Samantha, the Movie

This is the movie based on the series of books about Samantha. It's a superior movie to the one done for Felicity. It seems like there is a better job done of adapting the most important parts of the stories, emphasizing in particular the plight of young children who were factory workers, and the abominable state of some of the orphanages of the time.

Whereas, at least in my opinion, the Felicity movie adaptation was not really much different from just reading the novels, the Samantha adaptation brings the novels to life more realistically. The emphasis on the movement to get women the right to vote is de-emphasized, while the factory worker element and the orphanage movement elements are given additional attention, and I think this helps the movie.

The changes that have been made, especially the manner in which Samantha gets Nellie and her sisters out of the orphanage, also serve to strengthen the movie. I also think that a person who is not familiar with the novels would still really enjoy this movie. It's also the kind of movie that can give parents some things to talk about with their children.

As far as the extras go, there are the following:

A short feature, around five minutes in length or so, about the American Girls stores in New York and Chicago. There's a tour of the kinds of things the store sells, a place where dolls can have their hair done, and a place where musicals are performed. It's basically a commercial for their various products.

Another relatively short feature, this one on the process of wedding celebrations during Samantha's time. This one has a lot of very interesting information in it.

The third is an "Imagine Performance", a less-than-three-minute song about imagination and the American Girls stories.

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