A Little Princess 1995

[Nayra Waddles]

ALittle Princess is a 1995 American fantasy drama film directed by Alfonso Cuarn. Loosely based upon the 1905 novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the film stars Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, Liesel Matthews, Vanessa Lee Chester, Rusty Schwimmer, Arthur Malet, and Errol Sitahal. Its plot, heavily influenced by the 1939 cinematic version, focuses on a young girl who is relegated to a life of servitude at New York City boarding school after receiving news that her father was killed in combat.

A Little Princess was released in the United States by Warner Bros., through their Family Entertainment label, on May 10, 1995. The film garnered positive reviews and received various awards, including two Oscar nominations for its achievements in art direction and cinematography.

In 1914, a sweet and caring young girl named Sara Crewe lives in India with her widowed father Richard, a wealthy British Army Officer, who shares his love for stories of myths and magic. Called in to serve in the Great War, Richard enrolls Sara at an all-girls boarding school in New York City, which her late mother had attended run by its haughty and spiteful headmistress Maria Minchin, and her kindly sister Amelia.

Instructing Maria to spare no expense for his daughter's comfort, Richard furnishes the school's largest suite and leaves Sara with a locket once owned by her mother and a doll named Emily, which he tells her will keep them connected through magic. Although stifled by Maria's strictness, Sara becomes popular among the girls, including an African-American scullery maid, Becky, for her kindness and powerful imagination. In her spare time, Sara writes to her father, who is caught in a gas attack while trying to save a fellow soldier in the trenches.

Though her life is bleak, Sara remains kind to others, but gets her revenge on Lavinia, a school bully. Charles Randolph, the school's elderly neighbor, receives word that his son John has been declared missing in action while fighting in Europe. Ram Dass, Charles' Indian associate, comes to notice Sara from the neighboring attic, overhearing her imaginative stories. When a wounded soldier suffering from amnesia is misidentified as John, Ram Dass encourages Charles to take the man in.

Meanwhile, Sara's friends sneak into Maria's office and recover her locket, visiting Sara that night to hear her tales of Prince Rama. Scorned after catching Sara, along with the other girls, Maria punishes her and has Becky locked up in the attic for an entire day. However, Sara stands up to Maria's cruelty with her father's belief that "all girls are princesses" no matter their lot in life. She later comforts Becky by imagining a feast and fine clothes for them, awakening to find that the dream has come true, with their attic secretly transformed by Ram Dass.

Inspired by Sara, Amelia runs away with a milkman, and Maria soon discovers the locket is missing. Confronting Sara in the attic, she accuses her of "stealing" the finery left by Ram Dass and viciously locks Sara in her room while she summons the police. With Becky's help, Sara narrowly escapes by making a perilous climb over to the Randolph house. As Maria and the police search for her, Sara discovers that Richard is the recovering soldier but he, suffering from amnesia, does not recognize her. Though Maria does clearly recognize Richard, she deliberately lies by spitefully saying that Sara has "no father". As Sara is dragged away by the police, Ram Dass helps Richard regain his memory. Outside Richard saves Sara and the two are happily reunited while Maria, defeated, angrily walks away.

Sometime later, Charles has taken over the school, now a much happier place for the girls, and has found peace in knowing that Richard tried to save his son. Richard's fortune has been restored and he has adopted Becky. As punishment for her vile treatment of Sara and the other girls, Maria is reduced to working for a young chimney sweep she mistreated earlier. Sara gives Emily to the girls and shares an unexpected hug with Lavinia, before she and Becky depart for home.

