[00:00:10] Speaker A: On this week's prequel episode, we follow up on our Goosebumps Night of the Living Dummy three listener polls and preview. Harriet the Spy.
Hello and welcome back to this film is like the podcast where we talk about movies that are based on books. It's another prequel week. We got plenty to talk about. Let's jump right in. We're gonna shout out our patrons.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons. That's why
[00:00:39] Speaker A: we have two new patrons this week. First up, at the $2 Newbery Medal Award winning level, listener. It's spelled maybe Germany. I don't know.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: I think that patron might be a returning patron.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: I feel like I recognize unless somebody's using the same name, I guess,
[00:00:57] Speaker A: but yes, listener. And then upgrading from the $2 Newbery Medal Award winning level to the $5 Hugo Award winning level, getting access to that bonus content. David Spencer. So thank you, David, and thank you, listener. And as always, we'd like to thank our Academy Award winning patrons, the best of the best. And they are. Amanda Nicole Goble. Harpo Rat. Nathan Mathilde Cottonwood. Steve Ben Wilcox. Theresa Schwartz. Ian from Wine Country, Kelly Napier Gratch.
Just scratch Shelby says. Slappy, Halloween and that darn skag. Thank you all so much for your continued support. Katie, let's see what Shelby had to say about Goosebumps. Night of the Living Dummy 3.
[00:01:38] Speaker D: Yeah, well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: All right, I
[00:01:45] Speaker A: say that there was a couple. There was a couple other. There
[00:01:46] Speaker C: were. There were a couple other comments. But the, the meat of this comment section
[00:01:51] Speaker A: is
[00:01:51] Speaker C: coming from Shelby,
[00:01:52] Speaker A: which makes sense. She requested it.
[00:01:54] Speaker C: Yes. So on Patreon, we had one vote for the show episode and one for the book. And we got a very meaty comment from Shelby.
So we're gonna dive right into that.
Shelby said, I went back and forth on this one. I also went back and forth on this one. I like the kids giving Slappy to Zane in the book. I like the brief social commentary and the idea of the dummies just rising up against Slappy.
On the other hand, there were a few months growing up where this was my favorite movie. Night of The Living Dummy 3 is like the show going all out with Slappy. It's a two parter. We get to see Slappy walk on his own, which was creepy as a kid, even if it's now obvious it's just someone in a costume.
Slappy gets up to all kinds of things in this. He walks on walls, turns people into dummies. Gets struck by lightning and explodes. Truly fabulous. I'm giving it to the show.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: All right.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: R.L. stine has continued telling stories with Slappy after the original ones, some of which I've read, so I'll try to answer your questions. Goosebumps Series 2000 was the first series after the original books. Unfortunately, most of these are out of print, but a handful were re released with the original series.
This includes the fourth Slappy installment, Bride of the Living Dummy.
The show did Adapt some Goosebumps 2000 books, including this one.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember I had at least a few Goosebumps 2000 books, for sure.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: The reason the show skipped the first night of the Living Dummy is probably because Slappy isn't the evil dummy in that one. I found this very interesting.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Didn't realize that. I know I've
[00:03:38] Speaker C: read
[00:03:38] Speaker A: them, but I don't remember that I read most of the Goosebumps books
[00:03:41] Speaker C: at
[00:03:41] Speaker A: some point or another when I was a kid.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: So Slappy isn't the evil dummy in that one. It's this other dummy we never see again once he's defeated.
Slappy is just a different dummy. The main character's family owns the last second. Twist is Slappy asking the kids if that other guy is finally gone.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Okay. So it's like he gets the last minute, like, surprise,
[00:04:04] Speaker C: surprise, I'm alive too.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: You'll be pleased to know Slappy does get his head broken at the end of Night of the Living Dummy 2.
However, Zane doesn't have him in Bride of the Living Dummy.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: So Zane got rid of him off screen.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Something happened. I wonder if they. Yeah. If there's an explanation.
