Anne of Windy Poplars ( Anne the Matchmaker) by Rebekah Walton

   As it falls once again, and the cold is starting to move in as the leaves change colors many of us turn to Anne of Green Gables the series of 8 books that LMM wrote with the feeling of fall every so present in the pages. Instead of reading the first book of the series once again, my mind turned to finishing the series. 

      I was reminded that I have yet to finish Anne of Windy Poplars or Anne of Ingelside, and now that I have finished Windy Polars my next venture will be Anne of Ingelside, I have already read Rilla of Ingelside which I would argue is the best book of the series. But, that will be known for sure when I can finish the last books and 2 spin-off books. Which as every fan knows will be the Anne of Ingleside I have mentioned, The Blythes are Quoted, and the Chronicles of Anvolea books. But, while finishing these books is good, I reflect on the fact that adaptations have not been so good over the years.

     

      A lot of the adaptations forget a characteristic of Anne that is mostly present in the later books, the ones after she gets engaged to Gilbert. Anne becomes a matchmaker of sorts in the later books. Anne’s House of Dreams involves Anne looking at others and helping with their romantic lives. I would say that the later books including Anne of Windy Poplars make this Anne’s main job or career in life, yes, Anne teaches school and on occasion writes a story or two, but, those things get a back seat to the work she does on the people of the town. 

     We hardly notice that she quit her job as a teacher because Anne still is very present in the town and she is the same. In any case, all the adaptations seem to overlook this factor, in the Kevin Sullivan series, Anne only deals with Katherine Brooks and the Pringles and does not seem to get anyone together in the 3 movies I have watched. Sure there is one movie that is a prequel/sequel I haven’t watched of the series, but, I don’t know anyone who has and I would argue that Anne being a matchmaker in that movie would be quite odd, so, I doubt it happens. 

     

     Now, we look to the other adaptations, Anne of Anvolea the BBC/ Canadian production in the 1970s. This was a well-made serialized version of Anne of Anvolea and Anne of the Island it does not include any of the other books and so, it does not have Anne as a matchmaker since Anne does not become one until Windy Poplars, then her stories for the most part always involve romances. Anne in Anne with an E is completely different than Anne Shirley Blythe of the books and I have not finished past the 1st season, but, really even if I did the series had taken such a turn that I am not sure you can even include it in the list of Adaptations, because Anne is not Anne. Gilbert is not Gilbert either, but, at that point who even cares you are making a different story. 

      Anne was not traumatized by her youth. And thus, dealt with problems in a very different manner. Also, Anne of Green Gables is not depressing, so, anything that is depressing can not be truly called Anne of Green Gables (the feel is all wrong.). But, besides all that I am still not sure why they did not make Emily of New Moon. It fits better with the tone and if you want a girl that is Emo and likes Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte, Emily of New Moon is the series to do. Plus, you have no real competition for a previous adaptation, since the only adaptation is hardly remembered and not all that hard to beat in terms of being better. 

    Of course, the Anne of Green Gables that is the best is still the Japanese Anime. But, since they only made Anne of Green Gables it is hard for them to put in that Anne became a matchmaker later in life. Other adaptations fall short of including this characteristic of Anne and Anne of Windy Poplars the 1940 version is the same as all the others. They put focus on Anne and the Pringles and ignore people who have little to nothing to do with that plot line. So, where the book solves it but the Pringles take Anne’s gesture as a kind person to be a blackmailed threat, the movie paints the Pringles as won over by Anne making the play evolve around Jen Pringle and then make Katherine a Pringle as well. 

      Also, were they suggesting a romance between Tony and Katherine? I thought those two were cousins in this movie. But, maybe they just had the same last name or were distant enough to get married. I know in Jane Austen’s day you could marry your cousin but, this movie was in 1940 and no one said that anyone could marry their cousin in Canada at that day. Also, by making Elizabeth an orphan, the movie rounds off with Anne and Gilbert getting married and adopting her instead, of the girl leaving with her father.

     

      They condensed the story a lot like they did with Anne of Green Gables and I found myself wondering if LMM had watched this movie too. She had hated the version they made for Anne of Green Gables, at least the second half so much. I understand that maybe they wanted to fix the problem of Poplar probably being too long for a movie, but, I hate to say this since I think Anne the Sequel messed up in so many ways by excluding Roy from the story, (Roy is so important to the books and is a main reason why Anne marries Gilbert.) I think the Kevin Sullivan adaptation did the Katherine Brooks storyline and Jen Pringle storyline better than this version. So, in essence, this movie just continues to mess up and forget that Anne was a matchmaker.

