The Astrid Lindgren Reading Group discussion

What are your favourite Astrid Lindgren films? I watched The Pippi Longstocking films (dubbed into German and later dubbed into English; I did not like the English dubbing all that much). I also loved the Emil series, the Children of Noisy Village series and the Madicken series (all dubbed into German, I did think that some of the German dubbing in the Madicken series sounded too much like 70s and 80s youth jargon and felt a bit distracting). I have only ever noticed the Pippi Longstocking series dubbed into English and available in English. I am not sure, but the Emil series, the Madicken series and the Noisy Village series do contain brief episodes of nudity (nothing horrible, just children bathing in the nude) and I can unfortunately see puritanical America chafing at this (too bad, the films are wonderful).

I've seen Pippi Longstocking but for the life of me can't remember if it was in English or German. I just remember how much fun it was. I am especially fond of how she used to sleep at night.

Brenda wrote: "I've seen Pippi Longstocking but for the life of me can't remember if it was in English or German. I just remember how much fun it was. I am especially fond of how she used to sleep at night."

I tried that once at home when I was a child and my mother thought I was really, really strange.

I did too thinking I was such a rebel!

Brenda wrote: "I did too thinking I was such a rebel!"

Actually, another thing I really wanted to do was bake cookies on the kitchen floor, but I knew not to try that (and it would have been kind of gross, I think, we lived in the country and the dog often had muddy paws, but it's fun to dream is it not).

Oh, my favourite Astrid Lindgren film is without a shadow of a doubt The Brothers Lionheart!

Directed by Olle Helbom, it captures the atmosphere of the book beautifully and the relationship between the two brothers is very well done.

The movie is VERY dated as it was filmed in 1971 -or '72 and it shows on the effects part of things.
Katla the dragon is quite frightening in close-up head shots, but looks like a swollen maggot with a dragon's head in full body shots!
Apparently the studio couldn't afford a fully movable animatronic dragon, so she is stationary in all of the wide shots....

Having said that, when I saw the movie in the cinema when I was about eight, I was properly terrified.

I think having seen this movie as young as I did does much towards it being my favourite, it made a huge impression on me at the time.
The book was already one of my favourites, too.

Lindgren herself wrote the script so all the dialogue is in her own wonderful style.

You can actually watch the film in installments on YouTube if you're interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocUqBm...

Suna wrote: "Oh, my favourite Astrid Lindgren film is without a shadow of a doubt The Brothers Lionheart!

Directed by Olle Helbom, it captures the atmosphere of the book beautifully and the relationship betwee..."

I love the fact that Astrid Lindgren wrote the script, I will have to see wether I can get a copy of this from Ammazon Germany once I have a bit more money (on the other hand, when I go to that website, I usually cannot control myself and end up buying more books). Do you know wether Astrid Lindgren wrote the script for any of the other films as well? You know what I really want to happen? I want the original films to be rereleased in Germany, Canada etc. in the original Swedish, with appropriate subtitles, some of the German dubbing, for instance, is comically bad.

I really love it when authors write the screenplays (scripts) for movies based on their work. The early movie versions of Erich Kästner's Das fliegende Klassenzimmer, The Flying Classroom and Das doppelte Lottchen, Lottie and Lisa were written by the author and they are wonderful (Kästner actually appears in the movies). By the way, the movie "The Parent Trap" was/is based on Das doppelte Lottchen, but it is a very loose adaptation, I know many people love that movie, but for me, it is way too different from the original book.

Ha! I loved Das doppelte Lottchen!! I know The Parent Trap was based on it but never watched it, I have heard too many complaints similar to yours.
Did you know there's a 1950 German movie of the book, screenplay by Erich Kästner? I've never seen it, but I would like to at some point.

Back to Lindgren, she also wrote the screenplay for the 1984 movie adaptation of Ronja, the Robber's Daughter.
It's excellent, they did a wonderful job with casting Lovis and Mattis, the forest creatures are great.
The only thing that truly jarred for me is that Ronja is supposed to have raven black curls and dark eyes in the book, whereas Birk has 'a copper helmet of hair'.

I guess they had trouble finding kids who looked like that and had sufficient acting skills, because Ronja's hair in the movie resembles nothing so much as a grey twine mop that has been stiffened and put upside down on her head and Birk is sporting red curls.

