What I'd call a companion to a book

So last night while browsing Netflix I caught sight of a title that made me do a double-take. It was a Mandie movie! I don't really know why or how but I'd forgotten all about Mandie! Mandie is a Christian book series for girls. It takes place between 1899 and, like, 1904 or something. I believe I had about 30 of them? I don't actually remember but I looked at cover pictures and I recognize most of them up till about 33-35. But I was certain I hadn't read more than 25 of them. hm. They were really good, but I was starting to lose interest towards the end of where I dropped off. But I had to have been about 15-16 by that time.

Anyway, today I went ahead and watched the movie. It was good. I liked who they got to play Mandie, she looked perfect. Absolutely perfect! I know the guy the got for Uncle Ned is supposed to look like he does in the movie but I always pictured him as looking like a dark-skinned version of my Grandpa. I'm not actually very happy with how he looks in the movie. For some reason the estate manager guy was actually pretty awesome. Was he like that in the book and I just didn't notice? I mean, if you go on just what you see in the movie I think the estate manager guy tops Uncle Ned in my favorite character's list! And that's hard to do. As for Joe? He, well, frankly he's a bit too pretty. Sorry. And his teeth are too perfect. Dunno, that just struck me about him. Hopefully they man him up a bit as he gets older if they keep making these movies. ...and hopefully that kid takes some acting lessons... Sometimes I almost felt like someone was off camera holding up a sign with his lines on it.

Since it has been just so long since I read the first book (something like 13 years?) I didn't remember as much of it as I think was needed to fully understand the movie. If you watch the movie I definitely recommend reading the book first. They tried, they really did, but it just wasn't good enough. Things were a bit incoherent at times. The bit about Mandie's discovery about Elizabeth was particularly stressed. They could have cut out the song earlier to focus more on that. Another thing they didn't really say was exactly why Polly was there, who she is, and stuff. I don't even remember! Best I can come up with, from memory, is that Polly's mom was so busy with the other kids she didn't mind having her out from under foot??? Polly's hair should have been curly. They also should have included the awesome candle trick of that one room (John's study?), where you light one candle and they wind up lighting each other all around the room. Or maybe she finds that out in a later book? I also don't remember the Indian Princess story, but that could just be me not remembering, remember there ARE something like 40 books. The house was not really what I had imagined, but considering the standard architecture of the times I guess I'm not surprised. The shack at the beginning looked just like I imagined anyway.

I went and looked and there's a series that follows her through college, and a "young mandie" series! And a two-book thing that follows a side character I don't remember. I guess I've just been way out of touch with things. Also apparently the author died in 2008. There are three movies, though only two are available on Netflix currently, and they were made in 2009, 2010, and 2011, so it is my assumption that a 4th will be released this year? The 3rd movie is not attached to a book that I am aware of, it is a Christmas special. So I don't really know what their plans are.

Would I go back and re-read the books to follow the movies? Possibly. They're fairly short books (the standard just over 100 pages most tween books are, or were, since I don't know if they still do that). I don't have the books anymore, so unless my mom happens to have them then they must have been left behind one of the times we moved. I don't think I care enough to order them unless I have a girl, then it would be good to have them. On Amazon each individual book can be got for a penny used and the boxed sets of 5 can be had for about 4.00-8.00 used.  I'll keep it in the back of my head, but I probably won't order them unless I do happen to have a girl. Or unless we have them laying around somewhere in a crate or box. Anyway, I don't care enough to put a lot of effort into tracking them down, but if they happen to fall into my hands I'd probably go ahead and re-read the first book at least, and probably the 2nd because like I say, there's two book movies out.

All in all? Good try guys. But it's really more of a companion to the book and not something that stands on it's own really well. Too rushed in the wrong places and too drawn out in lesser scenes. Towards the end especially it's like someone told them "Hey, guys, you know we have to fit this into 100 minutes right?" I believe it would appeal more to girls 10-14 who have recently read the books. Strangers to the books, yeah, go ahead and watch it, it might intrigue you enough to make you wanna know more, but if you don't get it don't worry, the movie wasn't as clear on some points as it should have been.