Anne with an E Netflix series by Rebekah Walton

Sorry, fans, this is not really Anne that we know and love from the Anne of Green Gables series. First to explain the problem and difference between this series and the books, I will have go back and compare the series side by side with the books. But, first let me rant a bit.

(Spoilers)

This Netflix series I feel does not understand who Anne of Green Gables or Anne Shirley Blythe is. Anne Shirley is more than just a red hair girl who loves her imagination. Infact, I don't think they even got her red hair down.

Anne's red hair was a complex issue about how Anne thought about herself. She thought she wasn't pretty and she always wanted to have nutbrown hair or even raven black hair like Diana Barry. In the Netflix series, Anne mentions her hair a few times and does get mad at Gilbert for teasing her and calling her carrots, but I got the feeling that was not the reason she hated Gilbert. She did not hold a grudge against him because he called her carrots like she did in the book, she just stayed away from him because she did not want to be bullied at school. Anne would never be bullied at school in the book, she would never allow herself to be bullied. Anne was too strong headed to allow herself to be bullied, she said what she thought and would not back down. Anne getting bullied in the books was impossible.

Plus, in the book, Anne only needed one friend to for herself to be  happy, and that friend was Diana Barry, her kindred spirit. In the Netflix series, The girls who bullied her at school told her not to talk to Gilbert. So, when the time came for her to get teased by Gilbert it only felt like she wanted to make the girls stop bullying her. In fact, there is one time she told Gilbert to go away and stop talking to her just because she saw the girls staring at them through a window. This is not the Anne of the book.

Anne in the book, hated Gilbert for quite sometime (a year only passed in the 1st season of the Netflix series, oppose to the amount of years that happen in the first book) (although it is unknown how long Anne held a grudge in the book, it definitely seems longer than a year.)

Anne in the book, makes a lot of decisions because of her red hair. This Netflix series barely spoke of her red hair, and although, they did have her dye her hair green accidentally like in the book, it does not have the same impact since she never held the grudge against Gilbert in the first place. Also, despite the fact that they tried to make this Anne a romantic, they failed and this does not feel like the true Anne romantic of the book.

To describe and compare the list of things book Anne was compared to Netflix Anne I have prepared two lists:

The thing that gets me the most about this series Anne oppose to the book is how damaged this Anne really is. She is not the bumbling girl that she is in the book, instead, she is a girl who needs psychological help from all her bullying and beatings she got in the past.

This series Anne confidently explains that she can do everything thing a boy can so they do not need a boy to help on the farm, and then proceeds to do nothing to help on the farm thus proving that they need a boy to help on the farm. Which is why they get a boy to help out, and then she gets mad at him because he is going to get her sent back to the orphanage or something. (They said if they hired a boy, that meant they were keeping her, she apparently wasn't listening.)

Not to mention, for some reason they make Gilbert lose his father in this series. This was quite annoying because now we have two depressed characters in the series. If this wasn't enough, they made Matthew almost commit suicide. Seriously, does everyone need to be depressed in this series?

Now I decided to do a case and point questionnaire comparing book to Netflix series:

 What would Anne do if this happened?

Overall, the Netflix series made me feel depressed where as all other versions of Anne I am excited and enjoy watching them. I have tried to gather enough courage to watch 2nd and 3rd season but, everytime I hear about the characters or plot being ruined I get depressed once again and cannot bring myself to start either 2nd or 3rd season. I have seen all of 1st season. Also, the most faithful adaptation I have seen so far is Anne of Green Gables the anime version. Yes, Japan made an anime for Anne of Green Gables. 

Here is a really good review on the Netflix series and how it cannot compare to the books:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/anne-of-green-gables-netflix-review-anne-with-an-e-bleak-sad-wrong

I also found a another review that has a particularly good line about the difference between book Anne and Netflix Anne:

''Walley-Beckett’s Anne walks around with a giant chip on her shoulder, ready to crumble at the slightest provocation.'' 

For me, this pretty much sums up the Netflix Anne.
                                            

   http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/16/anne-e-sucks-soul-anne-green-gables/             

Another review points out things that had me nodding and agreeing.

     '' In a world where Superman no longer smiles, Archie Andrews is an ennui-filled singer-songwriter and Belle’s mother in “Beauty and the Beast” tragically dies of the plague, of course Anne has PTSD.''

Although, I do not agree with their overall review I did enjoy this line.

