Anne of Green Gables (2016) - General Discussion

[SomeTameGazelle]

I posted this info in the Other Adaptations thread in the Anne with an E forum, but in case there is anyone who wouldn't find it there, part 3 will air in Canada on YTV on July 1.

 

[SomeTameGazelle]

Canada Day tomorrow and just a reminder that YTV is going to air the 3rd installment in Canada starting at 6pm ET . . . preceded at 2pm by the first installment, followed by the second installment at 4pm.

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 2/25/2017 at 0:02 AM, Camera One said:

Maybe a drawn-out reason why Diana can't go with them to Queen's?  More dementia?

No dementia that I noticed, which I thought odd since they had seemed to take a lot of trouble to establish it in the earlier installments. About the same amount of Diana's not going to Queen's as there is in the book. I felt as though it lacked any punch because there wasn't enough to make me really feel the intellectual difference between Anne and Diana. It might be because they just seemed so incredibly young, but in general there didn't seem to be much characterization of any of the group of girls -- and really not much to suggest that Anne and Gilbert are in a class by themselves and peculiarly suited to each other.

Charlie Sloane and Fred Wright were mentioned but as far as I could tell never seen. Moody Spurgeon McPherson was introduced to the Queen's class as if he were new. Anne spelled peony as "piony" and Gilbert spelled quandary as "quandry" and Miss Stacy didn't say anything about it, which confused me.

I thought it interesting that at one point Anne is reading Sense and Sensibility, because all of the episode titles for the Anne with an E adaptation are quotes taken from Jane Eyre and although the Brontes and Jane Austen are often lumped together as if they were the same, they are very distinct in style and tone, as are these two adaptations of Anne. Not that I think that this version rose to the level of an Austen comedy of manners -- there would have to have been a lot more pointed characterization of Avonlea society, which I would have LOVED.

Since Anne's grudge against Gilbert had already been broken long ago, they chose to present a constant series of arbitrary misunderstandings that refreshed Anne's determination not to speak to him, even up to the point where Anne hears that he has given up the Avonlea school and assumes that it was TO GET AWAY FROM HER once he learned that she would be staying in Avonlea.

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This movie also did 9 chapters (Ch 19-28, minus Ch 25 on puffed sleeves).

Did the puffed sleeves get covered in the first installment? Because I didn't see anything about them here. Matthew did have to go to the bank at one point and that was the only time I recall seeing him appear to be at all shy or tongue-tied. Have I mentioned that it bothered me that he habitually called Anne "Miss Anne"? That felt very wrong to me.

Marilla read as too warm to me. And I was confused about why her accent was so much different from her brother's. I don't remember it being so strongly Scottish in the previous installments.

Edited July 3, 2017 by SomeTameGazelle

[Camera One]

1 hour ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Did the puffed sleeves get covered in the first installment? Because I didn't see anything about them here.

Yes, that was in the first installment.

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Have I mentioned that it bothered me that he habitually called Anne "Miss Anne"? That felt very wrong to me.

I'm glad it's not just me.  It really annoyed me.  Especially at the end of Movie #2 when he tells "Miss Anne" not to lose all the romance, after hearing Anne and Gilbert's lovers' spat after the cascading waterfall Lily Maid escape.  

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Marilla read as too warm to me. 

I've always felt that this Marilla just felt like a nice older woman.  She acts no different than a kindly older woman today would act.  

Even the "Anne with an E" Marilla was too warm, too fast, pretty abruptly.

Edited July 3, 2017 by Camera One

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 7/2/2017 at 10:20 PM, Camera One said:

I'm glad it's not just me.  It really annoyed me.  Especially at the end of Movie #2 when he tells "Miss Anne" not to lose all the romance, after hearing Anne and Gilbert's lovers' spat after the cascading waterfall Lily Maid escape.  

It made it seem as if Matthew was in a servile role to Anne. It might have been one thing if he had done it occasionally; used sparingly I can see it could sound paternal; but it was too much.

Telling Anne to "keep a little [romance]" does happen in the book, but even implying that the type of romance in question was boy-girl love is icky. It was romance on a grander scale -- appreciation of poetry and beauty and adventure.

[Camera One]

On 7/2/2017 at 6:03 PM, SomeTameGazelle said:

No dementia that I noticed, which I thought odd since they had seemed to take a lot of trouble to establish it in the earlier installments. About the same amount of Diana's not going to Queen's as there is in the book. I felt as though it lacked any punch because there wasn't enough to make me really feel the intellectual difference between Anne and Diana. It might be because they just seemed so incredibly young, but in general there didn't seem to be much characterization of any of the group of girls -- and really not much to suggest that Anne and Gilbert are in a class by themselves and peculiarly suited to each other.

