"Little Women" 2019: A Review

When I saw the trailers for Greta Gerwig's Little Women this past fall, I thought for sure I was going to hate it.  But when it came out, my mom saw it and liked it.  Then some friends invited me to see it with them.  And now I've seen it not once, but twice, and have a lot of opinions on it.  So I'm bringing back this old blog from 2018 to share my thoughts on the movie.  Warning: this post contains spoilers, both for the book Little Women and for this movie.  If you haven't read the book, please go read it now...you're missing out on a classic!

Note: I have seen three other movie versions of Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn (1933), June Allyson (1949), and Winona Ryder (1994).  A few comparisons to other movies, particularly the 1994 version, will come up in this post.

Flashbacks Everywhere

The biggest thing that sets this version of Little Women apart from other versions is the use of flashbacks throughout the story.  The movie starts with Jo in New York, from the second half of the book, and flashes back to scenes from her childhood.  These flashbacks continue throughout the whole movie.  I found it confusing, even though I know the story of Little Women forwards and backwards.  For people who haven't read the book, these flashbacks could make the plot wholly unintelligible.  I finally discovered a clear way to tell what was flashback and what was the current time: the flashbacks were filmed in yellow light, whereas the non-flashback scenes were filmed in blue light.  

I liked the flashbacks in one way: they made some interesting comparisons between the first half and second half of the book.  This especially helped the Amy and Laurie romance plotline (which I'll get to in a bit).  

Jo March: Saoirse Ronan

Jo's character seemed fairly true to the book.  She was passionate, tomboyish without being over-the-top, and loving towards her family.  I liked her attitude in the scenes where she had to talk to the publisher, Mr. Dashwood, about her writing; she wasn't too brazen but she wouldn't back down.  There were a couple spots where her character did things Jo wouldn't have done in the book.  On Meg's wedding day she pleads with Meg to run away instead of getting married.  Jo in the book would never have done that, no matter what her private feelings were about her sisters getting married.  Also, late in the movie, when Jo is lonely after Beth's death, she writes a letter to Laurie saying she had made a mistake in refusing him and wants him to come back.  Book Jo would never have done that either!

Meg March: Emma Watson

 

I will confess that I had a really hard time imagining Emma Watson as Meg March, both before and during the movie.  I do think that Watson's Meg was sweet, and her character had lots of lines directly out of the book (perhaps more than any other of the sisters).  But she seemed awfully bright and bouncy and young to be Meg. The Megs in the other two movies seemed far more mature.  I could have more easily seen Emma Watson as Amy!  

Beth March: Eliza Scanlen

 

I really liked this Beth.  She was sweet and kind, and her character seemed believably introverted.  The movie included lots of little moments from the book that other movies had left out: Beth "feeding" her old doll Joanna at the table, Beth making embroidered slippers as a thank-you for Mr. Laurence and then going to thank him for the piano, and Beth going to the seaside with Jo to try to get well...there are probably others that I've forgotten.  

Amy March: Florence Pugh

In this movie, both the older Amy and the younger Amy are played by the same actress, Florence Pugh.  The viewer sees her first as older Amy, traveling through Europe with Aunt March.  It's a bit of a shock to see the younger Amy (who is supposed to be 13) played by the same actress!  They did change her hair (she wore braids to be younger Amy and a bun to be older Amy), but with her low voice and mature face it wasn't convincing that she was the other girls' younger sister.  I think her performance as the older Amy was fantastic.  Florence Pugh showed that Amy actually cares about Jo's feelings (which is hard to tell in the 1949 and 1994 versions of Little Women) and did a great job of portraying her character after she's grown from a spoiled child into an admirable young woman.  But a number of her younger Amy scenes seemed unconvincing to me.  Also, she showed so little emotion after burning up Jo's story that I would never have believed she was sorry for it!

Laurie Laurence: Timotheé Chalamet

Laurie has always been my favorite character in Little Women, and I feel strongly about the way he is portrayed.  This Laurie seemed a lot younger (and more Dickensian) than I had expected, but my heart warmed to him almost right away.  He was lively, mischievous, and passionate, and he delivered Laurie's lines wonderfully.  (Also, he was just so adorable!) I liked Christian Bale's portrayal of Laurie in the 1994 version of Little Women, but he always seemed like Bale playing Laurie, not Laurie himself.  Timotheé Chalamet was Laurie.  That being said, there was one spot where Laurie behaved in a way that was out of character: he showed up drunk to a party at which he was supposed to be Amy's escort.  Book Laurie would never behave that way. 

Mrs. March ("Marmee"): Laura Dern

I had conflicting feelings about the casting of Laura Dern as Marmee.  On the one hand, she was kind and portrayed emotion well, and there were a couple great scenes with her giving advice to Jo.  On the other hand, she seemed more like another March sister than their mom.  Unlike the staid, calm Marmee of the book, Laura Dern's Marmee could be found baking bread in the middle of the night and running wildly around with her hair down. (I have more to say about the hairstyles later.)

Aunt March: Meryl Streep

My apologies to Meryl Streep fans: I couldn't stand her as Aunt March.  All this Aunt March wanted was for the March girls to marry rich men, which she said was the only respectable way for women to get money to live on. In Aunt March's view, marriage was an "economic proposition," a phrase that was repeated throughout the movie a number of times to show that life in the 1800's was unfair for women.  The use of Aunt March's character to prove a feminist point wrecked her as a character.  Also, Aunt March in this movie was an ogre with no real affection for her nieces. At Meg's wedding she told her she was ruining her life by marrying a poor man. She offered to take Jo to Europe and then rescinded the invitation without warning. She told poor 14-year-old Amy that she would have to marry a rich man and support the family.  Aunt March in the book is cranky, but nothing like this!

Professor Friedrich Bhaer: Louis Garrel

 This Professor Bhaer seemed like a great match for Jo.  He didn't seem incredibly old, his accent was charming, and his kindness was evident.  Best of all, he didn't back down when Jo got upset after he told her he didn't like her stories.  In the 1994 version of the movie, Professor Bhaer back-pedals and tells Jo she should write what she wants and that his opinion doesn't matter.  In this version, Bhaer tells her bluntly that what she's writing is not good.  He does this at the risk of their friendship, showing that he is a man who values honesty and integrity above anything else.  But after Jo leaves New York without telling why (Beth was ill), Bhaer comes to find her, because even after her harsh words to him he still cares about her.

John Brooke: James Norton

 

James Norton played John Brooke according to the book.  He was a believable tutor for Laurie, a believable suitor for Meg, and a believable soldier and helper for the March family.  Although his character wasn't in a lot of scenes, he did a good job with his part!

I can't find any pictures of Mr. Laurence (played by Chris Cooper) or Mr. March (played by Bob Odenkirk).  Mr. Laurence had some great scenes with Beth, and Mr. March was great in the couple scenes in which he appeared.  I wish we had seen more of both of them.

Relationships

One thing I really liked about this movie was the attention to the Laurie/Amy relationship.  Instead of the romance between Laurie and Amy coming out of nowhere near the end of the movie, it was built up over a long period of time.  It was clear that young Amy had always been fascinated with Laurie, and that the grown-up Amy suited him much better than Jo ever would have.

On the first viewing of the movie, I thought the relationship between Jo and Laurie really needed more airtime.  All the essential Jo/Laurie scenes were there, but I wasn't getting the impression that Laurie liked Jo until he proposed to her.  The second time I saw the movie I noticed that Laurie looked at Jo a lot in other scenes. His interest in Jo was conveyed not by words (as in the book or the 1949 Little Women) but almost entirely by facial expressions.  I would have liked to see Laurie more obviously interested in Jo.

One relationship that could definitely have used some more time was the relationship between Professor Bhaer and Jo.  In this movie, he meets her, learns she's a writer, and sees her from afar enjoying the opera.  He sends her a set of Shakespeare and asks to read her work.  He tells her his feelings about her work, and she leaves angrily.  Other movies (especially the Winona Ryder version) make it clear that Jo and the Professor get to know each other over a space of time.  This movie leaves no time for them to get to know each other before Jo goes back home.  Then Bhaer comes back near the end of the movie ready to propose to Jo.  Why? According to this movie, he barely knows her!

Meg and John Brooke were cute together, although their relationship didn't get much screen time either.  I liked that the scene where Meg buys the too-expensive dress fabric was included in the movie.