It's hugely worth watching, though!

Suna wrote: "Ha! I loved Das doppelte Lottchen!! I know The Parent Trap was based on it but never watched it, I have heard too many complaints similar to yours.
Did you know there's a 1950 German movie of the b..."

Well, I guess they could have dyed her hair, or used a black whig (I wonder why they did not do that). I can imagine this being jarring, it would have been like watching an Anne of Green Gables movie with Anne Shirley not having red hair (it just would not work for me). And, I have the 1950s version of Das Doppelte Lottchen (the two girls were actually played by twins, and Erich Kästner appears in the movie). I mean, with all of the other problems with "The Parent Trap" Haley Mills also plays both parts, both girls. Yu should see the movie, it is quite close to the book and the two girls are wonderful in their roles.

That sounds great, I will definitely look for a copy, thank you.

I LOVE the films! I adore them!

"Madicken" and "The Children of Noisy Village" (which is another weird English title, I think...) I love especially. Watching those is so soothing, it's like taking a holiday, really. And it is also each time a revisiting of my own childhood. Partly, because I watched those movies back then, but also because my sister and me shared a lot with Madicken, Lisabeth and the Children of Bullerbyn. I also spent some summers in Sweden and when watching the movies I can smell the way Sweden smells. ;-)

I also really like the film of "Ronja", Pippi I watched more often and earlier than I read the books actually.
My mother was always a huge fan of "Vi på Saltkråkan (Seacrow Island)" (that was originally a tv production of which Lindgren wrote the script and only afterwards was turned into a book, as far as I know), so we watched that, too. But somehow it doesn't have such a special place in my heart.
And then there are two short stories (I think), which I had a video tape of, that I watched over and over again, I know only the one title "Im Wald sind keine Räuber" in German, and the other one, which I don't even know the title of. It's about a girl who dreams that behind the bush in her garden there is a kind of fairy world, where her dream sister lives and is queen of the fairies (or so...). I love that one! ;)

Gundula wrote: "I want the original films to be rereleased in Germany, Canada etc. in the original Swedish, with appropriate subtitles, some of the German dubbing, for instance, is comically bad."
Really? Which ones in particular?
I really like the dubbing of "Madicken" and "The Children of Noisy Village", to me it feels really natural, good voice actors and they have good dialog, too.
And "Pippi" is rather well, too, it's kind of old fashioned because the movies came out even earlier than the others, but I also really like it. Takes me back to my childhood, too. :)

I did not particularly like the dubbing of the Emil series (Michel in German), especially when close-up, it sometimes seemed a bit out of synch. The Noisy village series was much better done ad Madicken was also done quite well (although I did find that some of the German dialogue sounded very much like German youth jargon of the 70s and early 80s which kind of felt a bit anachronistic to me, as the story is supposed to take place in early 20th century Sweden, on the other hand, I don't know wether the original Swedish words were similar). All in all, though, I generally do like subtitled movies better than dubbed movies and I wish that the Swedish originals were available with German (or English) subtitles. On the german Noisy Village DVD, the movie is available in Swedish, but you cannot get German subtitles (which kind of defeats the purpose for me, as I don't speak Swedish).

I wish I knew how to make subtitles, then I could make them for everybody. But I don't really get it. Well, I donät know how your country looks at downloading, but I think it would be really easy finding the swedish version with subs..

I have never seen a Pippi Longstocking film. It might be hard since I've always thought of myself as Pippi & I'm short & dark! LOL

But I'd really like to see at least one. *wistfully*

Usagi wrote: "I wish I knew how to make subtitles, then I could make them for everybody. But I don't really get it. Well, I donät know how your country looks at downloading, but I think it would be really easy f..."

Thanks, I should check that, it would be great to get the films with subtitles.

Ellie, I can really recommend Pippi!
They are dated, but as Pippi's life is also absurd and surreal it stands the test of time better than 'normal' programs from the same time period.

And anyway, I like "dated" :D

I'll see if I can download something.
If I can't, my daughter probably can.

I could give you some URL of some nice downloads and programs, but I don't know if that's allowed, hehe...

Of course it is, hehehehe.