Polyanna (1960)

Polyanna is an iconic children's film about an orphan girl who always looks on the bright side, and shows an entire town how to do the same. Through her eternal optimism, she slowly worms her way into the hearts of the town members. It's a feel good movie.

After the death of her parents, Polyanna moves in with her wealthy aunt who lives in a small town where she holds a lot of influence. Everyone Polyanna meets seems to be either miserable in one way or another, or if they are not miserable themselves, are repressed by miserable people. As she interacts with these people however, she slowly begins to change their perspective by showing them how to be optimistic. She plays what she calls 'the glad game', where the objective is to find something to be glad about in a bad situation. As more people are influenced by her, the town becomes happier overall and more closely knit.

This isn't my favourite movie. It has a sacchrinely sweet plot and character who is almost portrayed as an airhead most of the time. Polyanna is a nice girl, and had a nice message to give, but half the time she's staring off into space or in her own world. It seems like they were trying too hard to capture that carefree innocence of youth, and end up with a dazed looking girl who seems like she's hearing voices. As for her happy game, there is actually a term for it, The Polyanna Effect. It describes someone who refuses to acknowledge any negative aspect in their lives, which of course can be harmful to someone's overall well-being. This isn't exactly the whole message of the film, but it's pretty much the main idea.

I'm an optimistic person myself, but some of the interactions she has with other characters as she tries to brighten their day and change their perspective on life are unrealistic and oversimplifying. For a better film series I would recommend Anne of Green Gables, or even better the TV show Road to Avonlea. These stories have a bit more depth and feeling, and are more realistic. The characters are also very strong and spunky.

The film overall is a decent watch, and I recommend watching it, but look into the other films recommended.

The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

This is a film from the studio Ghibli, but unlike the other more famous films from that studio (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, etc) this one wasn't a Hayao Myazaki production. It does however moderately borrow his style, so it has that appeal. The story is based on the book titled, The Borrowers by Mary Norton, and indeed, the characters share the same names as their novel counterparts.

The story is about a young girl named Arrietty who lives with her mom and dad in a huge house in the countryside. This house is much more large for Arrietty and her parents, because they are all tiny people, about the height of a mouse. Arrietty is a borrower, a small person who lives in a regular bein' (human being) sized house, and borrow things from around the house to survive. If anyone finds out they're there however, they must leave for their own safety.

The story begins when a young human boy comes to the house Arrietty lives in. Sho (or Shawn in the English version), is a terminally sick boy whose mother was raised in that house. He was moved out to the country for the sake of his health, but he's a very lonely boy. Arrietty on the other hand, is ready to go out on her first borrowing mission, but she has some bad luck and Sho sees her! This is a big problem for Arrietty and her family because it means they must now leave the house. Sho of course is delighted that there might be little magical people living in the house and tried to find Arrietty and get close to her. We get to see a little bit of Arrietty's world, Sho's attempts to interact with Arrietty, throw in a suspicious housekeeper who seems to have a burning desire to destroy what she suspects to be little thieves in her house, and that's pretty much the movie.

I'm familiar with this story. I've read the novel and seen the 1997 version of The Borrowers (which I slightly prefer to this representation by the way), so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and had my own expectations going in. But the film wasn't a disappointment. It was a little slow-moving at times, but the pace was consistent and never did I feel that the story was stagnating. It was more of a charming film than a comedy or drama, more exploratory. I do have to say however, that it was not a top-notch film. Though it used the same style of animation and storytelling as in the Myazaki films, the mood of the film was somewhat stagnant in comparison and lacked that air of magical possibility. In comparison with the 1197 English version, it was a very slow-moving interpretation of the story. The parents are also kind of flat personalities that rely on stereotype rather than demonstration to let you know who they are, and that could be said about almost every character except for Arrietty herself. However, that said, the movie was a nice little film overall and worth a sit through.

The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

This is one of Disney's more serious cartoons, and one of it's surprisingly lesser seen or even heard of cartoons. It's about a young mouse named Olivia whose toy maker father was kidnapped, so she hires a famous detective, Basil of Baker Street, to track him down.

The story takes place in London and opens on a young female mouse asking a famous detective to help her find her missing father. When Olivia first tells Basil about her predicament, he doesn't take her seriously. He makes it clear that he doesn't really like children all that much and doesn't believe her case to be worth his time, until he finds out that the bat who kidnapped her father works for his arch nemesis, an evil rat named Ratigan. He then takes on the case along with his sidekick Dawson, unwillingly taking Olivia along as well. He uses his deductive skills and His pet bloodhound, Toby, to find Ratigan and Olivia's father. Ratigan then has Olivia kidnapped so that her father will do his bidding and create ingenious mechanical monstrosities (I might be exaggerating). Basil and Dawson then go about trying to rescue the pair and stumble upon a deeper diabolical plot to over-throw the queen and usurp the throne. Will Basil be able to out-wit the crafty Ratigan and save Olivia, her father, the Queen, and the day?!?