Costumes and Hairstyles

Let me rant for a while: I hated the costumes. The costume designer for this movie was Jacqueline Durran (the same woman who designed the out-of-period costumes for the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice in 2005 and the live-action Beauty and the Beast in 2017).  Speaking about Little Women, Durran said: "When I first met with Amy Pascal, the producer, and Greta, I got the feeling that while they wanted it to be accurate to the period, they didn't want something that felt too strictly Victorian in a way that meant you couldn't identify with the characters."

With this rationale, Durran felt free to make all sorts of wild clothing choices that departed from 1860's style and from the book.  Jo wore men's pants under her dresses (the pants were obvious when she hitched her long skirt up to her waist to run through a crowd).  Laurie's clothes were a mishmash of styles from the very early 1800's to the 1880's. Marmee was dressed like a "Victorian hippie" (in Durran's words), wearing paisley prints they wouldn't have had at the time and eschewing corsets and the Victorian clothing silhouette.  The characters wore lots of mismatched prints, both at home and out in public.  The whole thing was supposed to show the Marches as rebels against the conventions of the time. 

In the book, although the Marches had a lot of strong ideas about things that were going wrong in their society, they didn't dress in a way that would have seemed scandalous to Victorian minds.  When Meg and Jo are leaving for the dance near the beginning of the book, it's clear that both girls want their clothes to be proper (even Jo acquiesces when Meg tells her it's improper to dance without gloves). Marmee calls after them to make sure they have clean handkerchiefs. Jo laughs that Marmee would say that if they were running away from an earthquake, and Meg replies, "It is one of her aristocratic tastes, and quite proper, for a real lady is always known by neat boots, gloves, and handkerchief." Marmee in the book is careful about appearances and propriety.  In no place is she shown as a hippie, and in no place is it hinted that the Marches dress in a way that others would consider scandalous.  They just aren't rich.  I think the directors and costumer of Little Women dressed the characters not as they are portrayed in the book, but as they wanted to imagine them.

My same complaint applies to the hairstyles.  In this movie, the March girls (especially Jo and sometimes Meg) run wildly around with their hair down in a way that they never would in the book.  It would have been considered extremely improper.  None of the Marches' hairstyles look even remotely Civil War-esque, except some of Aunt March's hairstyles and a couple of Amy's later hairstyles.  When the girls do wear their hair up in the movie, it's parted on the side, and Meg has long 2010's side bangs.  It only takes about two seconds of Google to find that women in the Civil War parted their hair in the middle.  Why did the moviemakers choose to ignore this? I have no idea.


Other Notes

I really liked that at the end of the movie, the whole family was at Plumfield to celebrate Marmee's birthday.  This happened in the book, but it wasn't in any of the other movies.  I loved how it showed all the sisters and in-laws and kids interacting.

The feminist element in the movie was, in my opinion, overdone.  The idea that marriage in the 1800's was unfair to women came up over, and over, and over, until I was heartily sick of it.  Louisa May Alcott didn't say anything like that in Little Women. On the contrary, she had Marmee (the voice of wisdom in her book) say: "To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman."

Overall, I enjoyed this version of Little Women a lot. There were many great scenes that weren't included in any other movie version, and I really liked a lot of the characters.  The things that I didn't like about the movie weren't numerous enough to spoil it for me.  I do recommend that anyone who wants to see this movie see another version of Little Women first, because this movie is such an unconventional take on the story.  For my part, I would like to see it again (although I may wait until it comes out on DVD.)

If any of you have seen the movie and have thoughts on it, I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

 

 

Movie Review: By Way Of The Stars

Recently my sister and I discovered a six-hour miniseries called By Way of the Stars, which ran from 1992 to 1993. It was produced by Kevin Sullivan, who produced the Anne of Green Gables movies and Road to Avonlea, and it features quite a few of the main actors from Road to Avonlea. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being absolutely horrible and 10 being the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice), I would give this movie a 9. Or possibly a 9.5.

The story centers around a boy named Lukas (Zachary Bennett) in 1800's Prussia.  Everything is going well for Lukas until he sees evil Count Otto von Lebrecht (Hannes Jaenicke) murder a man...and Otto realizes Lukas has seen the murder!  In no time Otto frames Lukas's father for stealing and has him clapped in prison. He intends to murder Lukas as well.

