| A
Little Princess (1995) ~ DVD ~ Liesel
Matthews ~
After the
critical success of 1993's The Secret Garden, Warner Bros. returned
to the novels of Frances Hodgson Burnett to create this 1995 adaptation of
A
Little Princess, which instantly ranked with The Secret Garden as one of the finest children's films of the 1990s. Neither
film was a huge... Read more
|
| The
Adventures Of Elmo In Grouchland (1999) ~ DVD ~
Welcome to
Grouchland, U.S.A., place of a thousand stenches. This is where everyone's
favorite red monster winds up when he stars in his first feature film, The
Adventures Of Elmo In Grouchland. Elmo learns a lesson when he
refuses to share his blanket with his best friend, Zoe, then loses it
in... Read more
|
| Alice
In Wonderland
(1999) ~ DVD ~ Robbie
Coltrane ~
This is an
impressive-looking version of Lewis Carroll's story originally produced
for NBC-TV. Dreading a singing recital at her parents' lavish home, Alice
falls into a strange world in pursuit of a large White Rabbit. The
talented child actor Tina Majorino (Corrina, Corrina) plays Alice
with all... Read more
|
| Black
Beauty
(1994) ~
DVD ~ Sean
Bean ~
Don't waste
this one on your children: buy it for yourself. A spectacular adaptation
of the Anna Sewell novel, this is faithful to the source material but
creates a life of its own on the screen. Told from the point of view of
the horse, it recalls a time and a place that could be both beautiful
and... Read more
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| The
Borrowers (1997)
~ DVD ~ John
Goodman ~
The popular
children's books by Mary Norton have been filmed before, but never with as
much imagination and ingenuity as you'll find on display in this
delightful fantasy film released to critical praise in 1998. The
"Borrowers" of the title are a family of tiny people who live in the walls
and... Read more
|
| Kid
in Aladdin's Palace, A
(1998) ~ DVD ~ Thomas
Ian Nicholas ~
There's
more shtick than you can shake a stick at in this goofy sequel to the 1995
comedy A Kid in King Arthur's Court.
Thomas
Ian Nicholas returns as
Calvin, a deceptively commonplace '90s teen whose pizza-delivery job gets
him mixed up in an ancient quest to help Ali Baba save Aladdin--and all
of... Read more
|
| Ladyhawke
(1985) ~ DVD ~ Rutger
Hauer ~
This lushly
produced fantasy has gained a loyal following since its release in 1985,
and it gave a welcomed boost to the careers of Matthew
Broderick, Michelle
Pfeiffer, and Rutger
Hauer. You have to ignore the overly aggressive music
score (critic Pauline Kael aptly dubbed it... Read more
|
|
| Lean
on Me
(1989) ~
DVD ~ Morgan
Freeman ~
Rocky director
John Avildsen championed the briefly
famous New Jersey high school principal Joe Clark in this upbeat 1989
drama. Morgan
Freeman plays the tough-love educator who wields a baseball
bat and bullhorn to keep discipline in his hallways and to motivate
underachieving students to keep... Read more
|
| Linnea
in Monet's Garden
(1993) ~ DVD ~
Lena
Anderson and Christina Bjork have turned their popular children's
book into a charming, simply animated introduction to the work of
Impressionist painter Claude Monet. Linnea, a vibrant little Swedish girl,
is intrigued by the paintings of gardens she sees in a book in the home of
her friend,... Read more
|
| The
Secret Garden (1993) ~ DVD ~ Maggie
Smith ~
Filmed before (and quite nicely) in 1949, Frances Hodgson
Burnett's classic children's story was remade for this admirable 1993
release, executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by
acclaimed Polish filmmaker Agnieszka
Holland. Splendidly adapted by
Edward Scissorhands screenwriter... Read more
|
| Stand
and Deliver
(1988) ~ DVD ~ Edward
James Olmos ~
Based on a
true story, this inspiring American Playhouse production stars Edward
James Olmos as a high school teacher who motivated a class full of East
L.A. barrio kids to care enough about mathematics to pass an Advanced
Placement Calculus Test. Not exactly a variation of To Sir, With
Love, the... Read more
|
| Star
Kid
(1997) ~
DVD ~ Joseph
Mazzello ~
A
diminuitive, 12-year-old boy named Spencer (Joseph
Mazzello of Jurassic
Park and The River Wild) has been hit with every whammy
possible: he's new in town, he's motherless, his preoccupied father and
bored sister have no time for him, he's speechless each time he's near a
girl he likes, and the... Read more
|
| Thumbelina
(1994) ~ DVD ~
Ranking just
behind the best of animator Don
Bluth's films (Anastasia and The
Secret of NIMH), Thumbelina
is a bubble-light version of Hans
Christian Andersen's fairy tale. The finger-sized heroine goes about the
old-fashioned trials of trying to find a good man, but the film is clever
enough to... Read more
|
| The
Witches (1990) ~
DVD ~ Jasen
Fisher ~
This splendid adventure-fantasy from 1990 was adapted from Roald
Dahl's book and directed by maverick British filmmaker Nicolas
Roeg,
who turned out to be a perfect (if seemingly unlikely) interpreter of
Dahl's fiendishly clever tale of witchcraft in contemporary England.
Scary, funny, and wildly... Read more
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