Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

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MacynSnow
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by MacynSnow »

Jabroniville wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:05 am
MacynSnow wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:42 am I actually watched all of the Anne Of.... movies when i was growing up(i was a BAD PBS junkie as a kid.), and they were suprisingly good.I especially liked how they had the same lead actress play the role from the start of the Franchise all the way to the last movie(Megan Follows is a tremendous actress,imo.) giving it all a nice sense of Continuty.True,they DID veer off the timeline of the book with the 7 seasons(!!) of Road To Avonlea,but they were still as faithful to the characters as always(you never saw Anne act like Diana,for example)...
They only made two, right? I saw the one where she was in college, but not the one where she's a kid. I've seen the modern one with Martin Sheen, and it's had two so far (just covering 2/3 of the book, I believe).
They made 3 ,though it veered from the source material a little.It's called Anne Of Green Gables:A New Beginning.I haven't seen the modern one,is it any good?
Jabroniville
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by Jabroniville »

Yeah, the actors are likable and it's well-shot. Anne is a tough role to play- you have to voice lines that include terms like "EVER-so grateful!" with a straight face and real conviction. Marilla is believable as sort of the stern old spinster who loves Anne just as much as her brother does, but isn't the "showy" type.

It seems there's a few modifications to the story here and there. I haven't read all of the novel, but I did the comic book adaptation, and that's a little different as well. Much of the dialogue is dead-on, but the scene where Gilbert saves Anne in his boat is different, for example.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by Batgirl III »

There’s apparently a rabid, multigenerational Anne fandom in Japan. Anime, manga, radio plays, stage shows, musicals, ooodles of merch, and a theme park (which I think went bust during the Bubble).

I mean, I can see how the “spirited young lady who nevertheless always remains ladylike” aspect of Anne’s character would appeal to the Japanese. She’s basically a Hayao Miyazaki heroine!

I just always find it fascinating when a pop culture figure from one country becomes so beloved by another. Jack London was apparently hugely popular in the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War, despite being (very) American; H.P. Lovecraft has a massive fandom in France; David Hasselhoff has his infamous fandom in Germany; and my personal favorite, Detroit rock musician Sixto Rodriguez who released two albums in the U.S. and then faded into obscurity (and bouncing between homelessness and working menial construction jobs) was considered a nearly deific figure in apartheid-era South Africa. The documentary Searching for Sugar Man outlines that whole saga.
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Jabroniville
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 4:34 pm There’s apparently a rabid, multigenerational Anne fandom in Japan. Anime, manga, radio plays, stage shows, musicals, ooodles of merch, and a theme park (which I think went bust during the Bubble).

I mean, I can see how the “spirited young lady who nevertheless always remains ladylike” aspect of Anne’s character would appeal to the Japanese. She’s basically a Hayao Miyazaki heroine!
Yeah, that was one of the funnier aspects of the whole story, to me. Apparently a lot of it stems from occupying Americans making a deliberate attempt to give Japanese girls & women someone to look up to in a heavily chauvinistic society:
Published in 1952 by Muraoka, who translated the story secretly during the war, the book was widely distributed in libraries run by the US State Department in Allied-occupied Japan. Its central story, about an orphan girl who proves her heart and mind is just as good as any boy's, served as a kind of benign liberal propaganda aimed at freeing women from traditional Japanese gender roles, she says.
Anne is certainly more of a "plucky heroine" than you would have seen in the country beforehand, and her little bouts of rebellion and rushing against the grain would have been QUITE unusual. But now, she's so big in Japan that Prince Edward Island actually put up Japanese signs and comments on many of their tourist attractions, especially around the actual Green Gables.
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by HalloweenJack »

MacynSnow wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 4:04 am My first kiss was from a Curly Red-haired irish gamer girl that was visiting her Aunt for the summer.True,it was given to keep me from breaking her high score on Dragon's Lair, but i personally considered it a fair trade considering i dated her over that summer vacation.... :D
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Woodclaw
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by Woodclaw »

I've never read Anne, but Little Women was really, really popular with my sisters, partly because our aunt had the entire series and we often stayed at her place. It also helped that there were endless re-runs of the Japanese animated series of Little Women when I was a kid.
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Beleriphon
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by Beleriphon »

I live in Canada. Ha, my little sister has read all of those books, and still adores Anne. I have not read the books. That said I've seen the movies, and the CBC TV series, and what not.
Jabroniville
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by Jabroniville »