Lukas has a plan: to get himself and his father to Canada and far away from Otto.  With the help of a family friend, he helps his father get free from prison.  But the father and son get separated.  Lukas starts off for Canada by himself.  But soon he has a traveling companion--Ursula von Knabig (Gema Zamprogna), Otto's teenage niece, who now knows about the murder and is running away from her uncle.

Lukas and Ursula's trip is filled with dangers...hungry bears, con artists, river rapids, warring Indian tribes, and the indefatigable Otto, to name just a few.  But it's also filled with good moments.  They meet kind people on a wagon train who help them.  Ursula meets a young surveyor named Ben Davis (Michael Mahonen), and a romance begins between the two young people.  Lukas meets a young Cree brave, Black Thunder (Eric Schweig) who is impressed by his courage and wants to help him find his father.  And that's what Lukas wants more than anything in the whole world.

A lot of this movie rides on the acting skills of Zachary Bennett, who plays Lukas.  If he hadn't been so good at his role, the whole story would have flopped.  Lukas has to be mischievous, brave, stubborn, heartbroken, terrified, generous, and overjoyed, and all of these things have to be convincing.  They are convincing.  Lukas makes the watcher care about him and what happens to him and his father.  I cried when Lukas cried and rejoiced with him when he was happy.

The supporting characters in this movie are great, as well.  Lukas's father Karl (Christian Kohlund), a hot-tempered artist with a fierce love for his son and a passion for justice, is a complex character who goes through a lot of growth throughout the story.  Count Otto, so outwardly charming and friendly to those who don't know his dark secret, is a well-done villain.  (I nearly howled every time he appeared again just a couple steps behind Lukas and Ursula.) Ursula is a great sidekick for Lukas, being spunky and determined, and her romance with Ben is adorable.  (I'll admit, it makes me happy that her name is Ursula.  I don't see characters with my name very often.)  There are many other great characters...Lukas's grumpy grandfather, Ursula's saintly mother, the wagon train leader and his wife, the priest at Fort Garry, and a kidnapped girl named White Feather, to name just a few.

One of the things I always look for when I watch a movie is the costuming, and this movie didn't disappoint me!  The costumes of the Prussian nobility and the Prussian lower class look good (I haven't done research to see if they're authentic to the time period, but they could be.)  Lukas's outfits are especially good as he goes from blacksmith's apprentice to horse trainer to boy on a wagon train.  The children's clothes get gradually raggier and dirtier, just enough to be realistic, the more they travel.

The musical score for this movie, done by John Welsman, is also gorgeous. So is the scenery, especially the Western scenery.  I'm not sure if it was really all shot in the wilderness (the only filming location I can find listed is Uxbridge, Ontario), but it looks like it.

Because I like putting faces to names, here are a few pictures of the main characters in By Way of the Stars. 

Lukas (Zachary Bennett)

  

Lukas has a big heart and great courage.  He loves animals, especially horses.  He's always finding himself in trouble!  You may recognize the actor as Felix from Road to Avonlea.

Count Otto von Lebrecht (Hannes Jaenicke)

  

Otto is pure evil...but unfortunately most of the people close to him don't know it!  He's determined to catch Lukas and kill him so Lukas can't tell anybody about the murder he witnessed.

Ursula von Knabig (Gema Zamprogna)

  

Proud of her position as a count's daughter, Ursula starts out as a stuck-up, spoiled girl.  But traveling across the wild West, she comes to see that true worth doesn't come from someone's rank in life; it comes from the way they act.  You may recognize the actress playing Ursula as Felicity from Road to Avonlea.

Karl Bienmann

Lukas's father is an artist, a dreamer, and a fighter for justice.  He goes to the New World to escape Otto and then goes on a long journey to find his missing son.  On the way, he struggles to understand the attitudes of the people in the United States about race following the Civil War.

Ben Davis (Michael Mahonen)

Ben is a young surveyor traveling west.  He's kind, honest, and sacrificial.  He has also fallen head over heels for Ursula von Knabig.  You may recognize the actor playing Ben as Gus Pike from Road to Avonlea.

Francoise (Tantoo Cardinal)

 

 Francoise is the kindly wagon train leader's wife.  She gives out good advice right and left!

Black Thunder (Eric Schweig)

Black Thunder initially distrusts Lukas, but ends up respecting him deeply for his courage.  He works hard to help Lukas and his father find each other.