[00:04:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
Can Slappy walk on walls? Potentially. I don't remember a specific moment in the books, but I have a vague memory of him doing it in the new movies at some point. Okay.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Haven't seen any of the new movies. I didn't. I mean, it makes sense, I guess, that Slappy's in those movies. I don't know the plot of those movies.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't either.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: Lots of different elements of the Goosebumps,
[00:04:43] Speaker C: probably.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: I don't know. Yeah, as opposed to like a single story or something like
[00:04:47] Speaker C: that.
Can Slappy turn people into dummies again? Maybe. I think it comes up in Son of Slappy, but I don't remember if he actually does it.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Whole Slappy universe. Yeah,
[00:05:01] Speaker C: right.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: I was unaware of
[00:05:04] Speaker C: other thoughts. I wanted to shout out a couple more lines in the show. In the flashback at the start, we see Trina and Daniel left Zane Outside with a cow while he was asleep.
Then when Zane arrives and they're all awkwardly trying to get along, Daniel says, says, so you don't have to worry about that cow anymore. It died. And Zane responds, well, that's good.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: Classic 90s kid show dialogue.
When Rocky turns on Slappy, he says something like, you don't come for the family. It gets me every time. Because he's a mobster dummy.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: Yes, he does. He does have a.
The few lines, if that might be the only line he has. But yeah, he. He talks like a gangster, like
[00:05:46] Speaker C: a
[00:05:46] Speaker A: monster, like he's from the Godfather.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: TV Slappy appears to have gone through the same arc as Tobey Maguire's Spider Man.
I'm old enough to.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: I don't. I'm trying to parse what that means, but I don't. Go ahead.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: I'm old enough to remember the complaints that Toby's Spidey wasn't just like his comic counterpart. Now that we've had more Spideys, there's a vocal part of the population that insists Toby's Spidey is the real one.
I love the red headed Slappy of the TV show, but I'm not the first to notice he doesn't look like the iconic cover version.
The new movie Slappy is closer, if less intense.
I challenge you to find a clip of either version where the comments aren't full of TV slappy. Scary movie slappies. Not.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Okay, so you're saying not an actual.
[00:06:37] Speaker C: No, not like a character arc.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: That's what I was initially. I was like character arc. Is Spider
[00:06:42] Speaker C: man like a fandom arc?
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Fandom arc in terms of how he's regarded.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: Yeah,
[00:06:46] Speaker A: sure were. Yes, there were. Yeah. Okay. Yes. I could believe all of that.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean that's just a classic when Thing comes out. Don't like thing.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: Right. Give it
[00:06:56] Speaker A: some time. Give it some time. Everybody wishes. Make a new version of the Thing. Exactly.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: A boy. Slappy sure tells the kids they will be his slaves a lot in his books. I'm not sure about that.
Yeah, it's.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: I mean it. I don't know
[00:07:13] Speaker C: if
[00:07:14] Speaker A: he was saying it to children of color, it would be one thing, but I think they're normally white kids in the. Like, it's. There is. And obviously, yes, slavery is bad regardless of the rates of the individuals. But there's a
[00:07:24] Speaker C: weird.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: It's a little weird, but it's a pretty classic horror. Like, you know, like demons enslaving humans. Right.
You know, I don't know. You would have to come up with a different word for what that.
[00:07:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: You know, like, under my control. You know, you can say it, I guess, other ways, but it is.
It is one of those things that. Yeah. That. That word kind of expresses a. An idea that
[00:07:50] Speaker C: it's
[00:07:50] Speaker A: not inherently tied to.
It's entitled to problematic things. Yes, slavery is bad, but, like, it's not.
You know what I mean? It's not necessarily inherently. Like, there's somewhere. It's like, that's how you say that thing. Like, that's just what. Like what he's the bad thing he's saying.
[00:08:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Is
[00:08:08] Speaker A: that he is
[00:08:09] Speaker C: the villain.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. Right.
[00:08:11] Speaker C: Honestly, also, like, he does say it a bunch in the book.