I finally got around to watching this.  I couldn't tell Jane and Ruby apart.  I liked Diana in the first installment, but I thought she lost all chemistry with Anne after the second movie where she was jealous of Anne's middle school fling with Gilbert.  If they are "trying" to follow the book more, I wish they had Stella and Priscilla at Queens.  Though they would probably be as bland and lacking in character as everyone else.

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Charlie Sloane and Fred Wright were mentioned but as far as I could tell never seen. Moody Spurgeon McPherson was introduced to the Queen's class as if he were new. Anne spelled peony as "piony" and Gilbert spelled quandary as "quandry" and Miss Stacy didn't say anything about it, which confused me.

That was indeed strange.  Miss Stacey didn't seem like a kindred spirit, more like a quirky weirdo.  She didn't have much of a relationship with Anne.  What was with her constant use of French?  

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Since Anne's grudge against Gilbert had already been broken long ago, they chose to present a constant series of arbitrary misunderstandings that refreshed Anne's determination not to speak to him, even up to the point where Anne hears that he has given up the Avonlea school and assumes that it was TO GET AWAY FROM HER once he learned that she would be staying in Avonlea.

And what about when Anne jumped to the conclusion that Gilbert INTENTIONALLY waited until the last minute to point out Anne read the wrong book.  I thought it was ridiculous they used the line from the book at the end about Anne needing to catch up on 5 years of conversation.  Except in this adaptation, she was pretty much dating Gilbert two years ago.  I couldn't tell what age they were supposed to be at the end, since they still looked like they were 13.

[SomeTameGazelle]

21 hours ago, Camera One said:

Miss Stacey didn't seem like a kindred spirit, more like a quirky weirdo.  She didn't have much of a relationship with Anne.  What was with her constant use of French?  

No idea about the French. When Miss Stacy was first introduced I was surprised by the physical education but when I reread the sections in the books I noticed that actually Anne talks about how Miss Stacy had them practice Physical Culture and have field days, among other things that Mrs Lynde thought unconventional. French was mentioned only as a completely ordinary part of the curriculum under both Mr Phillips and Miss Stacy.

I thought the scene where Miss Stacy had Gilbert paired with Anne as Coureurs du Bois felt unpleasantly like she was going out of her way to throw them together -- as opposed to just naturally from time to time Anne and Gilbert as the best students in the school would find themselves adjacent to each other even if they weren't speaking.

I got my hopes up briefly about Miss Stacy's mentoring influence when she caught her reading Sense and Sensibility (it was Ben Hur in the book, and Miss Stacy made the proposal re Queen's to Marilla, not to Anne), because in the book Miss Stacy steers Anne away from reading unwholesome novels and excesses of imagination in her writing, but the rebuke for reading in class was dispensed with very quickly. I can understand that it would be difficult to convey the message of the book to a modern audience without making Miss Stacy seem hidebound but I would have liked to see if it could have been done. They got my hopes up with a scene in one of the previous installments where they did kind of get into how Mrs Allen was having an improving influence on Anne as she grew up, but they didn't appear to sustain that as a theme.

[Camera One]

30 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

They got my hopes up with a scene in one of the previous installments where they did kind of get into how Mrs Allen was having an improving influence on Anne as she grew up, but they didn't appear to sustain that as a theme.

Mrs. Allan was MIA, as was Aunt Josephine.  The latter was particularly strange, because Aunt Josephine could have been a presence in Charlottetown.  What was the point of introducing these two if they were going to disappear?  In this production, the relationships that Anne has with pretty much everybody except Marilla and Matthew are quite shallow. 

[chitowngirl]

PBS aired Anne of Green Gables-The Good Stars on Thanksgiving. Did anyone see it?

[Suzysite]

I saw it.  I was fairly bored and ff'ed through some of the more ridiculous parts.   I can't stand Martin Sheen, so his version of Matthew is just wrong to me. 

[biakbiak]

I watched but found it boring. I agree that Martin is painfully miscast. 

[weyrbunny]

Wait, so this isn't the Netflix show Anne with an E? I completely missed that there was another remake that aired on Masterpiece. Even though the/your reviews aren't favorable, I might look for this at the library.