#LainaWatchesAnne Oscar Wilde once said, "We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell."
So 2016 Anne had a sequel released February 20th, 2016, a year after the first movie came out. Let's just do this.
#LainaWatchesAnne I don't think it was released theatrically, but I have no background information because no one cares. It doesn't even have its own wikipedia page.
And why is it called Anne of Green Gables: The Good Stars?No clue. The movie never explains it.
#LainaWatchesAnne It's certainly not something from the book. I got nothin' here.
I guess "2 Green 2 Gables" was taken already.
#LainaWatchesAnne If Hell is real, all that will play for me is this trilogy.
Y'all I've seen 3 different animated Titanic movies.
Also can we talk about this hilarious DVD cover/poster? Why do Gilbert and Diana look like a prom photo?? X
#LainaWatchesAnne We open on a stormy shot of Green Gables. Looks great, people!
#LainaWatchesAnne The roof's leaking so Matthew goes down to the kitchen to put a pot under the leak. Yeah, MATTHEW is the first person we see in this ANNE of Green Gables movie.
We all know who the real star is here.
#LainaWatchesAnne Marilla says they'll hire someone to fix it, but Matthew basically says he won't trust it unless he fixes it.
Remember how in the book Matthew suggested they hire Jerry Buote to help out? *sips tea*
#LainaWatchesAnne Also. This is a niche complaint. But he specifically says "I can fix that." About a leaky roof and the rain.
Anyone else around my age immediately think Sam and Holes and shudder a little?
#LainaWatchesAnne First actual shot of Anne as Marilla sends Matthew off to bed! She says, "You to bed, too." Anne's first line is "I'm goin', I'm goin'." This does not sound remotely like an Anne thing to say.
Also apparently she's afraid of storms.
#LainaWatchesAnne Hey, look, a slightly different angle of the house! I didn't know they could do that.
And Matthew's on the roof!
#LainaWatchesAnne Okay I know I'm nitpicking now, but the bottom of Matthew's boot looks too modern to me. Am I wrong? Footwear's not my expertise - especially not men's footware from 1908.
#LainaWatchesAnne Now, remember. Matthew is our comic relief so he's apparently never gotten off a roof before and awkwardly slides down, knocking over the ladder.
#LainaWatchesAnne He crawls up to the window, finds it locked, and then sees Marilla walking up the drive and calling for him.
So he... hides from her?
#LainaWatchesAnne ...I think the lighting managed to get worse in this movie.
#LainaWatchesAnne Only once Marilla is inside does Matthew reply to her calling his name. She goes upstairs and sees him through the window.
He tells her to prop up the ladder "quickly" - so why was he hiding from her in the first place???????
#LainaWatchesAnne She gets downstairs and outside in time to see him climbing down. Thanks, Anne.
I guess.
...not to keep picking on him, but I deeply hate the facial expression Martin Sheen makes here.
#LainaWatchesAnne Again, Marilla is wearing a lot of makeup and this jacket fits really badly. My kingdom for a tailor.
#LainaWatchesAnne They eat a slightly better lit dinner and we get some actual book dialogue as Anne mentions Minnie Andrews (a sister of Prissy and Jane Andrews)
#LainaWatchesAnne And then I wondered why there were 3 different Minnies in the book. How many Minerva/Wilhemina's could there be on one small island? I started wondering if it was just a nickname for small girls, maybe the youngest girl in a family.
#LainaWatchesAnne Apparently it was also a nickname for Mary and Margaret, though. I didn't find anything conclusive, but I thought that was interesting.
We have Minnie Andrews, Minnie MacPherson, and Minnie May Barry all in the same book.
#LainaWatchesAnne Anne's acting is better in this one, also. The actress has clearly aged some, and it help a lot.
#LainaWatchesAnne They suddenly do the "Gilb- I mean, we all" thing because... that's a thing now. Apparently Mr. Phillips is "deeply sad about something".
I could not care less.
#LainaWatchesAnne Anne says she's a "dunce" at geometry and Matthew gets all worked up about it, especially when she says, "I'm such a dummy. Even Mr. Phillips says so."
