Reviews
Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper (2004)
3 year old daughter is in HEAVEN!
This movie is close to perfect for a little girl who is the frilly/froo-froo/princess type, as mine is. It has "lovely Barbies in beautiful dresses" (her wording), kitties, and songs with catchy tunes. I'm not kidding... she and I both go around singing "...I'm just like yooooou, you're just like meeeeeeeee..." all day! Now and then you can catch her older brothers doing the same, but they will deny it to the death.
Definitely a quality girl's movie. Excellent song writing and voicework. Plus, the visuals are top notch. Colorful animation with incredible facial expressions make this watchable, even for the adults in the room.
The doggish-cat (another cute line in a song), named "Wolfie" is a cute character. I have given up explaining that it IS a cat and not a weird looking dog. My daughter wants one for Christmas now...
A Christmas Carol (1984)
I endured this version
I was sooooo excited to see this movie after finally reading the book this week. My 13 year old son was looking forward to it too. I rented it and snuggled down to enjoy a classic holiday story brought to life on screen.
Boy, was I disappointed. This movie veered off from the book more times than is forgivable. George C. Scott is an excellent actor but in this, it seemed that he was fully into character only about 20% of the time. The rest of the time he was quite flat.
I realize that this was made in '84, pre-CG effects, for the most part. But it looked to be very B-movie quality, especially the encounter with Jacob Marley.
The biggest disappointment was the fact that they left out one of the most moving parts of the story: When the Spirit of Christmas Present takes Scrooge on the whirlwind tour of the world, observing people in the bleakest of circumstances still having the light and love of Christmastime.
I will admit that Mr. Scott did a good job with the "reformed" Scrooge at the end. That was a refreshing portrayal.
I wish that Bob Cratchit had been portrayed as a little more ragged and down-trodden. And Tiny Tim... oh don't even get me started on bad child actors...