A Little Princess: The Story of Sara Crewe (Puffin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This was my absolute favourite book as a child! I don't know how many times I poured over it. Burnette's fluent writing style and addictive plot completely swept me away. Even now as a university English major, I still sometimes turn to A Little Princess for a taste of the magical escape contained within its pages.

Rating:
Summary: "'A Little Princess' Attack!!!!!!"
Review: Confusing title? You betcha! But just stick with me, and I'll explain very shortly, I promise.

A couple of weekends ago, I was babysitting a young girl who I have been sitting for now for about two and-a-half years. I let her stay up a little later than her usual bedtime, so this dear child was half-asleep by the time I finished tucking her in. I noticed that she had on her bedside table the book "A Little Princess," and I picked it up, closed the light, and carried the book with me to the living room.

I gave it just a very cursory skim; I had read it, and Burnett's "The Secret Garden," ages and ages ago when I was a kiddie, and all I could remember was that while I loved them both, "The Secret Garden" was the more beloved one of the two, for me.

I then settled in to read the book I had brought with me, D. H. Lawrence's "The Rainbow." (A book for grown-ups.) I was up to the penultimate chapter, and it was very slow going -- this chapter was taking me forever to complete, while the rest of the book had read pretty quickly. I gave up and picked up again my little friend's copy of "A Little Princess."

Well, I started to read and was thoroughly, absolutely smitten, enchanted, head-over-heels about this book. I just HAD to continue reading this when I got home, but I couldn't run off in the night with my little friend's book!! (LOL!) It was a little after 10 p.m., and her parents had told me they would be home elevenish. I was almost certain the nearest bookstore was open until midnight, but I called just to double check, and also to ask if they had a copy of "Princess" in stock. They were, indeed, open until midnight, and they did have a copy.

Her parents came home at 11:15; the father, as usual, put me in a cab, but this time I did not give the driver my home address. I gave him the address of the bookstore, he took me there, I told him to keep the meter running, and I dashed into the store, bought the book, and then headed home, hugging the book.

I stayed up late, very late, into the night finishing this dear story of precious Sara Crewe. I had had, indeed, "'A Little Princess' Attack," a la McDonald's "Big Mac Attack" because I had a craving for that book as strong as any "Big Mac Attack" ever recorded!!

A wonderful, perfect book in every way!

Rating:
Summary: a truly magical movie
Review: Although those who have read and loved the original book may be dissapointed by some of the liberties taken in this movie, it is lovely to watch and the ending is enchanting.

Sara Crewe, played by Leisel Matthews, is more real than the Sara of the book - she has a mischievious side that makes the movie more fun to watch. The movie is very family friendly...for example, the fact that the school has a young black servant is glossed over, and the adults and girls show no racial prejudice. A few details, including Miss Minchin's final, comic, fate, Amelia's elopement, and the fact that sara is strong enough to pull herself up onto a ledge with only her finger tips to detract from the movie, but other parts more than make up for these. The visual imagery in the movie is beautiful, if somewhat unrealistic in cases, and the soundtrack, especially the song "Kindle My Heart" suits the movie exactly. The plot is enhanced with sara's telling of the story of rama and sita- a detail that is not in the book but makes the movie more poignant by paralleling the events in sara's own life. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves happy endings. It has been one of my favorite movies since I saw it 7 years ago.

Rating:
Summary: What on earth??
Review: What a horrible movie. It should have had a different title and not pretended to be based on a book, or at least have had a lead character that wasn't pretentious, spoiled and bratty.
There was some serious overacting, and Sara just didn't look right for the part. I guess the people who made the movie didn't read the book.
And there is one scene towards the end, where Sara is in her room and the girls play with the neighbour monkey- if you look at the locket as they hand it back to her, and then when Miss Minchin takes it, the photos are reversed. I guess the director thought we wouldn't notice but I was so bored by the movie I happened to see it.
One of the worst movies I have ever seen, even for a children's one...



Rating:
Summary: Best version of all!
Review: There are many movies based on "The Little Princess," which is about a wealthy girl from India who is orphaned and knocked down to servant status at a boarding-house halfway across the world. I think I've seen all of them, and read the book straight through at least once. But there's one movie which is hands-down best of all, perhaps even better than the book. <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0113670/">A Little Princess</a> (imdb link) is unique for several reasons- intertwined with the usual story and mirroring its path is a tale told by Sara herself about the adventures of Rama, which is portrayed with special effects that were quite lush for the time. The other reason is that they changed the ending.

I had no idea that a movie could be better than the book it's based on and get away with changing the ending! The new ending makes sense, is very carefully followed up to in the plot with some intricacies that you don't even notice until watching it through the second time, so it doesn't seem as if they just pasted it in, but more like it was supposed to be there all along- and, strangely, that I had always felt so, even before this movie was made; it always felt like a thread was missing from the book. It's as if this version was the real one that just hadn't made it into the original. It's twice as magical, but just as likely to happen in real life as the other. And somehow, the happy ending actually makes the story more of a tearjerker than when it had a relatively sad ending. (My mother and I were both crying between every commercial break. I for one am not prone to crying at movies.)

A scene justifies the ending-change in which Sara is reading a book aloud to the other students. She pauses a moment, reads ahead silently, doesn't like what she sees, and then starts making up a new ending. Everyone looks up. Miss Minchin snatches the book out of her hands, and Sara keeps story-telling to the others without skipping a beat. When confronted about it, Sara tells Miss Minchin, "Well, I couldn't bear to see her marry that awful old man- haven't you ever imagined a different ending to things you read? Haven't you?"

Later in an argument, we find out that Miss Minchin has never understood what was meant when Sara mentioned being "a little princess," seeing it only as an arrogant, false statement- "Look around you, child! Look at where you live, what you're wearing! Look in the mirror! How can you say that you're a princess?" Miss Minchin sees no value in imagination, and tells Sara that she should learn to face only "the cold, hard reality." That's all that Miss Minchin has ever believed in, and even when faced with an impossible fairy-story-like situation (such as a man declared dead months ago, standing before her quite alive...) she can't even grasp it, and brushes it away before it can change anything in her. She only allows herself to see the reality she finds so miserable- and that's just what she always gets. She isn't evil, as portrayed in some other versions; just a helpless cynic, who always pushes away tenderness and freedom rather than dare experience it or see it, instead focusing her eyes on practicalities like control needed and money needed. She has never learned that there can be a balance struck between the two.

Same as the book, the message is that all the women in the world, are princesses, and all the men princes; and a little imagination, magic, love, and hope can do nothing but make the world a bit more wonderful than without.