eventually toys become accepted and Santa is no longer an outlaw and can deliver toys in peace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mknYnLo8Tb4

The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)- One year santa decides that no one in the world cares about Christmas anymore, that there's no real Christmas spirit alive in the world anymore. So he decided that no one would miss him come Christmas eve and planned to take a holiday instead of deliver presents to people who didn't care anymore. So Mrs. Claus sends two elves down to find some Christmas spirit. The elves also run into the heat miser and the snow miser, two beings that control the elements of fire and ice, and they get into some trouble with them. Eventually they do find some Christmas spirit and show it to Santa just in time for him to suit up and go about his duties. Classic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPrbccEdI5o

Frosty the Snowman (1969)- The story of a snowman that comes to life one Christmas due to the help of some children and a magic hat. The snowman and one of the young girls run away to the north pole to escape the magician who owns the magic hat and wants to take it back now that he knows it's worth something. There are sequels but in my personal opinion this is the only one worth watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmuJDmjq-xQ

Christmas Comes But Once A Year (1936)- This short film features Grampy from Betty Boop. He passes by an orphanage on Christmas and hears very loud crying. This is because all of their toys broke because they we cheap. So typical Grampy sneaks into their house and makes them toys out of random kitchen objects and they are all happy in the end.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4y8wj01MmU

Santa's Surprise (1947)- This is a Little Audrey episode where Audrey and kids from all around the world decide to give Santa a present one Christmas and clean his house for him. It is extremely racist but cute otherwise.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOSZOhpuhfM

The Snowman (1982)- A beautifully touching short about a boy who makes a snowman that comes to life one night. The boy and the snowman have fun around the boy's house and after that fly up to the north pole where they join the snowman ball and even meet Santa. The snowman then takes the boy home and the boy goes to bed, and when he wakes up the next morning he finds that the snowman has melted. It's very sad, when my younger brother was a toddler he actually cried watching this. The entire film is wordless, the soundtrack compliments the action and the song as they fly to the north pole is one of the best parts, it's Walking in the Air by Blake.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubeVUnGQOIk

Toy Tinkers (1949)- Chip and Dale spot Donald Duck cutting down a christmas tree and follow him home. When they look into his window they see all of the Christmas goodies he has and end up having a war with him for the nuts and sweets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miEi3F8s8H8

Pluto's Christmas Tree (1952)- Another episode with Chip and Dale, only this time they see Mickey and Pluto out looking for a good tree to chop down and after taunting Pluto, hide in the tree Mickey chooses. They take a short nap and when they wake up the tree is almost completely decorated and they find themselves in a colourful magical place. Pluto spots them after they have some fun with the ornaments and eventually Mickey finds them and welcomes them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKVuL6xi8Rk&feature=related

Donald's Snow Fight (1942)- Donald bundles up to go sledding on a cold winter day and harasses the triplets and causes a huge snow fight.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCjokrhNXCE&feature=related

Hector's Hectic Life (1948)- A dog's owners go out for a bit leaving his strict instructions not to mess up the house. He finds some puppies they make a mess of the house. The owners come home and are ready to thrown out the dog into the cold but the puppies come out and defend him. The owners are so happy to find puppies that they forgive the old dog.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfIkjQkm79c

A Christmas Carol (1999)- The one with Patrick Stewart.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upAYkFugbco&feature=related

A Christmas Carol (1984)- Another one that's good.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcq6y496nrI&feature=related

A Christmas Carol (1951)- And yet another one. Also very good.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpbthuKFuFA&feature=related

Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)- Flavia has been told that her aunt's fiance has been travelling the world, but in reality he's been in prison. When she finds this out she loses faith in everything she's ever believed including her family and god and only a miracle will change her mind. She finds a model cow on its knees in the nativity scene and asks why and her mother tells her that all cows kneel at 12 o'clock on Christmas morning. She of course doesn't believe this, but goes on a wild quest to find out whether or not it's true. She does find a cow kneeling when the time comes, but this is an interesting story about telling children things we don't believe, or even things we do, and why, even though they tell her some whoppers (though it doesn't go into the why of course. That's more for you to think about). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qZRlfJBR0

Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)- Mickey takes on the Dickens classic and does a pretty good job of staying retelling the story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCO4D7KTRtE

The Nutcracker Prince (1990)- A great version of the story. One of my favourite.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0tmsTJywAI

Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001)- After her nutcracker's battle with the rats in her house, Barbie goes on a journey in a sugary wonderland to save the prince and defeat the rat king. Great adaptation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FslsVu2Z8d0

Barbie's Christmas Carol (2008)- The story is a little bit altered, but it's still good and gets the message across. Eden is a successful opera singer who is very selfish. She gets angry at her stage group and says that f they don't cancel their Christmas plans the practice their next performance they'll be fired. So her dead aunt visits her and sends her three ghosts, etc.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YSCuKARLi8

Elf (2003)- The story of a human who was raised by elves decides to go to New York to find his father and inspire Christmas cheer in all that he meets  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvtmsqyOkhc

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)- The story of a man at the end of his rope who is about to commit suicide. An angel intervenes shows him what the world would be like if he wasn't in it and what he has to be grateful for.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJfZaT8ncYk

