There’s going to be an Anne of Green Gables prequel, detailing Anne’s life before coming to PEI. I am trepidatious, how 'bout you? Considering what Sullivan did in Anne 3 (travesty that it was), and that he’s making stuff up again, I can only be pessimistic. Thoughts?
Why? Why would anyone make such a thing? Anne Shirley’s life SUCKS before she comes to Green Gables, so the movie is either going to be really depressing or horribly untrue to Montgomery’s vision. Or both.
If one needs to make another Anne of Green Gables movie, there are plenty of stories of grown-up Anne still untold on the movie screen.
Ew. No. Just, no.
L. M. Montgomery must be writhing in her grave.
No way.
I mean, I loved the first two so much I watched the third, which was a travesty. But the synopsis of this one sounds truly awful. So, no.
I didn’t even know there was a third one. I just looked up the plot on wikipedia and . . . wow. I am so glad I never saw it.
Luckily I was warned by the Dopers and so I didn’t watch it. Well, I did see a few minutes. It was enough to convince me that the warnings were entirely justified.
I hadn’t found the prequel plot synopsis when I posted. He just made up a random orphan-adventure story and stuck Anne’s name on it to sell it. :mad: Grrr.
Nice to see so many kindred spirits here. 
The first two films were things of beauty, especially the performance by Megan Follows (and also Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth as Marilla & Matthew). I was so hoping for a third film, but when it arrived I was horrified. An embarrassment. This new one? No. Sullvian’s continuing to milk this poor cash cow who just wants to be put out of her misery.
The “prequel” to Anne of Green Gables was recently published. (Budge Wilson, Before Green Gables, published by Putnam.) I read a chapter or two and decided that was more than enough. I have no hopes that a movie of the same time in Anne’s life could be better than this awful book.
While I thought Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth were perfectly cast in the orginal TV series, I was not, myself, terribly taken with Megan Followes. I watched a couple of episodes and gave it up.
That Anne is never the Anne I see when I look at the photo of Lucy Maud Montgomery as a child. There she is, a wee, thin-faced girl with big dark eyes holding an expression of something much like fear, achingly unhappy. The little face speaks to me of intense loneliness, of a heart full of feeling she is afraid to express. Not “physically afraid”, but emotionally. Hard to express. A lot to read into a photo? I guess it is, but Montgomery described that child so perfectly in Anne! Film makers always make her so bouncy and yappy, like a mallrat babbling. For me, the heartbreaking longing for beauty and love never quite come through.
How our beloved Anne got to be the girl Matthew met at the train I don’t know.
Yeah, it’s actually painful. Don’t watch it.
I don’t like the looks of this one, for the same reasons **vison **felt Megan Followes didn’t do Anne justice in the first one - this little girl looks entirely too precocious and perky. Anne can be exuberant, and she’s never depressed (although she may be in the depths of despair, that’s totally different 
), but she’s not…perky.
To be clear: I thought *Megan *was awesome as Anne, and I don’t think see was too perky. But this new girl looks just too damn cherubic.
I never saw the third one, and I guess I’m glad! I think the whole premise of doing a prequel is awful…why not instead turn some of Montgomery’s other wonderful books into a miniseries, instead of just trying to stretch Anne’s story?
Yeah, I’d love to see a good adaptation of Emily of New Moon into film! And wouldn’t Rilla make a great heroine? I think Pat of Silver Bush wouldn’t really work, though. Now I want to go look at all my titles and pick the ones I would make into good films.
I agree that the current Young Anne looks entirely too perky. And too chubby, too, but then we wouldn’t want to half-starve a child…
I don’t know, vison, I’ve been reading the first Anne book to my daughters–we’re finishing tonight!–and a lot of Anne’s dialogue is endless to read aloud. She was indeed an extremely talkative child! I approved of Megan Follows pretty well–all of the casting, in fact. Even Josie Pye looks just like a Pye.
They did a TV version of that one, I think (maybe a miniseries?). I never saw it so can’t vouch for it.
I loved Megan Follows as Anne, and thought the girl who played Diana was great, too. I never read the books until after seeing the movies, which a friend introduced me to in college (same friend who introduced me to knock-you-on-your-butt margaritas, so, really, an excellent friend. She was always the Anne to my Diana, however, much to my chagrin. I would have preferred to be Anne but you gotta go with your strengths.)
dangermom, what a great book to read to your kids!
Ooh…I would love to see them dramatize Rilla…that’s one of my favorites of all her books! The Blue Castle would be a good one, too.
I love Rilla, too, it’s my favourite “after-Green Gables” book. Although Anne’s House of Dreams was good, with the neighbour’s brain-damaged husband and all.
But the Blue Castle gives me the heebie jeebies. Now, there was a book that was famously a ripoff of the Blue Castle, was there not? Was it written by Colleen McCullough or am I hallucinating?
Hm, I don’t think I’ve ever read the Blue Castle! A book I don’t own! I’ll have to look for it and see if it’s creepy.
I never heard that! How funny. I wonder if I can figure it out on Google.
You want creepy, though, check out Kilmeny of the Orchard. Now, I get that some social norms have changed since Montgomery’s day, but her idea of “romance” in that book I find to be a little disturbing.
Ah, yes…that didn’t take long. It was Colleen McCullough, and it’s called The Ladies of Missalonghi. I am going to have to find a copy of that.
I’ve been leery of the third movie since I first heard about it. I’m glad to see my caution seems to have paid off.
I have no desire to see this: as Eureka says, Anne’s life is teh suck until she comes to Green Gables. If I want teh suck, I can read a biography of L. M. Montgomery.
I’m surprised to see all the love for Rilla. I always thought that the book was interesting more for L. M. Montgomery’s view of the WWI home front than for the characters themselves. It just didn’t have the same charm for me. (It didn’t help that I was so annoyed with the whole Perfect Child/Doomed Soldier thing.)
I think the homefront angle is what I’ve always loved about it…it really showcases the difficulty of being family left behind…especially in those days, when the casualty rate was so high and the soldiers were gone for so, so long.
No kidding. I haven’t read Blue Castle, but The Ladies of Missalonghi is an old favorite of mine. I’ll have to seek out a copy of Blue Castle, now.
ETA: It’s still in print (Blue Castle, I mean) so I’ll pick up a copy when I’m next at the book store. It definately sounds a lot like Ladies.