I found it a little silly in the book. Maybe I would have found it scarier as a kid because it seems like the only, like, leverage he has on them is essentially blackmailing them.
Like, like continuing to cause trouble and getting them in trouble with their parents.
But then, like in the show, I feel like there's more menace to it because he can actually turn them into.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Dummies.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: That's true. And, like, actually. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: Quick, shout out to the artist behind the original covers, Tim Jacobus.
I don't think the series would be what it is without him.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: The reason. I don't know if it's the reason. Obviously, they were enjoyable as books as well. Right.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Like, one of the main
[00:08:57] Speaker A: reasons they were so popular
[00:08:58] Speaker C: is
[00:08:58] Speaker A: that kids looked at them on the shelf. Yeah.
[00:09:01] Speaker C: The reason that you picked them up in the library or at the Scholastic Book Fair was because of the covers. Yes,
[00:09:08] Speaker A: 100%.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: By the way, you can order signed prints of the covers and sketches of the characters on his website, Jacobus Studios dot com.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: In case anybody's interested
[00:09:19] Speaker A: in that. That is pretty cool. Yeah. The COVID too.
[00:09:21] Speaker C: Could buy a Slappy cover.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: That's neat.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: There's a book with Slappy's new official backstory called he
[00:09:30] Speaker A: has a canon backstory now.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: Slappy Beware. But I haven't read it. I've heard that Stein changed it from what he originally wrote in Bride of the Living Dummy.
So maybe a little retconning there.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: Goosebumps 2000 had one other book about Slappy. It's called Slappy's Nightmare, and it's from his perspective. The plot is Slappy gets cursed. So if he doesn't do a set number of good deeds before time's up, or if he plays any more pranks, he will be banished forever
[00:10:00] Speaker A: to Where? I
[00:10:00] Speaker C: don't know.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: That's
[00:10:01] Speaker C: a great question. The
[00:10:03] Speaker A: demon realm?
Like of an actual.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. He just ceases to be alive.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Maybe
[00:10:09] Speaker C: Slappy ends up with another kid and their family and somehow the pranks start happening again. Worse, they undo every good deed Slappy attempts. So no matter how he tries to stop it, in true Night of the Living Dummy fashion, the kids blame Slappy.
Those Slappy style pranks, like pushing a baby stroller into traffic when we know he can't be doing it, leaving Slappy to wonder what the fuck is wrong with this kid.
I get why this wasn't adapted. Even if it's the most fun I've ever had reading Goosebumps. If you're a fan, especially of Slappy, it's worth checking out. Unfortunately, this one's out of print. You can still find it used for a reasonable price though.
Thanks so much for covering this one. I hope you revisit Goosebumps someday.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: All right, well, thank you for recommending it. Glad you enjoyed it.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: I do think that would be maybe good. Like recurring Halloween fodder.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Could be. Yeah.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: Like pick something from the show.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:11:07] Speaker C: All right. On Facebook we had one vote for the show and zero for the book. And Matt said TV because the puppets are so funny to watch.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Fair.
[00:11:18] Speaker C: On Instagram, we had zero votes for the show, three for the book, and two listeners who couldn't decide.
And Tim Wahoo said, movies are always better despite voting for the book in the poll.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Did he actually vote for the book? Oh, okay.
[00:11:34] Speaker C: Because he always picks the opposite of whatever I pick and then leaves a comment like that.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:40] Speaker C: And finally, over on Goodreads, we had zero votes for the show and one for the book. And Miko said, I think I'll give this one to the book. I like the other dummies coming to the kids rescue more than the out of nowhere lightning explosion. I also think the wooden old Slappy feels scarier than the plastic one from the show.
The book seems okay for kids and the twist that Zane is really behind the early Pranks works. But there are some flaws. For example, about a dozen chapters too many end with someone screaming due to an unseen horror.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: I have bad news about Goosebumps books generally. If my memory of that is a pretty common writing motif of R.L. stine and the Goosebumps books is chapter ends on, ah, something scary and then it is revealed. Oh, it's this or what it like.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: I also when I was thinking about this after I initially read Mikko's comment and I Would love to hear other people who were kids in the 90s chime in on this. I feel like I remember ending every chapter with a cliffhanger. Being like a trend in 90s kid literature overall.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah.