Like not to defend Phillips, but he never says that about her.
#LainaWatchesAnne Matthew says, "I believe I'll have a word with that man" and "Fear and shame are no way to educate a child."
Hey, remember who criticized the education on the Island in the book? Mrs Rachel. Just saying.
#LainaWatchesAnne Anne and Marilla act like this outburst is out of character as though he ever shuts up in these movies.
Marilla: "You talk too much." REALLY?????
#LainaWatchesAnne This movie doesn't know hat pins exist and it just bugs me. Or hats with ribbons to hold them on. That's a thing too!
#LainaWatchesAnne This is interesting. I'm pretty sure this is the same building as last movie but the set dressing is totally different.
The road UNPAVED itself. I guess they didn't know the first paved road in Canada was in 1915, and the first in PEI was in the 1950s.
Gilbert had a growth spurt and also possibly a dye job. Anne's hair is also darker, you may have noticed.
Also here's a picture of the school I meant to include in the last tweet, but I grabbed the wrong.
#LainaWatchesAnne Anne struggles with geometry some more and this dickwad mic-drops his chalk.
Is the Anne and Gilbert academic rivalry coming out of nowhere?
Yes. Yes, it is.
#LainaWatchesAnne This girl offers to help. Apparently this is Ruby Gillis. Nice to meet you. We never have before, but whatever.
#LainaWatchesAnne She apparently has six older sisters (it's not numbered in the book, just "a lot", so this is fine) and gives Anne and Diana some romantic advice as they walk home.
Diana got even taller. I know you can't control how children grow but Anne's supposed to be tall
#LainaWatchesAnne The "secret of the universe" aka the secret to boys, is apparently to "never appear to try too hard", which Diana says Anne is an expert at.
Because she doesn't "try at all with Gilbert". I guess that's true when they've only had 3 scenes together in two movies
#LainaWatchesAnne Diana invites Anne over to make toffee and I don't remember the Barrys having a cook, but awww she has a kitty as a friend.
But why did they significantly age up Diana's mother? Like I'm not being snarky - this actress is 8 years older than the first one. She's only 2 years younger than Marilla's actress.
#LainaWatchesAnne The actress was, like, around 63 filming this. Diana is 12, turning 13. Minnie may is THREE in the first movie, so 4 at this point.
So she had Minnie May at 59? Possible, yes. Likely? No.
But actually I think she looks more like 1985 Marilla.
#LainaWatchesAnne Anyways, after saying how glad she is to have Anne there, and kissing her cheek, she leaves them alone to make toffee.
Which is "taffy" in the book, BUT. This is actually from the book! So YAY!
#LainaWatchesAnne As in the book, they get distractd and let it burn, and the cat walks on it.
What a good kitty.
#LainaWatchesAnne This scene is actually cute. The actresses seem to be having a good time and you can mostly even see thing! Good job, movie. You did one good scene.
This probably is my favourite scene in the whole series.
#LainaWatchesAnne It even quotes the book in the next scene. Thoug Anne is just talking to herself when in the book she was telling Marilla what happened.
And it was when she visited after saving Minnie May so the timeline is whacked, but! I will let them have this one.
#LainaWatchesAnne The toffee making also hasn't been in an adaptation I've seen yet, so. That's actually cool.
At school, Phillips talks about when he worked at the Royal Bank (aka RBC aka where I bank). Anne and Gilbert compare test scores.
Who cares?
#LainaWatchesAnne Diana/Mrs Barry have invited Anne for a sleepover. No concert, I guess. No spare room, either. Marilla still says no, though.
"Little girls belong in their own beds."
Anne replies, "I'm not a little girl. I'm nearly thirteen."
#LainaWatchesAnne She flounces off, Matthew argues for her, and Anne comes back to apologize for causing them to fight. I don't care.
Marilla agrees to let her go, yada yada.
#LainaWatchesAnne I actually think this part is sweet. Marilla brings Anne a nicer bag to bring to Diana's instead of her old suitcase. It was Marilla's mother's.
#LainaWatchesAnne I like that she's giving Anne a family thing to use. It shows she considers Anne a member of the family.
I don't like the part where Anne smells it so much.