In summary: This is an exciting, heartwarming movie with great acting and beautiful costumes, music, and scenery.  I recommend it highly!

A note: If you watch this, make sure you get the 6-hour version.  There's an abridged version out there that has been cut down to two hours and leaves out most of the story.  You can find the full version available to rent or buy on Gazebo TV through Sullivan Entertainment's website.  (You can buy a physical DVD from them too, but since the company is in Canada it's pretty expensive for them to ship to the US.)

If you've seen this movie, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

 

Road to Avonlea: A Fun, Family Friendly TV Show

Recently my family started watching a TV show called Road to Avonlea.  It's done by Sullivan Entertainment (which put out the Anne of Green Gables movie trilogy), and it's based on stories from the Anne of Green Gables books and from other works of L.M. Montgomery such as The Story Girl.  

If you took Anne of Green Gables and crossed it with the Little House on the Prairie TV show, this show would be the result.  The story centers around the King family, a family of farmers in Avonlea, and Sara Stanley, a cousin who comes from Montreal to stay with them.  As the series goes on, the cast of characters grows as more and more of the Avonlea townspeople take on important roles.  Marilla Cuthbert and Mrs. Lynde appear multiple times, played by the same actresses that played those roles in Anne of Green Gables. 

The stories themselves are light-hearted.  Unlike Little House on the Prairie, in which a major tragedy strikes about every other episode, Road to Avonlea seldom features tragic events.  Instead, it focuses on ordinary life and the relationships of the people in the village.  (By the way, I don't mean to bash Little House on the Prairie...I do love that series...but I advise reading episode synopses first if you don't want to be traumatized while watching it!)

Without further ado, I'm going to introduce the main characters of Road to Avonlea.

Sara Stanley

 

Sara comes to the Island for the summer because her father has been framed for embezzlement and is on trial.  She's a town girl and isn't used to the way things are done in Avonlea.  She struggles to fit into the community and to get along with various members of the King family (her cousins, aunts, and uncle).  Sara has a tender heart and will stand up for anyone who is being treated badly.  She's also a dreamer, a player of practical jokes, and a storyteller.  

Hetty King

 

Hetty King is Sara's aunt (her mother's sister).  Hetty is the oldest of the Kings since her parents died, and she never lets her siblings forget it!  She is the Avonlea schoolteacher.  She is crabby, strict, rule-bound, and in many ways unsympathetic to the feelings of others...but occasionally those around her can glimpse the deep-seated love she has for her family.  Hetty takes in Sara when she comes to the King farm, even though she's reluctant to take care of her at first.  (You may recognize the actress, Jackie Burroughs, as the woman who recited that "Ho! Ho! the breakers roared" poem in Anne of Green Gables.)

Olivia King

 

Olivia King is Hetty's younger sister who lives with her in Rose Cottage.  She is sweet and optimistic and is delighted to have Sara stay with her and Hetty.  Olivia has a passion for poetry and journalism and really wants a job with the Avonlea newspaper.  (You may recognize the actress, Mag Ruffman, as Alice Lawson, the storekeeper's daughter, in Anne of Green Gables.)

Alec King

Alec King is Hetty and Olivia's brother.  He runs the farm that his house and his sisters' house are on.  Alec is married and has three children.  He's a good father with a sense of humor (and a little bit of mischief)!  He tends to play peacemaker within his family, although he and Hetty butt heads sometimes.  (The actor, Cedric Smith, was in Anne of Green Gables as Reverend Allan.)

Janet King

Janet King is Alec's wife.  She's a kind mother to their three children and a capable homemaker.  Sometimes she doesn't realize how much mischief her children are getting into, though!  Janet always seems to have her hands full with a million different projects around the busy farm.

Felicity King

Felicity is Alec and Janet's oldest daughter.  When Sara Stanley arrives in Avonlea, Felicity sees her as a threat with her expensive town clothes and her town ways.  She ignores her and plays mean pranks on her (often with the help of her brother, Felix).  However, Felicity soon learns that it's better being friends with Sara than being at odds with her! Felicity likes to cook and do crafts.  She likes being put in charge of her siblings, although when she actually does get put in charge of them there's always trouble!

