Search - A Little Princess on DVD

MPAA Rating: G Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Child Classic, Excellent For Children Movie Release: 1995 DVD Release: 11/19/1997 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 37 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 6 Genres: Drama, Children's/Family, Childhood Drama

A privileged, free-spirited young girl tries to adapt to life in a strict boarding school in this charming, critically acclaimed children's fantasy. Adapting a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, also the author of -The Secret Garden, the film shifts the story's setting to World War I. 10 year-old Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews) has been left in a respected New York City boarding school while her British father heads overseas to fight. Filled with wild stories and a playful attitude, the unconventional Sara becomes popular amongst her classmates but quickly comes into conflict with the harsh headmistress, Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron), who attempts to quash the child's individuality. The young girl's situation takes a serious turn for the worse when she unexpectedly receives word of her father's death, and, suddenly impoverished, is forced into life as a servant. Treated as a lesser class of person by her former companions, Sara instead befriends her fellow servants and turns to the power of imagination in order to maintain hope for the future. In addition to changing the story's setting, screenwriters Richard LaGravenese and Elizabeth Chandler add a layer of Indian mythology to the tale, allowing director Alfonso Cuaron the chance to punctuate the riches-to-rags fable with a series of lush, imaginative fantasy sequences. Though A Little Princess had difficulty attracting audiences during its initial run, its visual splendor and touching storytelling were praised by many critics, several of whom proclaimed the film one of the best family-oriented productions of its time. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Eleanor Bron - Miss Minchin
Liam Cunningham - Captain Crewe/Prince Rama
Liesel Matthews - Sara Crewe
Rusty Schwimmer - Amelia Minchin
Arthur Malet - Charles Randolph

Alfonso Cuarón's stylish adaptation of A Little Princess comes to DVD with a choice of images. The widescreen transfer preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is preferable in every way to the standard full-frame transfer. A closed-captioned English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1, while Spanish and French soundtracks have been recorded in Dolby Digital Stereo. Subtitles are accessible in all three of those languages as well. Supplemental materials are limited to theatrical trailers and production notes. This is a fine release from Warner Bros. that does a fine job of presenting the film, but offers little else. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide