New Little House on Wonderful World of Disney

[Sarangel]

From Newsweek:

Disney is almost as well-known for sugar-coating classics as it is for Mickey Mouse, but its new, six-hour miniseries based on the beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder books is great because it doesn't prettify the pioneer experience. Premieres Saturday night at 8 on ABC/7.

The "Little House on the Prairie" miniseries beginning Saturday night on ABC's "Wonderful World of Disney" is the best family drama to come down the pike in many a year - better in just about every regard than the NBC "Little House" starring Michael Landon that ran for nine seasons (1974-83).

There are a couple of obvious reasons for this. One is that unlike Landon, Cameron Bancroft, the Canadian actor cast as patriarch Charles Ingalls, doesn't look as if he just got back from a Beverly Hills hair salon. And not only is Bancroft a bit scruffy in clothes that look homespun, not tailored, he exhibits a terse toughness that may bring to mind a young Clint Eastwood.

When Bancroft's "Pa" Ingalls tells little Laura and Mary to stop that fighting in the back of the covered wagon, you know that they know he means business. He can be fierce and firm - I halfway expected him to say, "Go ahead, girls, make my day!" - but he's just as persuasive consoling them when they're homesick or telling them a yarn about a bear.

The other reason is that, unlike the old "Little House," which was filmed on a ranch just east of Los Angeles, the miniseries was filmed in Calgary, Alberta, on land that doubles effectively for the Pepin, Wis., settlement the Ingalls leave behind for the Kansas prairie where they resettle. When Charles and Caroline (Erin Cottrell) and the girls cross a frozen lake, it's really a frozen lake. Nobody had to spray foam on the trees to make it look like snow.

The greater realism extends to the people they encounter on the journey. When they stop briefly in Independence, Kan., a muddy camp, they're eyed warily by men who look as ornery and unkempt as anybody on HBO's "Deadwood." The town's prostitutes, meanwhile, make the "Deadwood" gals look like Miss USA contestants.

Yet the earthiness, miraculously, doesn't sour what is fundamentally a child's memoir of pioneer life. The fact that we're seeing much of the story through the wide, young eyes of Laura (Kyle Chavarria) and Mary (Danielle Ryan Chuchran), combined with director David L. Cunningham's attention to authentic detail, makes the family's fording of a swollen creek or merely trying to maneuver their wagon down a steep incline seem like nail-biter drama.

Cunningham and Katie Ford, who wrote the script, also deserve praise for making this an honest-to-goodness motion picture, not a talk-fest. Their "Little House" is that rarest of made-for-TV movies, one in which a sequence of shrewdly edited images sometimes does all the talking necessary.

If I wanted to nitpick, I'd mention that the two child actors seem a bit amateurish at times, that the soundtrack music occasionally sounds inappropriately modern, and that the Ingalls and just about everyone they meet appear to have a ready supply of tooth-whitener. But none of this matters much when the miniseries, overall, does such a grand job of making a viewer understand what courage it took for folks such as these to say goodbye to family and friends in established communities and set off for parts truly unknown.

 

[mrsR123]

Thanks, Sara, for the review. My first reaction to the promo was why re-do this, but I was hopeful about the breadth it seemed to cover--even in just the clips. It sounds pretty good.

 

[grinningghost]

I read some pretty bad reviews about it, something about Michael Landon rolling around in his grave, but I'm willing to give it a chance. I'm sure it will never be the original, but then again, even that was a risk when the original books were so good.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Will be good to watch I suppose, but in the end not likely to make anyone forget the "Real" Little House.
In fact, if I didn't know better, it sounds like the Newsweek "reporter" is making fun of the millions who watched (and thoroughly enjoyed) Little House all those years.
BUt of course I know better-

 

[Cobra B.]

There's an interesting tie to WDW here. There is a local Orlando gentleman who frequents the parks and especially MK on his daily strolls. He is the grandfather of the Laura charachter. I met him aboard the monorail and he proudly spoke of this show that would be airing in the spring. We talked on my family's trip at Thanksgiving. He saw a family from the Northeast and introduced himself. He is from the South Jersey area as well. I think the granddaugher still lives in this area. A very nice person who makes the Kingdom his exercise (and boasting) place.