I mean, it was. It depends too. Yeah. I mean, the thing I remember, I really noticed it was like a huge thing. And people made fun of it a little bit, I guess, maybe. Cause it's not children's literature. Kids literature, but.
Which we'll do these one day. I'm sure. We might even have them on the schedule.
The Da Vinci Code.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: Ah, yeah.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: That book. Every chapter ends on this cliffhanger. Like, what's gonna happen? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And the chapters are short. Cause it's like an airport read and. But yeah, yeah, I think it's just a pretty common trope in that kind of, like, pop fiction stuff.
[00:13:34] Speaker C: So. Our winner this week was the Book, with five votes to the show's two, plus our two listeners who couldn't decide.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: All right, thank you all so much for your feedback.
Now we're gonna preview our next book, which is Harriet the Spy.
[00:13:53] Speaker E: Some kids collect insects, others collect dolls. Harriet M. Welch collects secrets. What? What? What
[00:14:02] Speaker F: was that? Shake
[00:14:03] Speaker G: it up. Take a sip and wish for what you like most in the world.
[00:14:06] Speaker F: I want to see the whole world. And I wanted to write down everything.
What are you writing? Notes. Can we read them? Can you read this?
[00:14:17] Speaker E: There's no lead she won't follow.
[00:14:19] Speaker F: Stop, thief.
[00:14:22] Speaker E: No question she won't ask. Well,
[00:14:24] Speaker F: wouldn't you eat for a million dollars? Camel burgers, dried room kill, and my dad's meatloaf.
[00:14:30] Speaker C: Harriet the is a 1964 children's novel. I did not realize this book was as old as it is.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't either.
[00:14:38] Speaker C: It was written and illustrated by American author Louise Fitzhugh.
Fitzhugh began working on Harriet the Spy following her success as the illustrator on Sandra Scopitone's Scopetone, I don't know. Children's book. Suzuki Bean, which was a parody of the Eloise at the Plaza books about a little girl whose parents are beatniks. Very 1960s sounding.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:15:04] Speaker C: but Harriet the Spy would go on to become her most successful work, although it debuted to some controversy, with critics complaining that the characters were flawed and also engaged in behavior that wasn't suitable for children.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:15:22] Speaker C: Despite those negative reviews, the novel was hugely popular among young girls, even at it at the time. It appeared on the 1964 list of the year's best juveniles in the New York Times Book Review. And it also won a Sequoia book Award in 1967. And it is now considered a milestone in children's literature for its embrace of realism, hearkening back to the flawed characters and unsuitable behavior. I'm sure.
In 2012, it ranked at number 17among all time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal.
And over the years, it has also been commonly banned and challenged. So, you know, it's
[00:16:06] Speaker A: good. I know nothing about this.
Like the. I don't. I saw the movie when I was a kid, but I don't remember anything about the movie either, so.
[00:16:13] Speaker C: Harriet the Spy was followed by two companion books, The Long Secret in 1965 and Sport in 1979, which was released posthumously after Fitzhugh's death in 1974.
There were also two decades later sequels, 2002's Harriet Spies Again by Helen Erickson and 2005's Harriet the Spy Double Agent by Maya Gold. And neither of those were particularly well received.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:44] Speaker C: Harriet's tomboyish character is often linked to Fitzhugh's identity as a lesbian.
The character is also supposedly based in part on Mary Jane Meeker, the. An American writer credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre in the 1950s.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: Yeah. And while there are no direct references to the character's sexual identity in the book, other authors who wrote lesbian detective characters have cited the novel and character as.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: This was
[00:17:14] Speaker C: inspiration.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Lesbian detective fiction. I. Lesbian pulp fiction. That's great.
[00:17:20] Speaker C: Including Irene Zahava, Elizabeth Pincus, and Bonnie Morris.
