Book VS. Movie: A Little Princess

10 Facts of Difference:

1. The movie takes place in 1914 during WWI, but the book was written in 1905 before the war. Therefore, war is not the reason for Sara's father's departure in the book.

2. Sara goes to school in Paris in the book & New York in the movie.

3. Sara is a rather unusual looking child in the book with thick black hair and piercing green eyes. In the movie, Sara is a very pretty little girl with curled light brown hair, although her eyes are correct.

4. In the book, Sara's room and wealth is much more apparent than in the movie. She has not only a bedroom, but a sitting room, personal maid, and personal horse and carriage. In the movie Sara only has a spectacular bedroom.

5. Lavinia is four years older than Sara in the book. The movie shows that Lavinia and Sara are both the same age.

6. In the book, Becky's english is very poor and very broken. In the book she speaks correctly and clearly without any sort of accent.

7. The one scene in the movie that is exact to the chapter it is based off of in the book is the scene where Miss Minchin discontinues Sara's eleventh birthday to tell her of her father's death.

8. Sara is a maid at the school for five years before the truth is discovered. Plus, the magic food and furnishings in the attic take a very long process in the book and are present for months, not just one day as portrayed in the movie.

9. The movie expresses the loss Sara feels towards her deceased mother, especially when it comes to her mother's locket. In the book, there is no locket and Sara describes how she feels no real loss towards her mother because she had never known her so she has no reason.

10. In the movie, everyone (except a select few) refer to Sara as Princess. In the book, though many still refer to Sara as Princess, Lottie refers to Sara as Mother because of the constant comfort and support she gives her when she feels saddened by the loss of her real mother.

VS. Review:

In each form (book and movie) A Little Princess is a favorite of mine. I guess the biggest differences between the book and the movie are the endings, length of time the whole story takes (which is short in the movie and years long in the book), and the decade in which the story lives in. Like in all adapted movies, there are quite a few minor details and side story lines left untold that are told in the book, but that's usually what's expected, isn't it? I have rarely come across a movie that is exact to the book. There have only been a couple times. Which do I like better? It's hard to answer since the stories seem quite different to me in many ways. I am more use to the movie since I saw it before reading the book but there are different sequences of the story I like in each. I like the movie's ending better, but I like how the magic in the book is more thoroughly explained, and what I mean by that is that it makes more since. In the end, I would probably have to purpose a fifty/fifty on this one. Genuinely. I highly encourage all to participate in both forms of this story though. It is really quite fantastic in either form.