#LainaWatchesAnne In an odd change, Marilla knows that Aunt Josephine is staying with the Barrys and warns Anne to behave.
#LainaWatchesAnne Yeah, I think this is the same building, just set-dressed differently. Maybe they could only get it for one day last movie.
The road unpaving itself continues to amuse me.
#LainaWatchesAnne Mr. Phillips walks through the empty class and sad music plays over it. I still do not understand why I'm supposed to care he's sad.
#LainaWatchesAnne On the way home, Diana asks if Anne wants to walk home a different way. I actually like when adaptations lean into the idea that Diana also can get into trouble and enjoys imagining and adventures, but doesn't have an outlet for that until Anne.
#LainaWatchesAnne It's a cool way to show that their friendship is more equal, and why she likes Anne in the first place
And I don't even mind them doing a Haunted Woods thing here! Though I wish they'd use a bit more of the book's descriptions/prose.
#LainaWatchesAnne The thing is. They chose to use bad CGI in this scene for some ungodly reason.
When the girls look behind them, they see... this.
#LainaWatchesAnne It's hard to see - there's this CGI white blob that streaks around between the trees. It's not clear if this is real, or imagined but it looks bad.
What's next, the trees start talking? Why does an Anne of Green Gables movie need CGI??
#LainaWatchesAnne We cut immediately to them running to bed in I think Diana's room. So, yeah, no spare room plot.
#LainaWatchesAnne Still freaked out, Anne goes to see if "it" followed them, looking out the window. She can't see anything so Diana suggests the window at the end of the hall that looks out at the edge of the woods.
#LainaWatchesAnne Anne looks, freaks herself out over nothing, and gets confused about which door is to Diana's room, and ends up jumping into bed with Aunt Josephine.
Just Anne.
#LainaWatchesAnne Rachel comes over the next day to gossip about this as Anne and Marilla are baking, and Anne decides to apologize.
#LainaWatchesAnne This is about when I realized we were only 20 minutes in. Remember how I complained how fast everything happened in the first one? Well, this movie heard that complaint and overcorrected to be as slow as possible.
This movie is boring.
#LainaWatchesAnne I was going to say "At least it's slightly better lit" but I don't think it actually is! I think it's just summer as this is being shot, instead of spring, so the sun is brighter and it's not cloudy as often.
#LainaWatchesAnne Wow, what an angle. I wish all movies had a Ring doorbell shot!
My legal first name's spelled wrong constantly, there's another name a letter off that I get called constantly, and sometimes people just assign me a whole new name but that one still pops my corn.
Also, despite my name being in both my email and my blog title, I get blog emails calling me Lania, Liana, Lana, Laino and on one memorable occasion, Lauren.
Alright, after Tuesday's wild thread, are we ready for another round of #LainaWatchesAnne?
#LainaWatchesAnne This thread is going to be a little different as the state of musicals means I don't have access to a lot of what I'll be talking about.
Hence why today, we're talking more about Anne and musicals in general than one specific one.
#LainaWatchesAnne To start, let's talk about what I'm calling, for clarity's sake, the Charlottetown Festival musical.
Thanks to everyone the reception to this post also! I like to do this one every year, but it really does take a while to do, and I'm quite proud of it.
I really, really love middle grade literature and I think it does everything YA does and more while having to both work with a generally more sensitive audience and, honestly, a lot more gatekeeping and less support.
I always try to talk about queer middle grade during @queer_reads because it means a lot to me and we really don't talk about it enough, in my opinion.
I'm 28 years old and some of the times I feel most seen as a human being is reading middle grade novels, honestly.
It is like the weirdest of her books and nothing like any of the others of hers I read. The Strange Power was the other one I owned and also loved that. She was one of my favourite authors growing up.
Side note, the HELL is going on with this cover????
Things have been kind of done, and I have a snack and a drink, so are you ready for today's #LainaWatchesAnne thread???
#LainaWatchesAnne Last time, we discussed some of how Anne is seen in Japan in general, from the perspective of someone who googled a bunch of stuff but is by no means an expert.
And today, before getting into the actual episode, we have a little more backstory.