The Polar Express (2004)- The story of a boy who is almost at the age where he is about to stop believing in Santa. He's invited to go on a magical train ride to the north pole and see Santa and Santa gives him a bell that can only be heard by people who believe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVfB6GhlwIM

Mole's Christmas (1994)- Mole and Rat from Wind in the Willows are on their way back to Rat's house when Mole smells his old home. The pair find the home and end up spending Christmas there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DxgtFoo_zk

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)- The story of the Grinch, who hates Christmas and tries one year to stop it from happening. In the process he finds that Christmas is more than the stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYRnwWmteac

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) - The live action version.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl12cnQxAaU

Miracle On 34th Street (1947)- An old man claiming to be Santa Claus tries to convince a young girl and her mother that he exists. In the process he assaults someone and ends up going to court. Interesting trailer to say the least.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IZr_SvCcXc

Miracle On 34th Street (1994)- Pretty much the same but they change up the climax of the courtroom scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiypbCFV7Ao&feature=related

White Christmas (1954)- Two ex-GIs and two sisters go to an inn and sing and dance. Basically. It's not the most exciting Christmas movie, but I end up watching it every year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB1ZD6JKxes

Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean (1992)- The funniest Christmas show ever. Ever.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB1ZD6JKxes









Christmas in Connecticut (1945)- A woman who write the most successful column in a magazine about her life as a mother and cook on a farm in Connecticut, but in reality she's a single woman living in the city. This becomes a problem when a nurse asks the magazine if a wounded solider can spend christmas with her so that he'll marry the nurse, and the owner says that that should be fine and he ends up going too. The woman is in some trouble here because she cant cook and only has an apartment, so she promises to marry a wealthy man who has been trying to persuade her to marry him for many years. She also brings along a chef friend who cooks. The whole weekend is a series of close calls and romance.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVTF5XIpqL0

Home Alone (1990)- A boy gets left behind when his family goes on vacation and he has to booby trap his house to get to better of a couple of bandits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK2Btk6Ybm0

Home Alone 2 (1992)- This time the boy goes on vacation with his family, but get separated at the airport and ends up going to New York instead of Miami. He runs into the bandits again. Home alone movies end here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_An3W-oO2k&feature=related

Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas (1999)- A collection of three short stories. In the first Hugie, Dewie and Lewie learn that it's better to have one Christmas with the people you love than a million Christmases with only your toys. In the second Max and Goofy work out whether or not they believe in Santa Claus and whether or not it matters, and the third is Mickey and Minnie in the story of the gift of the magi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-mJwHb8kQc

The Little Match Girl (2006)- A poor girl tries to sell matches on the street and sees visions or a happier life before she dies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUSzQBaWq0Q&feature=related

The Santa Clause (1994)- A man kills Santa and subsequently becomes him.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOsE81woec4

Santa Claus (1985)- There is a prophecy of a master toy make who will come to the North Pole but an elf goes to a consumeristic man for help and he tries to commercialize the north pole.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hbX_fRgzqk

The Nutcracker (1993)- This is basically the ballet on film, but it's still great to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgbw_zfPB-Y&feature=related

The Secret of the Nutcracker (2007)- This is a contemporary adaptation of the Nutcracker set in the 40's. The girl deals more with her father's absence due to the war than she does some magical quest to help out her wooden doll. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bTrKmSDlPQ

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)- Charlie Brown gets fed up with the commercialism of Christmas and tries to celebrate Christmas how he thinks it should be celebrated, which fails until his friends come to help.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8N6d0oIEzw&feature=related

Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)- The king of Hallowe'en town discovers Christmas and tries to bring it home with him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrB9I3DM80

The Small One (1978)- A boy has to sell his donkey because he's getting old but the only one in town who needs a donkey is the tanner. Just when all seems hopeless a man comes up to the boy and asks to buy the donkey to carry his wife to Bethlehem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGTjbSS8hSc

The Holiday (2006)- Two women switch houses to escape their lives for a while and meet men while they're away. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0p8Su3bdHc

The Family Man (2000)- A man is given a glimpse of what his life would have been like if he'd chosen having a family over a career.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My7Fb0cI1Gc

Wanted: The Perfect Pet by Fiona Roberton

This is an adorable book. The story opens with a little boy who talks about how very badly he wants a pet, and of all the pets, a dog is the best pet of all. It is fun, cuddly and it plays with you. So the boy puts outs an ad in the paper for a dog to be his pet. Far away, a duck who lives on a hill-top is very lonely. He reads the ad in the news paper and decides he will try to be the perfect pet for this boy. He disguises himself as a dog and goes to meet his new owner. When he gets there the boy is overjoyed to finally have a dog all his own and takes it out to play immediately. He notices however that his dog isn't really good at doing regular doggy things such as play fetch or run around and soon the duck is revealed for who he truly is. The boy is somewhat dismayed to learn that his dog was in fact a duck and goes inside. The duck is of course heart-broken and dejectedly goes in to find the boy reading a book, the encyclopedia. The boy looked up what ducks can do and made a list of all of the good things about ducks and tells the duck that he is the perfect pet for him. And they're both happy.

This story is adorable. The illustrations are so cute and they compliment the story line so well. The story is about seeing the good in what you have and what comes your way, even if it's not exactly as you expected it, and it's told in a way that makes it a touching read for both young and old.