Anne Shirley Blythe by Rebekah Walton

The Anne of Green Gables series is essentially the Pride and Prejudice of Canada with Gilbert Blythe and Anne Shirley being treated like Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in all the girls minds. Girls from England want the Mr. Darcy to marry and Canadians want Gilbert Blythe to marry. American girls look at William Jasper Collins as the perfect guy( just kidding, I guess that is just me) to marry.

There have been many portrayals of this beloved character from the Anne of Green Gables series written by Lucy Maud( without an e) Montgomery. With the new Netflix series coming out on May 12 I thought it was best to do a review on the many different actresses that have portrayed her in the past years. First let’s look at all the descriptions we have of Anne and compare the looks of the actresses to the character Anne.

A child of about eleven, garbed in a very short, very tight, very ugly dress of yellowish-gray wincey. She wore a faded brown sailor hat and beneath the hat, extending down her back, were two braids of very thick, decidedly red hair. Her face was small, white and thin, also much freckled; her mouth was large and so were her eyes, which looked green in some lights and moods and gray in others. So far, the ordinary observer; an extraordinary observer might have seen that the chin was very pointed and pronounced; that the big eyes were full of spirit and vivacity; that the mouth was sweet-lipped and expressive; that the forehead was broad and full; in short, our discerning extraordinary observer might have concluded that no commonplace soul inhabited the body of this stray woman-child of whom shy Matthew Cuthbert was so ludicrously afraid.

This is the first description we receive about her and therefore is the most trustworthy since it is from the author herself about Anne rather than another character about Anne. Rachel Lynde also has an opinion on the looks of Anne, but what Rachel says should be taken with a grain of salt since she is a nosey busybody and her opinions are usually wrong in the books.

“She’s terrible skinny and homely, Marilla. Come here, child, and let me have a look at you. Lawful heart, did any one ever see such freckles? And hair as red as carrots! Come here, child, I say.”

The other factor is that the hottest boy in school, for that is what Gilbert was thought Anne was cute and teased her to try to get close to her. A note on Gilbert, he also was a year older than everyone in school because he was held back one year.

So, although Anne may have a terrible opinion of her looks, she was not in fact, ugly even though she may have not been the one to stand out in a crowd for her looks except maybe for her red hair.

It is also commonly accepted that Anne’s illustration on the front cover of one of the original books was a drawing of Gibson Girl, Evelyn Nesbit. This lady was an actress and a model and was known for her beauty so at least in later years we can expect that Anne herself was very beautiful.

http://anneofgreengables.com/articles/evelyn-nesbit-the-real-anne-shirley/

So, now on to all the actresses who portrayed this beloved character?

(1919)

Unfortunately, this silent film was lost and so no one knows how well this actress could have played Anne’s character.

Anne Shirley as Anne Shirley and Tom Brown as Gilbert Blythe (1934)

This black and white film did an okay portrayal of Anne and gilbert even though the story tried to combine too many things into one story. She is also the first portrayal I saw of Anne on film. There is now a colorized version of this film you can buy. There was a sequel to this film made in 1940 and it had Anne Shirley still play Anne Shirley but the Gilbert actor changed to Patric Knowles. (The sequel is essentially lost because there is no official copies left, but there may be some that people have because they taped it from tv, my family has a copy.)

The next film was the first one actually made by the Canadians with William Cole as Gilbert Blythe and Toby Tarnow as Anne Shirley. The film is still in existence as clips of it were used in "Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Many Mauds", an episode of the 1996 CBC Life & Times documentary.

http://anneofgreengables.wikia.com/wiki/Anne_of_Green_Gables_(1956_film)

In 1957, a French version of Anne Shirley was made and I cannot seem to find any real pictures of that film. But the actress was Mirielle Lachance and Gilbert was Hervé Brousseau.

In 1958, Kathy Willard played Anne.

In 1952, a six part tv series was released and is now thought to be lost.

Carole Lorimer played Anne and David Spenser played Gilbert.

In 1972, tv series was created by BBC with Kim Braden as Anne and there was also a sequel series called Anne of Avonlea. Anne of Green Gables the tv series was lost but the Anne of Anvolea series can still be bought. I like this series a lot because it was able to touch on other aspects that the movies missed and bring in some of my chacters who were my favorite from the books but were really over looked. So, I really treasure this sequel series and wish I could watch the original and not just the sequel. Christopher Blake played Gilbert Blythe.

In 1979, Japan made an anime based on this book series:

Up to date, it is the most faithful version to the books I can find!