Felix King

Felix King is mischief personified....and cuteness personified!  He's forever getting into scrapes and playing pranks.  But he loves his family dearly and is sorry whenever he realizes that one of his pranks has really hurt someone.  Felix has a strong sense of justice and gets outraged when he feels things aren't fair (which is about every five minutes)!

Cecily King

Cecily is the youngest King child, and the best behaved.  She is kind to Sara when she first arrives and Felicity and Felix can't stand her.   Cecily is truthful, logical, and never afraid to speak her mind.

Andrew King

Andrew King is a cousin both of Sara Stanley and of Felicity, Felix, and Cecily.  He's been sent to Avonlea while his father, a famous geologist, is doing mining work in Brazil.  Andrew often sides with Sara against Felicity and Felix in arguments.  In his free time, he's nearly always got his nose in a book. 

Peter Craig

Peter Craig is Aunt Hetty's hired boy.  He's kind to Sara when she comes to Avonlea.  He often gets involved in the pranks and arguments going on among the other children.  Peter is a plucky kid who isn't afraid of much of anything, even the so-called "Witch of Avonlea," Peg Bowen.

 If you're looking for a light-hearted, family friendly TV show, you should check out Road to Avonlea!  If you've seen it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it in the comments!

10 Show-Stealing Movie Sidekicks

While figuring out characters for my current work-in-progress, I've been thinking a lot about the importance of some underrated characters: sidekicks.  They support the main characters or try to show them where they're going wrong.  They're often funny without even trying.  There's also a disarming humility about a lot of sidekicks; they're focused on everyone but themselves. 

After thinking about this for a while, I decided to do a post on it.  (Yes, I'm a college grad and this is the way I choose to spend my free time.  You may judge me.)  Here are ten of my favorite movie sidekicks and supporting characters!  I picked movies because I could show pictures of the characters.  Maybe at some point I'll do a post on sidekicks from books too.

Bartok, Anastasia

Bartok is on the bad side.  He's helping the villain, Rasputin, find the escaped Princess Anastasia.  But Bartok is continually dismayed by Rasputin's evil plans.  He tells him to "forget the girl and get a life!"  Finally he decides it's gone too far: "You're on your own, sir!  This can only end in tears."  Bartok's voice is hilarious (not surprising, since he's voiced by uber-talented Hank Azaria).  This is a sidekick who deserved his own movie...and got it, with Bartok the Magnificent (which is a really fun movie, by the way)!

The Captain of the Guard, Cinderella

The Captain of the Guard in Disney's live-action Cinderella is so great.  He's the best friend Prince Kit seems to have at the palace (besides his father).  When the Grand Duke schemes to bring more power to the kingdom at the expense of Kit's happiness, the Captain is always there to remind everyone that Kit is a person too.  He's also really funny!  I love when Kit is telling him all about the girl he's fallen head over heels for, and the Captain says, "Do you think she has a sister?"  The Captain also gets to put Lady Tremaine in her place at the end.  "Who are you to stop an officer of the king? Are you an empress? A saint? A deity?"

 Kronk, The Emperor's New Groove

 

  Like Bartok, Kronk is the villain's sidekick; Yzma is using him to help her track down the escaped emperor-turned-llama.  (This sounds really weird if you haven't seen the movie.)  Kronk is not the brightest bulb in the box, but when Yzma gets deeply entrenched in ridiculous schemes to kill the emperor, Kronk turns out to be the one who uses common sense!  He's friendly, hilarious, and a great cook.  (In fact, the point where he turns against Yzma is when she tells him she never liked his spinach puffs!)  He also talks to squirrels.

Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

I would be remiss if I didn't include one of the most iconic movie sidekicks ever: Inigo Montoya.  Although I don't hold with revenge or dueling, I appreciate the terrific love Inigo has for his father that makes him chase the six-fingered man for so many years.  I also love his interactions with the other characters.  He's incredibly forthright and will tell you just what he's thinking.  

To Vizzini: "You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means."  

To the Man in Black: "I do not think you would accept my help, since I am only waiting around to kill you!"  

Cogsworth and Lumiere, Beauty and the Beast

I had to mention both of these because they're so hilarious together!  Cogsworth is a mother-hen type and the straight man to Lumiere's funny man.  (Incidentally, my siblings have informed me that he is the Beauty and the Beast character most like me.)  He wants to make sure nobody's breaking rules or making the Beast mad.  Lumiere, on the other hand, thinks that rules are more like guidelines than actual rules.  He wants to show Belle just how hospitable the castle can be!  Their interactions with each other and the Beast are just golden.  