This is a great movie that I really enjoyed as a kid. It's one of the more suspenseful Disney flicks and imitates a sort of Sherlock Holmes vibe. There is also a lot of detective work going on, a lot of clue following, real gum shoe stuff. I'm always surprised to hear how unknown this movie is. I know there's no princess in it, and it's not a romance, but it rivals any of the newer Disney classics. It's a great detective story for kids, and there's a lot of action and suspense. There's even a fight scene in Big Ben. A definite watch for the kids.

Princess Playlist

A collection of films wherein the heroine is a princess. Every so often I just feel like watching a girly, princessy film, or know of someone looking for something to give their daughter/ niece/ friend's daughter/ etc. and these usually pop up in my rotation. There are a few princess movies out there, but for this list I only chose films where the story is about the princess and doesn't just have a princess in the film. I also focused more on children's films than adult films. There are princess films for adults, but this list is for the young and young at heart.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella

The Little Mermaid

Aladdin

Beauty and the Beast

Swan Princess

The Princess and the Goblin

Anastasia

A Little Princess

The Princess and the Frog

The Princess Diaries

She-Ra - Princess of Power

Castle in the Sky

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Timeless Tales From Hallmark - Rapuznel/Rumpelstiltzkin/Thumbelina

Sea Prince & The Fire Child  Barbie Princess and the Pauper

The Gnome Mobile (1967)

This movie was actually something of a disappointment for me. It moved rather slowly, and to be honest I was kind of glad when it ended. The story is about this rich lumber owner named Mr. Mulrooney, and he's having his grand kids from England come over to visit him. The grandchildren are the kids from Marry Poppins, that's actually how they're introduced too. So Mulrooney takes the kids to a forest he owns for a picnic and while he and the grandson set up camp, the granddaughter goes off for a walk and comes upon this gnome who asks for her help. She rushes back to get her grandfather and brings him back to the gnome. As it turns out the gnome's grandfather is dying. Gnomes only die if they've given up the will to live and the grandfather has given up the will to live because he and his grandson are the last gnomes in the forest and he will never see his grandson married. The grandfather offers to take the two to another forest where there might be more gnomes and they agree to go with them to this forest in the grandfather's car, now effectively, the gnome mobile. The party has to stop off at a hotel for the night and grandfather gnome gets angry at Mr. Mulrooney who gets angry enough to call off the trip and storms out of the room. A travelling freak show owner happens to pass by as this happens and see the gnomes. He then proceeds to kidnap them as they will make for an interesting new attraction. When Mr. Mulrooney finds out the gnomes are missing he calls his security team to help find them, but when his employee hears what he has to say he thinks he's gone mad and has him put in an insane asylum. His grandkids break him out and they go retrieve the gnomes and get to the forest, where the young gnome finds some girl gnomes to fight over him and they all live happily ever after.

The acting in this movie was horrible. It was so forced and stereotyped and fake, it was almost painful to watch. This film is by Disney, and because of that I was quite disappointed with the overall quality. Darby O'Gill and the Little People was also a Disney film about faeries and it was quite well done so we know they are capable,  but this is definitely b film material. The songs were cheesy, but I'm less distraught about that as many b film songs are usually quite poorly done. Many parts of the plot weren't given enough explanation. Some scenes seemed to flow along as they did because it would best suit what happened next and not so much because it was a logical scene that fit into an overall plot. Some of the actions taken by people in response to the gnomes, for example, were too extreme or convenient to be taken seriously by the audience. The special effects are pretty good and the guy who does the voice for the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland makes an appearance as one of the gnomes, I think that's all that can be said for this movie. All in all, ok for an initial viewing, but definitely not a keeper.

Tinkerbell (2008)

First off, this movie had the potential to be interesting and magical and exciting. The elements for what could have made this movie great were there somewhere, they just weren't touched upon. This turned out to be a movie about 'everyone's an individual, just like you' and near the end when I discovered that this was the only moral I felt really disappointed. It's just one of those movies that will leave no mark on you, washboard quality. If you've ever seen the sequel to snow white, the cartoon version, I forget what it's called because yes it was just that bad, it is reminiscent of that.

Now this would all have been fine and dandy if it was just another movie to sucker people out of 30 bucks or however much it costs... but it is a story about Tinkerbell... from peter pan. It almost seriously offended me that anyone would stray so far from a wonderful, classic story like that and steal one of it's signature characters and turn it into this. Such a bastardization of arguably one of the most memorable characters in children's classical literature... some one should be slapped, really hard. It offended me enough to go out and write this review, which probably isn't even that articulate because my mind is still boggled by the fact that these greedy, money sucking... people at Disney wouldn't just create some other nameless character, not drag a classic one through the dirt. .. Of course I doubt anyone would buy that nameless character because of late their story writing ability is far from decent... as this little jem proves.

There are other fairy stories out there, don't support this one.