Then in 1985, the Sullivan films began. Megan Follows played Anne Shirley and Jonathan Crombie played Gilbert Blythe, these two are still the best loved by fans and are the standard that most fans look to when describing the perfect Anne and Gilbert. I loved the first film and I loved the actors but the next film was only okay and the third film missed the mark. For me you need a mixture of the Sullivan films, the Kim Braden version and the black and white version to get the whole mix of Anne. Or just go watch the anime of Anne.

Because of large problems with copyright and other issues the last of the three Sullivan films with Jonathan Crombie and Megan Follows was filmed and released in 2000, which is around 15 years after the other two.

A few years later in 2008, Sullivan decided he wanted to make more Anne movies so he made a prequel called: Anne of Green Gables a New Beginning. This prequel starred two Annes, and older and younger Anne. The actresses were Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Young Anne and Barbara Hershey as old Anne. Gilbert Blythe died and Anne was thinking about old times. Since I have never watched this version I cannot say much.

In 2007, Sri Lanka decided to make their own Anne film. Since this film shows Anne growing up there are two Annes in this film as well. The two actresses were: Vinuri Ramanayake as Anne Shirley and Poorni Kamaladiwela as Older Anne Shirley.

There was even a modern version of Anne of Green Gables made and even though it is not strictly a film or tv version, but instead a web series with a twitter page and YouTube channel and a Tumblr page, I just had to include it. This modern version is not half bad and even had a second series because fans enjoyed it. The series is called Green Gables Fables.

(2014)

There is a second modern adaption made by Finland and it is called Project Green Gables. The story is conveyed in the form of vlogs. It is a modern adaptation of Anne, and many of the elements in it have been changed to better suit 21st-century culture. Laura Eklund Nhaga plays Anne.

My guess since I haven’t watched it yet is that it is like the Finnish version of Green Gables Fables.

Anne and Gilbert (note the stage musical of Anne is called this as well.) was also a themed episode of a show called Kissing in the Rain in 2014 on YouTube. Sean Persaud played Gilbert Blythe and Mary Kate Wiles played Anne of Green Gables.

L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables is a film that came out in 2016 and has a sequel coming this year. Although the film is supposedly about Anne it takes a sort of different perspective than most versions and comes off as a horrible adaptation missing most of the good parts of Anne of Green Gables by trying to make people relate to the adults of the story rather than Anne herself. Ella Ballentine plays Anne Shirley but I would not  place blame on her as an actress but rather on the script and director of this film.

Although, for the most parts up till now the Gilbert Blythe’s have all had dark hair and have been pretty handsome as he should be (for goodness sakes he is basically the Mr. Darcy of Canada), this Gilbert is neither tall, older or handsome as he was in the book. He is short and scrawny and has blond hair and not very good looking at all.

Not to mention, as my sister pointed out while watching the show there was a cute boy they could have used for Gilbert sitting right behind Anne in school but they went for this guy. Drew Haytaoglu plays Gilbert Blythe. Sorry, he was just not Gilbert, not to mention we only saw him like once or twice and we hardly knew Anne was mad at him.

In fact, I have images of the guy who should have played Gilbert Blythe in that film.

The next series which we are expecting of Anne of Green Gables is the Netflix series coming on May 12, 2017 and a musical version of Anne coming on DVD soon. The Netflix series is going to be a dark and gritty interpretation of the books including Anne getting bullied in school and that word I hate…..feminism. Anne in the books would have never gotten bullied by anyone since she hit Gilbert over the head with her chalkboard and she had tons of friends in school. Also, no one thought she couldn’t do something because she was a girl; she was one of the smartest in their class. The only girls who did something to her were just jealous because Gilbert Blythe liked her, but I would never say they bullied her. Anne Shirley is played by Amybeth McNulty and Gilbert Blythe is played by Lucas Jade Zumann.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5qJXYNNINo

That link is the trailer. So, in essence I think the Netflix series will be a very bad adaptation of this beloved series. Updated: Canadians already get to watch it and most of them say it is not as bad as the trailer makes it seem, so, plus there. That line,''Girls can do anything boys can do and better'' terrified me. It is such a stupid line and not something I feel like Anne would ever say, plus, they wanted someone to do farm work, Anne couldn't do that and they hired a boy to help out in the book. Strength wise boys would be better at the hard farm work then a girl that is just sense so, that line is incorrect anyway. I will update again when I have watched the show and review it myself, I hope the Canadians are right. 

What do you guys think?