Change Your Image
hannahp-84814
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
The Diary of Anne Frank (2009)
A good adaptation... but they made Anne too unpleasant
This is a pretty good adaptation. The casting is great, the acting is brilliant, and the story is very closely based on the diary. It's very sad, emotional, and realistic. But for me there's two main downsides. The first is that I wish they'd shown more about her life before going into hiding. She wrote quite a lot about it in her diary (for example, the hilarious part where she gets in trouble at school). It would have been more interesting. The second is that I find this Anne Frank too unpleasant. I get it, the real Anne was annoying and selfish, but she also had a nice side - she was optimistic, bright and cheerful - and I didn't see enough of that in this series. A little bit, but not enough. They made her even more spiteful than she really was. For example, in her diary she often talks badly of her mother, but she also mentions that she'd wouldn't tell those things to her: "I soothe my conscience with the thought that it's better for unkind words to be down on paper than for Mother to have to carry them around in her heart."
So despite being very outspoken, and often arguing with her mother, she at least had the heart to keep those nastiest thoughts secret. In this series she actually does say them to her mother, which makes her significantly nastier. They also made the mother too pitiful, always very quiet and sad. She's constantly portrayed as the victim whereas in Anne's diary her dislike for her mother is more understandable, because of her occasional insensitive behaviour towards her which is not shown in this series.
Another example is the bit where her mother comes to her with a prayer book. In her diary Anne says she didn't feel like reading the prayers, but she did it to please her. In the series, she just looks surprised: "A prayer book?" And then she goes on saying she isn't interested in religion, and then asks "Why should we worship God? What's He ever done for us?" The real Anne would never have said that. In the book she frequently mentions God, and it's always in a positive way. She also mentions that she prayed every evening with her dad. And things like this:
"The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity."
So while it's true she wasn't very interested in religion, there was absolutely no need to remove her spirituality. I'm sure that if Anne would have watched this, she would have been disappointed.
Malory Towers (2020)
Enjoyable but not perfect
This obsession with making politically correct period drama's annoys me so much. Sorry, if you want a show that is politically correct, do not make a historical drama. It simply doesn't work. Times were different then. People want to see what it was like at that time, that's the whole point of a historical drama. In this series, the diversity of the characters reflects the diversity of today, not the 1940s. The nice girls all have 21st century feminist opinions, there are no prayers before meals, there's no standing up when the teacher comes in the room, and so on.
This all makes it feel like it's 2020 schoolgirls who are dressed up and try to sound like they're from the 1940s by occasionally using old-fashioned phrases. I suppose this issue doesn't bother children; but still, if you're an adult who's grown up with the books or who's grown up in that time period - don't expect to feel nostalgic watching this.
Anyway, despite its flaws, the series is enjoyable. It keeps pretty close to the books (except for some unnecessary ghost stuff and a very boring episode about a dress), and the scenery is lovely. Most of the characters are good (except Alicia and Matron who are much too different, and Mam'zelle Dupont who is absent). Gwen and Mary-Lou are especially great.
Another thing that irritates me a bit, though, is the over the top "child-friendliness". Basically all the girls, except Gwendoline, are much too nice. In the books, the girls are much more blunt, and sometimes even bullyish. Yes, that's unpleasant, but realistic. School is like that. There's no need to make a show where everything is perfect. It doesn't teach children anything. For example, one of the girls (Jean) has a facial disfigurement, but it's never mentioned. No one stares at her when they see her for the first time, and it's never ever talked of... It's just unrealistic. Of course they wanted to show that she's just a normal girl like all the others, and I agree with that, I'm not saying it should have been talked about all the time. I just don't think that showing an ideal world, with no hard realities, where no one is ever discriminated against, is particularly inspiring for children to watch. The series doesn't teach any important lessons, and that's why I personally don't find it particularly gripping or moving.
And last and definitely least: The song.
What possessed the makers to put in this hideous song? Did they really think people would get emotional from hearing Miss Grayling's serious speech being turned into the most cringeworthy song that was ever made? "Four tall towers teach us how to strive..." Ugh. It truly spoils the ending of the show. Even the tune isn't particularly good. And they didn't even bother making an accompaniment. Sorry, I was going to give this series 7/10, but this song made me remove one more star.