All of the tracks were composed by Patrick Doyle. Three of the tracks feature soloists. The "String Quintet in C major Perger 108, MH 187" by Michael Haydn is also used in the film. The film also features the New London Children's Choir.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 37 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Alfonso Cuarn adapts Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel with a keen sense of magic realism, vividly recreating the world of childhood as seen through the characters."[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[5]

Janet Maslin called the film "a bright, beautiful and enchantingly childlike vision", one that "draw[s] its audience into the wittily heightened reality of a fairy tale" and "takes enough liberties to re-invent rather than embalm Miss Burnett's assiduously beloved story". She concluded:

From the huge head of an Indian deity, used as a place where stories are told and children play, to the agile way a tear drips from Sara's eye to a letter read by her father in the rain, A Little Princess has been conceived, staged and edited with special grace. Less an actors' film than a series of elaborate tableaux, it has a visual eloquence that extends well beyond the limits of its story. To see Sara whirling ecstatically in her attic room on a snowy night, exulting in the feelings summoned by an evocative sight in a nearby window, is to know just how stirringly lovely a children's film can be.[6]

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called the film Cuarn's "dazzling North American [sic] debut" and wrote it "exquisitely re-creates the ephemeral world of childhood, an enchanted kingdom where everything, even make-believe, seems possible ... Unlike most distaff mythology, the film does not concern the heroine's sexual awakening; it's more like the typical hero's journey described by scholar Joseph Campbell. Sara, the adored Spoiled and pampered child of a wealthy British widower, must pass a series of tests, thereby discovering her inner strengths".[7]

Last week I mentioned I had initially planned on writing about a different movie before revisiting Meet The Robinsons and feeling inspired to write about it. I promised I'd cover the original film in the future, and this week I decided it was time to rewatch 1995's A Little Princess. Unfortunately, it didn't have much of a lasting impact on society, and it might seem random that I'd choose to analyze such a forgettable film that's over two decades old. However, for me, A Little Princess wasn't as forgettable as it was to most others.

The film is based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel of the same name. The movie might not be remembered by many, but it has some big names behind it. Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarn, best known for his Oscar-winning films Gravity and Roma, directed the G-rated drama with Rain Man producer Mark Johnson also on board.

I watched this movie a lot as a kid, and while I realized a lot more problematic aspects than I remember from when I was a child, its themes around hope, belief, and imagination still ring true for me. On Movie Mondays With Gina, I like to cover films that allow me to dive beneath the surface and discover greater meaning than meets the eye. I chose A Little Princess so I could delve into the importance of nurturing and healing the inner child. This is something I am so passionate about, whether I'm speaking to my younger self in meditations or revisiting old movies I loved as a kid.

Healing the inner child has a lot to do with reassuring yourself and speaking to yourself the way you wish a parent or caretaker had when you were younger, but it's also related to keeping your childlike wonder alive. Not everyone had a happy childhood, and this is prevalent in A Little Princess with the way Miss Minchin treats the children at her Seminary For Girls. However, if you look back on the happiest moments from your childhood, you'll remember the times you were the most carefree and imaginative. When you allowed yourself to be excitable, to daydream, and to play make-believe.

Revisiting movies that make me feel this way helps me connect with my inner child, which is exactly why I wanted to watch A Little Princess again and write about it for my newsletter. Before sitting down to write about the film, I took time to google what others thought about it from an adult perspective. I found everything from people calling A Little Princess their problematic fave to A Little Princess: Intersectional Feminist Masterpiece? by an author named Kitty. The author delves into the film's problematic elements, as well as Sara's immense privilege.

However, she also points out that Sara uses her privilege for good, and even when some of her actions come across as ignorant, she's always acting out of the goodness of her heart. She's only a child, after all, and really doesn't know any better. Like most movies I watch, I found myself most drawn to its optimism. Despite her circumstances, Sara uses her imagination to create her own world, which uplifts her and all the other girls at Miss Minchin's Seminary for Young Girls. Sara is a true "girl's girl," whether the friends she's entertaining with her stories are wealthy like her or living in the school's attic as a servant.

Sara even informs Miss Minchin of an important lesson she learns at the start of the film, "all girls are princesses," which she says applies to women in elegant clothing and to those dressed in rags. Sara doesn't believe class determines someone's worth or how they should be treated in the world.

Sara's ignorance comes out in a scene after she comforts a little girl named Lottie, who misses her mother and will never see her again because she's passed away. Sara knows this feeling all too well, as her own mother passed when she was younger. Sara's also dealing with her father being away at War, which is what brought her to the Seminary.

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