And finally, in addition to the 1996 film that we will be discussing, Harriet the Spy was also adapted as a Disney Channel original movie in 2010. I
[00:17:38] Speaker A: guess I was. Yeah,
[00:17:40] Speaker C: yeah, we were. We were in college.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: We were a little
[00:17:42] Speaker C: old for that. But it was titled Harriet the Spy. Blog Wars. Yeah.
And it was adapted as an Apple TV animated series in 2021 starring the Beanie Feldstein.
I was. When I was initially doing research for this, I missed that that series was animated. And I was like, peldstein, she's way too old to play Harriet the Spy.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: The spy in 2020. She's like. She was like,
[00:18:08] Speaker C: almost 30.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Yeah. In her 20s. Yeah. Yeah. All right, it's time now to learn a little bit about Harriet the Spy, the movie.
[00:18:16] Speaker F: Where's my notebook? Looks like there's something in here for everyone. You wrote down the truth in your notebook, and your friends who weren't supposed to see it did.
Harriet. Harriet Harri.
Fine.
[00:18:26] Speaker E: Trouble.
Paramount Pictures presents Rosie o' Donnell Good friends are one of life's blessings. Don't give them up without a fight. And introducing Michelle Trachtenberg.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Harriet Good sea. Harriet the spy is a 1996 film directed by Bronwyn Hughes, who is almost exclusively a TV director other than this and has worked on quite a bit of stuff, including Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Royal pains, white collar, 13 reasons why, and the Walking Dead, among many others. So, yeah, pretty
[00:19:08] Speaker C: a 20, 20 tens.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:10] Speaker C: What's what.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: Yeah, was worked on a lot of stuff in the 2000s as a pretty successful TV director.
Was written by Douglas Petrie, who was a writer on almost all of Buffy, I believe. Was the showrunner on the Defend, maybe. And I was also a writer on Daredevil, CSI and American Horror Story, among other things.
And Teresa Rebeck, who was the showrunner for Smash. I don't know if you ever watched Smash. I didn't, I
[00:19:39] Speaker C: didn't, but I know what
[00:19:40] Speaker A: you're talking about. Yeah, she was the creator and showrunner of Smash and also wrote on Law and Order, Criminal Intent, but was also the screenwriter for the Catwoman film.
[00:19:49] Speaker C: Oh, the Catwoman.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Catwoman film with Halle Berry.
Now, to be fair, that movie has like 800 credit screenwriters, I believe, because, yeah, it was just a. So who knows how response. Probably very little of what ended up in on screen in that film was directly from her, but. But it is, though. They were the script writers on this. And then it is from an adaptation by Greg Taylor and Julie Talon.
Julie Talon's, like, only credit, essentially, is Harry the Spy. She had like two other credits I'd never heard of.
And then Greg Taylor, though, is the person who adapted Jumanji.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Wrote Jumanji, the original, and has credits on the more recent films. But I think that might just be, like, stories.
[00:20:32] Speaker C: Right.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: I don't know if he actually worked.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: We used elements from
[00:20:35] Speaker A: your
[00:20:36] Speaker C: script, so you get a writer's
[00:20:37] Speaker A: credit. I don't actually know if he was a writer on it didn't seem like it. The film stars Michelle Trachtenberg, Rosie o', Donnell, Vanessa Lee, Chester Gregory Smith, Eartha Kitt J. Smith, Cameron Robert Jobe, Eugene Lipinsk, Don Franks and Charlotte Sullivan, among others. It has a 44% on rotten tomatoes. It does not have to seem. Seem to have a Metacritic score for whatever reason, and a 6 out of 10 on IMDb. It made $26.6 million against a budget of 12 million.
And Rosie O' Donnell won the 1997 Kids Choice Awards, the Blimpy, the Nickelodeon Award for Favorite Movie actress, which feels like may have been.
I'm sure those awards are always like.
I don't know the word for it, like rigged, like the Nickelodeon Choice Awards. But as we'll get to in a second, this is Nickelodeon first feature film. And so I feel like her winning an award for it at the Nickelodeon Awards is probably in the bag.