Has anyone ever read the sequels to Anne? Some are well-respected, though never touched the first one. The original is replicated CONSTANTLY, and has all the most famous scenes, but this is one of the few times a protagonist grew up with the readers back in the day.
MacynSnow
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by MacynSnow »

Jabroniville wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:53 am Has anyone ever read the sequels to Anne? Some are well-respected, though never touched the first one. The original is replicated CONSTANTLY, and has all the most famous scenes, but this is one of the few times a protagonist grew up with the readers back in the day.
Actually i did,mostly out of curiosity,but they weren't that bad(though i always thought Anne could do better Relationship-wise imo).Got a little long-winded at times,but i've read WAY to much Stephen King for that to stop me... :D
Jabroniville
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by Jabroniville »

MacynSnow wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 7:27 am
Jabroniville wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:53 am Has anyone ever read the sequels to Anne? Some are well-respected, though never touched the first one. The original is replicated CONSTANTLY, and has all the most famous scenes, but this is one of the few times a protagonist grew up with the readers back in the day.
Actually i did,mostly out of curiosity,but they weren't that bad(though i always thought Anne could do better Relationship-wise imo).Got a little long-winded at times,but i've read WAY to much Stephen King for that to stop me... :D
Margaret Atwood pointed out, quite correctly, that the REAL relationship of note in Anne's life was her one with Marilla, which was more dynamic and involved more twists and turns, and a great moment at the end of the book. Gilbert Blythe always seemed very... dull. He's just a simple, smart boy who teased Anne ONCE and immediately regretted it- it's actually kind of weird how he spends all his time apologizing to Anne and trying to make her acquaintance later on.

I believe the one where Anne is off at school (which was filmed as part of Megan Follows' last run with the character) and Anne's House of Dreams are considered the best sequels. "Maud" herself (who apparently led a much sadder life than poor Anne did- looking at her Autobiography is more or less a long list of dead friends, relatives who didn't care for her, and a disappointment in a son) really disliked the first sequel, as it was more or less written under duress. She herself actually preferred Emily of New Moon's protagonist to Anne, though others disagreed. No less than Mark Twain called Anne "the best young girl character since Alice".
MacynSnow
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Re: Anne of Green Gables & Little Women

Post by MacynSnow »

Jabroniville wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:30 am
MacynSnow wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 7:27 am
Jabroniville wrote: Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:53 am Has anyone ever read the sequels to Anne? Some are well-respected, though never touched the first one. The original is replicated CONSTANTLY, and has all the most famous scenes, but this is one of the few times a protagonist grew up with the readers back in the day.
Actually i did,mostly out of curiosity,but they weren't that bad(though i always thought Anne could do better Relationship-wise imo).Got a little long-winded at times,but i've read WAY to much Stephen King for that to stop me... :D
Margaret Atwood pointed out, quite correctly, that the REAL relationship of note in Anne's life was her one with Marilla, which was more dynamic and involved more twists and turns, and a great moment at the end of the book. Gilbert Blythe always seemed very... dull. He's just a simple, smart boy who teased Anne ONCE and immediately regretted it- it's actually kind of weird how he spends all his time apologizing to Anne and trying to make her acquaintance later on.

I believe the one where Anne is off at school (which was filmed as part of Megan Follows' last run with the character) and Anne's House of Dreams are considered the best sequels. "Maud" herself (who apparently led a much sadder life than poor Anne did- looking at her Autobiography is more or less a long list of dead friends, relatives who didn't care for her, and a disappointment in a son) really disliked the first sequel, as it was more or less written under duress. She herself actually preferred Emily of New Moon's protagonist to Anne, though others disagreed. No less than Mark Twain called Anne "the best young girl character since Alice".
To me(at least untill he came back from 'The War'),Gilbert had to much of a Stalker vibe going on.There was actually a Cartoon exsclusive(?) character(he was a Tom Sawyer Expy,so i don't remember his name) that would've fit better for Anne imho.But the dynamic with Marilla was really nicely done.It had just the right amount of Conflict to be intresting but not Adversarial...

I thought Emily of New Moon was too Pedantic,imo.Yeah,Anne could come off as too cliched(?) and slow as a seven-year itch,but at least it had engaining characters(even Gilbert,for all his faults,was a better Male Lead than Emily's) with rich backstories...Maybe TOO rich at times,but i digress.
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