Edit: Season 2 is worse, so I put the rating down to 5/10. There is little resemblance to the book. I watched it with my siblings and we laughed so much, because so many scenes were so cringy, soppy, unrealistic or just plain ridiculous, even though the scriptwriters tried to make it emotional or moving. I'm not going into details, but it's a stupid series and terrible compared to the books. Somehow we still enjoyed it, but there's no way I'm watching it again.
Watership Down (2018)
If you're a fan of the book, do not watch this
I can't believe there are reviews saying this version is truer to the book than the 1978 movie. This is simply not true. Yes, the 1978 movie is too short and leaves out a lot of stuff from the book, but this miniseries doesn't actually contain parts from the book that are left out in the movie. It just fills 4 hours with rubbish. This miniseries is an insult to Richard Adams. It makes a complete mess of the wonderful book. It sticks to the main plots just enough so it can be called "Watership Down", but makes it as different to the book as possible. Characters are swapped around unnecessarily and every brilliant detail of the story is changed in every possible way.
It's not particularly moving or powerful, the script is childish, there's no dry British humour like in the book; the humour is childish instead. The animation is really bad as well. Rabbits are actually beautiful animals, but this animation makes them look ugly, they look like hares in some video game.
The rabbit holes are much too large, which is unrealistic. The Threarah is rude and grumpy rather than excessively polite and comical and the Sandleford Owsla are too strict, it's almost like Efrafa. The dog and badger are left out, as are several rabbit characters such as Dandelion, Pipkin and Silver. Bluebell is silly and babyish, and not funny at all. Bigwig is very unpleasant, annoying and stupid, and his hilarious insults and sarcasm are missing. Even Kehaar isn't half as likeable, funny and savage as the Kehaar in the book. He has a much too gentle voice, not at all suitable for a gull.
The scene with the crows is ridiculous. In the book, there's just one solitary crow, attacking the weakest rabbit and aiming for the eyes (this is scientifically accurate). Here we have a completely unnecessary adventure, involving crows attacking the rabbits as a group and one of them even grabbing one of the rabbits with its claws and flying with it for a short distance. This is painfully scientifically inaccurate! Crows do not attack in groups and they can't carry rabbits!
The book is mostly scientifically accurate, or at least tries to be. It really gives you an idea of how rabbits think, behave and act. The miniseries changes this and makes the rabbits too much like humans. They don't act like prey animals; they have random silly adventures without ever being really terrified. They run around inside a house, climb on a roof, narrowly escape cats and dogs... even the hutch rabbits, who have spent their whole lives living in a cage, can do all this!
There's something even worse, however, and that's the silly romances. Love seems to be an important theme in this miniseries. It's completely unnecessary, inaccurate and annoying. Like it says in the book, real rabbits do form bonds with their mates, but they are not romantic; they do not understand the concept of love. In this miniseries "love" is the motive for every brave deed and action that happens, which completely misses the point of the book. Watership Down is supposed to be a story of comradeship and loyalty, not romance!
Efrafa seems pretty scary, and the Owsla are physically violent, but not really in a rabbit way. Rabbits bully by chasing, scratching and biting. They will also cuff, but they don't just randomly give someone one single blow in the face. This just looks weird and too human-like.
The plan to rescue the Efrafan does isn't a carefully organised secret plan like in the book. The escape is different and much more boring. Kehaar pops up and attacks some rabbits, but there is no escape on a boat. Why has this been left out? It's one of the best and most important parts in the book!
And for no reason at all, it's Fiver who gets caught by the cat and rescued by Lucy - not Hazel. We don't get the epic "Can you run? I think not!". This is one of the few examples of brilliant lines from the book being left out. Bigwig's phenomenal line "My chief rabbit has told me to defend this run and until he says otherwise I shall stay here" is left in but it's somewhat ruined by Hazel telling him he has to say it beforehand.
I could write pages and pages about all the other inaccuracies. If you're a fan of the book, this miniseries is complete garbage. If you haven't watched it yet, good for you. Don't waste your time on it.