Cogsworth (to the Beast): "Who?  Oh!  The girl. Yes,  the, ah, girl.  Well, actually, she's in the process of, ah, um, circumstances being what they are, ah... she's not coming."

Lumiere (to the Beast): "Master, I could be wrong, but that might not be the best way to win the girl's affections." 

Cosmo, Singin' In the Rain

Cosmo Brown and Don Lockwood started out as good friends who did second-rate vaudeville together.  Then Don Lockwood became a movie star, and Cosmo...well, he played the piano on the set.  All through Singin' In the Rain, while Don's in the spotlight, Cosmo is cheering him up behind the scenes and helping him figure out his problems.  He comes up with terrific ideas, like dubbing Kathy's voice over Lina's in "The Dancing Cavalier."  And he's not looking for fame or recognition, just helping his friends and making people laugh!

Sir Hiss, Disney's Robin Hood

Sir Hiss, evil Prince John's sidekick, always makes me laugh.  On the one hand, he goes around flattering Prince John and even spying for him.  On the other hand, Prince John makes him incredibly crabby...and Sir Hiss is hilarious when he's crabby!  He can see Prince John for what he is: a whiny, cowardly character who's not fit to lead anything, let alone a whole kingdom.  

Prince John: "One more hiss out of you, Hiss, and you are walking to Nottingham"

  Hiss [aside]: "Snakes don't walk, they slither. Hmph. So there."

Hiss: "How nobly King Richard's crown sits on your royal brow."

Prince John [not paying attention]: "Doesn't it?" [realizing, furious] "King Richard?  I told you never to mention my brother's name!" 

Hiss: "A mere slip of the forked tongue, Sire."

 Truman, October Baby

October Baby is a pretty serious movie for the most part.  After all, it deals with a serious theme: the right to life of unborn babies.  But it has some great comedic moments, and a lot of them involve Truman.  

Truman is one of Hannah and Jason's college classmates.  We first see him trying to make a little extra money by "upgrading" people's tickets as they come to a school play.  Next, we see him catching an iron on fire.  No matter what ridiculous thing Truman is doing, he maintains a dignified and gloomy composure that is hilarious in contrast.  And he's nerdy--the kind of socially awkward nerdy that most of us nerds hope we're not.  I love it!

Canoe, That Darn Cat

Canoe is a boy who hangs out at Patti Randall's house, raiding the fridge and taking Patti to surfer movies that make her feel seasick.  But when he suspects that something fishy is going on at the Randall house, he's determined to help Patti out by getting to the bottom of it...and jealous, because he thinks there's a young man involved.  Canoe's bumbling detective attempts are one of the best things about this movie!  

 

Sam Gamgee, Lord of the Rings

Sam Gamgee is an unusual sidekick because he's also the hero of the story!  Sam starts out as Frodo's bumbling, comedic gardener, always needing his master's help and guidance.  But throughout the story, Sam gets wiser and stronger.  As the Ring becomes harder and harder for Frodo to bear, Sam supports him.  He risks his life over and over for Frodo.  Without Sam, the whole quest would have failed.  He's my favorite LOTR character.

These are only a few of my favorite movie sidekicks.  I'd love to see your favorites in the comments!

 

 

 

 

10 Reasons Why I Enjoyed the 5th Pirates of the Caribbean

 

Warning: This post contains spoilers.

After seeing the second and third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, I told myself...and everyone else...that I was tired of the "Pirates" franchise.  I just didn't like Pirates 2 and 3...the plots were really convoluted and it seemed that each successive movie was trying to one-up the previous one.  Besides, #2 ended on a cliffhanger and #3 had an unsatisfying ending (was that supposed to be a happy ending?  It didn't feel like one!)  I didn't watch movie #4 at all...it didn't have Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley, and it did have weird CGI mermaids.  No, thank you!

