Starring: Liesel Matthews, Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, Rusty Schwimmer, Arthur Malet Directed By: Alfonso Cuarón Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: November 19, 1997 Running Time: 97 minutes Theatrical Release Date: May 10, 1995
Description: The beloved story from the author of the Secret Garden becomes 1995's best reviewed film. A young girl must rely on her wits and imagination when she is separated from her soldier father and sent to a strict boarding school. Year: 1995 Director: Alfonso Cuaron Starring: Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, Liesel Matthews
DVD Features: Production Notes Theatrical Trailer
Amazon.com: After the critical success of 1993's The Secret Garden, Warner Bros. returned to the novels of Frances Hodgson Burnett to create this 1995 adaptation of A Little Princess, which instantly ranked with The Secret Garden as one of the finest children's films of the 1990s. Neither film was a huge box-office success, but their quality speaks for itself, and A Little Princess has all the ingredients of a timeless classic. A marvel of production design, the film features lavish sets built almost entirely on a studio backlot in Burbank, California. The story opens in New York just before the outbreak of World War I, when young Sara (Liesel Matthews) is enrolled in private boarding school while her father goes off to war. Under the domineering scrutiny of the school's wicked headmistress, Miss Minchen (Eleanor Bron), Sara quickly becomes popular with her schoolmates, but fate intervenes and she soon faces a stern reversal of fortune, resorting to wild flights of fancy to cope with an unexpectedly harsh reality. Rather than label her fanciful tales as escapist fantasy, A Little Princess actively encourages a child's power of imagination--a power that can be used to learn, grow, and adapt to a world that is often cruel and difficult. It's also one of the most visually beautiful films of the '90s and creates a fully detailed world within the boarding school--a place where imagination is vital to survival. A first-class production in every respect, this is one family film that should (if it's not too stuffy to say it) be considered required viewing for parents and kids alike. --Jeff Shannon
Not 'A Little Princess'! Not even close! Don't waste your money on this mess. Perhaps someday someone will make a version of 'A Little Princess' that's worthy of the name, but this isn't it. The only resemblance between this production and Frances Hodgson Burnett's 'A Little Princess', aside from the title, is the fact that it has characters named Sara, Ram Das, and Miss Minchin, and the only reason this gets any star at all is because Amazon will not let me give it no stars. All the artful camera work in the world cannot make this dreck into proper telling of 'A Little Princess'. It hasn't the magic.
What was Cuarón thinking? Did he even read the book? If so, he didn't understand it. No dead father? No London setting? No Cockney Beckey? No money-grubbing, toading from Miss Minchin? No fabulous clothes and furs at the front of the line? No suffering prisoners in the Bastille and no fortuitous finding of the four-pence? Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Instead of mysterious diamond mines we are given crackers! Seriously. Crackers! Instead Mr. Carrisford's dramatic recovery and Ram Das confessing how he created 'magic', we're given a tawdry police pursuit in the rain and a soap-opera amnesia plot point. Instead of kind, wise, insightful, introspective and thoughtful Princess Sara, we have foisted on us a prank playing, spiteful retorting, 'curse' slinging pretender to the throne who would never care enough for the general populace to make arrangements to give bread (or even crackers) to the poor.
And we have thrust down our throats repeatedly the mantra that, "every girl is a princess", apparently no matter how spiteful, unkind, or common her behavior. Sarah's princess-like nature was supposed to be what set her apart from the common girls, no matter her material circumstances. Talk about missing the point.
A Beautiful Fairy Tale... I am proud to own this movie. The story is beautiful,deep,touching, huge. I am 25 years old and It made me cry like a little girl. I love it!
Completely different from the book This film is lovely to look at and well acted, but the script has little in common with Frances Hodgson Burnett's story. The location has been moved from London to New York, the characters are poorly developed--if developed at all, and there are many, many departures from the original book. Being a huge fan of the book, which is my all-time favorite children's book, I was extremely disappointed with this film. If you haven't read the book, you will probably enjoy this rendition very much, but if you love the story, you will feel ripped off. It is a terrific story that does not need the massive amount of tweaking that it endured in this film. In fact, the original tale is all but unrecognizable here. What a shame.
Great Movie Honestly, people need to get over themselves! I'm sorry everything can't be like the book, but it's hollywood for godsakes!! If every movie was like the book it originated from, the movie would be 6 hours long. Get real! Anyways, I DID read the book, and while the movie did differ, i still enjoyed it. It was a great family film and to the people who have not seen it, ignore the rants about how horrible it was because those people writing that are just pissy the movie was different from the book!
Beautiful, peaceful movie This movie is a catharsis from the build-up of high tension, nerve racking, exposive movies that we take in from all over. It's fantasy escapism with a wonderful moral message brought with it. Brought to you by the talented Alfonso Cuaron who recently gave us the dystopian blade runner-like Children of Men (Widescreen Edition) but he is most commonly known for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2-Disc Full Screen Edition) (Harry Potter 3). A pre-nubile Liesel Matthews plays the Little Princess Sara. The films strikingly terrible anti-hero Mistress is played convincingly and hatefully by Eleanor Bron. The story is Dickens-like. A proud achievement in not only directing for Alfonso Cuaron but also to Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki for his welcoming, warm scenes. And further credit belongs to the fabulous set decorator Cheryl Carasik for its Time-Capsule purity.
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