a little princess vs the secret garden (movies)

   Both amazing books written by the same author. The late Frances Hodgson Burnett. They are both told very much the same, but have their own different details. It seems Frances wanted to tell a story about a young girl's life. Both different, but in their stories, it seems they follow a path to either mystery which would lead them to happiness or wonder.


   The first one I want to talk about is: The secret garden. Frances wrote this story in 1911. The movie adaptation came out in 1993. It's stars a young girl named Mary Lennox. Who's parents die in an earthquake in India and is left with her uncle's caretaker who is shattered by the death of his wife (who was Mary's mother's twin sister) ten years ago. Since then, he doesn't even know his ill son Colin.
   To Mary, she doesn't even know Colin exist for a long time because the caretakers did not want her to know about him.
  Colin is a spoiled brat who fears he will die soon, and is sad about his mother's death. Mary tells him to grow up. Mary soon discovers her aunt's secret garden that her uncle locked after she died falling off a swing.
   Maggie Smith portrays one of the caretakers. She is concerned that Mary is a danger, Colin thinks otherwise.
   It seemed the garden was magic and apparently Colin, who was paraplegic, soon learns how to walk into his father's arms. Surprised and dumbfounded as he is, He realizes the garden had some sort of magic that was released when Mary opened it with the key.

I liked the movie when I was little and I didn't remember it much till I saw it recently, and it brought a tear to my eye near the end when the father and son meet eye to eye.

Another one of Frances Hodgson Burnett stories was called "A Little Princess" Written in 1905 and the movie adaptation coming out in 1995, it is about a young girl from India named Sara with a father named Captain Richard Crewe. He places his daughter in Miss Minchin's boarding school, where Miss Minchin only treats Sara fair because she has money.

   When her father is declared dead (but really it was mistaken identity and he is just knocked unconcious from gas fumes) Miss Minchin treats Sara like a slave as she does another one named Becky.

  Sara becomes friends with all the other girls, no matter if she was a princess or a slave, but soon it seems her father gets his memory back in a very peculiar way. When he is staying at Charles Randolph who is an elderly neighbor who had a son serving the war the same time Sara's father was, and it seemed it was his son that was killed in action not Sara's.

    If you wouldn't cry at the scene where she almost loses her father again and reunites, there is something wrong with you.

   At the end, Miss Minchin ends up cleaning chimneys and the boarding school goes to Sir Charles Randolph.

   In between these two movies, I think I fell in love with A little Princess the most.

            Not because my name is Sara, but I connected better with the story, the characters and how one girl can believe, telling a story about India and knowing that her father, deep down, is still alive, can make anyone, no matter who they are, can be a princess, prince, king and even queen.

Frances Hodgson Burnett can tell a great story, even though it feel so similar to the other, but yet have their differences by characteristics and timeline, but it still was an amazing story.

 Thanks Frances, and other great writers that tell amazing story through details, characters and how it will all come together in the end.

Ciao Bloggers and enjoy these amazing movies