So my sister practically had to drag me to watch Pirates #5, "Dead Men Tell No Tales," with her this afternoon.  And to my surprise, I liked it!  I had a good discussion with my sister about the movie afterwards; she says she thinks the filmmakers were trying to fix all the things people complained about with #2 and #3.  Anyway, here are ten reasons why I liked it.  Feel free to disagree with me in the comments if you wish. :P

 1. It had a simple plot.

The thing that bothered me the most about movies 2 and 3 was how confusing they were.  There were so many plot twists and different storylines that I couldn't keep them straight in my head!  This movie, on the other hand, had a simple plotline.  Everyone wanted the Trident of Neptune.  They all went after it.  Eventually, they all got to the place where it was and had a fight over it.  I appreciated how straightforward it all was.  That's not to say there weren't any subplots...there were a few of those (I'll talk about some of them later in the post), but they didn't work as extra complications to the main plot.

2. It completed the Will and Elizabeth story in a satisfying way.

I was so frustrated at the end of movie 3 when Will was doomed to captain the "Flying Dutchman," only returning for one day every ten years to be with Elizabeth.  After all they had gone through together, it seemed horribly unfair that they should be separated again.  So, when the curse was broken at the end of movie 5 and Will was released and reunited with Elizabeth, it was a huge relief...finally, a real happy ending! 

3. Henry Turner was a likeable character.

At first, when I realized one of the main characters was Henry, Will Turner's son, I groaned inwardly.  I tend to dislike sequels where the main character is the son of the main character in the previous movie.  But Henry (played by Brenton Thwaites) was a bold, driven character and actually reminded me a bit of Orlando Bloom (and a bit of Christian Bale as well).  I didn't mind that he was a main character instead of Will.

4. Barbossa got a heroic ending.

Barbossa was a character I never cared much for in the first three movies.  He was either the villain or was grudgingly helping Jack Sparrow (for selfish purposes of his own).  I liked that this movie redeemed him by having him sacrifice himself for his daughter.  (I never saw that twist coming, by the way.)  I found myself crying when he died.  (Don't tell anyone! :P)

5. The villain was well-done.

I could have done without the disgusting way Captain Salazar's mouth dripped blood every time he talked.  I don't know what was going on with that.  But apart from that, he was a great villain.  He had one goal...revenge on Jack Sparrow...and he was trying to achieve it, no matter what (a bit like the way Javert in "Les Miserables" keeps looking for Prisoner 24601).  

6. We got to see some of Jack Sparrow's back story.

It was very cool to see Jack Sparrow become captain of his own ship, with his men giving him tribute (such as the hat that would become his famous hat)!

7. The bank-robbing scene was hilarious.

The scene where the pirates rob a bank by dragging the whole bank building down the streets of the town is just absurd.  Impossible...ridiculous...and insanely funny!  I could not stop laughing as the bank building scooted down the streets, with Jack Sparrow trying to keep up with it.  And it was poetic justice that the safe came open and all the money got lost.

8. The love story wasn't overdone.

Henry and Carina grow to like each other by the end, but that isn't the main focus of the story.  Although I like the way Will is constantly in love with Elizabeth during the earlier movies, I'm glad the writers didn't do the same thing with Henry and Carina.  They had just met at the beginning of the movie and couldn't even get along with each other until late in the story.  It would have been weird to have a romantic storyline happen quickly.

9. There wasn't much actual piracy.

One of the things that always bothers me about the Pirates movies is that there are good guys who are bad guys.  That is...piracy is wrong.  And the Pirates movies often seem to glorify it.  In this movie, besides the bank-robbing scene, there really wasn't any piracy to speak of.  Everyone was too busy hunting for the Trident of Neptune.

10. We got to see Will with his son.

One of the best moments of the movie was when Will, freed from his curse, was reunited with Henry.  (One of the other best moments was when Will was reunited with Elizabeth, but I digress.) It was great (and a little tear-jerking) to see how proud Will was of his son!    

So there it is: my list of ten reasons why I liked Pirates #5.  I must add that there were also some things I did not like about the movie.  For one thing, there was quite a bit of joking about inappropriate topics...sex, prostitution, etc.  If I watch it again, I'm definitely muting it in those places.  Also, I hated how Gibbs makes an unwitting sailor the captain in Jack's absence so he, not Gibbs, has to face Captain Salazar's wrath.  Another thing I didn't like was that a couple of the "bad guys" early on in the movie who think Carina is a witch seem to be priests or religious sisters.  But apart from those problematic elements, I really enjoyed watching it!