Anne of Avonlea
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Movie Reviews of Anne of Avonlea
Movie Review: Best Anne Sequel Out There!
Summary: 5 Stars
After watching in utter shock the HORRIBLE liberties taken with the continuing ANNE OF GREEN GABLES story by the two Sullivan sequels (THE SEQUEL and THE CONTINUING STORY), I was totally delighted to find this little gem that is amazingly true to the original L. M. Montgomery books. Anne in the original books had always seemed very real to me - I inherited my grandmother's entire series of L. M. Montgomery novels as a teenager and have read and reread especially the Anne ones uncountable times. This TV version of ANNE OF AVONLEA and ANNE OF THE ISLAND really does give the flavor of those stories and portrays the inner characters closely enough to what Montgomery described to make it a wonderful sequel (to my mind, THE ONLY viable sequel!) to Sullivan's original ANNE OF GREEN GABLES movie. I HIGHLY recommend it!Movie Review: fabulous
Summary: 5 Stars
When I found that this thirty-year-old BBC mini-series was out on DVD, I couldn't believe it! I had such fond memories of the series all those years ago and never believed I would see be able to see it again. But such is the nature of modern technology, and we are so lucky for it. As another reviewer said, Kim Braden IS Anne - nobody can top her. And the story stays so much closer to the original story. I only wish the first part of the series, "Anne of Green Gables," was available too. Message to the BBC - please find it ... I want to buy it!!Movie Review: Kim IS Anne
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been waiting for this release since it was first shown back in the 70s. Kim Braden simply IS Anne. She knocks the Megan Fellows character into a cocked hat. Please remember that this is a 70s BBC series not a big budget production nor is it a film as implied by another reviewer. It's a shame that the first series Anne of Green Gables was not released at the same time.Movie Review: ANNE OF AVONLEA
Summary: 5 Stars
THAT WAR THE FIRST I SAW AND I LOVED I START ASKING FOR MORE MOVIES OF AVOLEA.Movie Review: The 1975 BBC adapation of L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Avonlea" and "Anne of the Island"
Summary: 4 Stars
"Anne of Avonlea" is a 6-part BBC mini-series from 1975 that adapts both "Anne of Avonlea" and "Anne of the Island," the second and third books by Lucy Maud Montgomery in her "Anne of Green Gables" series. The first book had been adapted in a 5-part BBC serial in 1972, and back from that production are Kim Braden as Anne Shirley, Barbara Hamilton as Marilla Cuthbert, Jan Francis as Diana Barry, and Christopher Blake as Gilbert Blythe, along with director Joan Craft, who did "Jane Eyre" and "David Copperfield" in between the two "Anne" productions. Know going in that this is very much a BBC style production, which means it very much has the feel of an elegant soap opera, and that the attempts by the British case to sound Canadian (at least at times) seems rather odd.
The first four episodes adapt the "Anne of Avonlea" novel itself, which follows Anne from age 16 to 18 during the two years that she teaches at the Avonlea School, where she has problems with Anthony Pye. Fortunately she has at least one sharp student with young Paul Irving (Keith Steven) from the United States. Beyond that Anne is involved with Diana, Gilbert, Charlie Sloan (Peter Settelen), Fred Wright (Martin Neil), and their other former schoolmates with the newly formed Avonlea Village Improvement Society. Meanwhile, Marilla has adopted the twins Davy (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Dora Keith (Annabelle Lanyon) when their mother dies. Then there is the trouble with Daisy and Anne's neighbor Mr. Harrison (David Garfield) and the eccentric Miss Lavender Lewis (Kathleen Byron) and her maid Charlotte IV (Claire Lewis). Needless to say, Rachel Lynde (Madge Ryan) is hovering around giving her advice at each and every opportunity.
The final two episodes condense "Anne of the Island" and find Anne attending Redmond College when Rachel moves in with Marilla after Thomas Lynde dies. Anne and her roommates Philippa Gordon (Sabina Franklyn) and Priscilla (Sandy Dickinson), move out of a strict boarding house and into Patty's Place. Anne turns down a pair of proposals, one from Gilbert and the next from a somewhat surprising source, before she starts seeing Roy Gardiner (Anthony Forrest), who seems to be everything Anne has dreamt of in a beau. But then his mother (Betty McDowall) visits Green Gables and tries to find out about Anne's parents, which is where the adaptation written by Elaine Morgan wrongly starts tinkering with the resolution of the story, where "Love Takes Up the Glass of Time."
When Anne goes to visit the place where she is born, she asks Gilbert to accompany her, and later when she opens her mouth to say her fateful "yes" to the marriage proposal she has been dreaming of, it is the flowers sent her by Gilbert that take her out of the moment. Then when she arrives back at Green Gables and learns that Gilbert is dying, Marilla talks her into going over in the middle of the night to see Gilbert and the happy ending comes about pretty quickly. This is something of a disappointment because I always loved the way Montgomery had Anne respond to Gilbert's final proposal: "Still Anne could not speak. But she lifted her eyes, shining with all the love-rapture of countless generations, and looked into his for a moment. He wanted no other answer." That is pretty romantic, and the final line that Morgan comes up with for Anne totally pales compared to when Anne tells Gilbert, "I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU."
Both the old black & white movie with Anne Shirley (nee Dawn O'Day) and the Kevin Sullivan mini-series version of "Anne of Avonlea" with Megan Follows focused more on what ended up being the fourth novel in the series, "Anne of Windy Poplars," where she goes off to teach at a private school for young ladies. So the relative fidelity to the two books is certainly appreciated. I especially liked the inclusion of what happened with Ruby Gillis (Kim Hardy), but the irony of the love between Phil Gordon and Jonas Blake (David Troughton) is sketched out rather than developed. This is not to say that Morgan does not come up with some decent new moments; she uses the character of Mrs. Blythe (Hazel Bainbridge) to nice advantage. As for the performances, I am in the Megan Follows IS Anne camp, and Braden keeps striking me as focusing on Anne's flightiness at the expense of her intelligence and kindness. Hamilton and Ryan as Marilla and Rachel take turns stealing scenes from the young folks, but there is pretty much a generational gap on acting talent here. Anne's fans will want to check this out, but relatively few will find this production to be their favorite L.M. Montgomery adaptation.