So getting into some production details, which there wasn't a whole lot.
This was filmed in the fall of 95 and the winter of 95, 96 in Toronto, Canada.
The director Bronwyn Hughes, talking about the adaptation said, quote, certain things about the 60s story, especially the relationship between kids and their parents, had to be adjusted to make sense because you don't have that same kind of formality that you had in the book in the 60s between parents and kids today. So those things needed to be more made more natural for the 1990s of kids audience. But it was very important to me that the things that really affected Harriet in the movie would be things that really affected Harriet in the movie or, sorry, things that really affected Harriet in the book would be the things that really affected Harriet in the movie. Charlotte Sullivan, one of the child actors of the film, recall of the shoot, talking about Bronwyn saying, quote, when Bronwyn would direct us if we weren't walking, she's like, okay, you'll go bop bop this way, then bop bop this way. She was always dancing. I don't remember her not dancing on set. And music was always playing. It was very cool. And in terms of performance art, she was pretty ahead of her time. It was a great way also to direct children.
It was a way to keep things alive, end quote. I thought that was interesting. And again, I couldn't find really much of anything of interest on this, so I just threw everything I could in here. A couple IMDb trivia facts. As I mentioned, it's Nickelodeon movie's first feature film supposedly. And I could not find information on this anywhere else and I'm not even sure it's true, but IMDb trivia claims that Michelle Trachtenberg opted out of Matilda in order to be in this film. Not, not starring as Matilda necessarily, but just
[00:23:11] Speaker C: in the film.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: I will say I googled Michelle Trachtenberg, Matilda and variations of that and searched all over the place and could find nothing else.
[00:23:19] Speaker C: I mean, if she was just gonna be in it, I could believe that.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it would be. If she was gonna be Matilda, there would be more coverage
[00:23:28] Speaker C: of it. Maybe
[00:23:28] Speaker A: she's gonna be in it. Sure, maybe everything to Be fair. Part of it is it was hard to find because everything that was coming up when I searched that was Mara Wilson posted released a post when Michelle Trachtenberg passed away, she released like an article about it because they went to like school together. They went to elementary school together or something like that.
But anyways, yeah, I could not find anything to confirm that she actually was gonna be in Matilda, but that's what IMDb claims. Many theatrical versions of the film include the pilot episode of hey Arnold as a short before the start of the film, which is fun.
That's neat.
Rosie o' Donnell oh Golly remembers reading the novel when she was 10 years old and said it was one of her favorites as a child. And then she immediately accepted the role of old Golly when it was offered to her because she was such a fan, she didn't even read the script.
This I included because I remember this, the USA VHS tape of this is Orange.
[00:24:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Weren't all of the Nickelodeon,
[00:24:24] Speaker A: I think
[00:24:24] Speaker C: for a
[00:24:24] Speaker A: while.
[00:24:25] Speaker C: Yeah, but this
[00:24:25] Speaker A: because this was their first one,
[00:24:27] Speaker C: right? It was the first one.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: It was the first one, I believe. Or maybe they had other tv, but yeah, it was.
Yeah, I remember this one being Orange. I remember. I don't know if I had it or somebody else had it or renting it or whatever, but I specifically remember the Orange VHS of this movie and then getting into a few reviews. Rita Kempley for the Washington Post was critical of the film, deeming it, quote, tedious or a tedious adaptation of the novel, adding, quote, harriet the Spy isn't really a story, but a dark slice of this ruminative child's inner life. Like the more clearly comic welcome to the Doll House, this film finds more wrong than wonder in these terrible Tenderfoot end quote. Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleber or Gleiberman, who is a self proclaimed fan of the novel, said that the film, quote, has its sticky After School special side. The ending is way too pat, but at its best it's like a welcome to the Dollhouse for pre adolescence as two references to welcome to the Dollhouse. What Fitzhugh's books, what Fitz Fitzhugh's book had and what the movie gets is the glee and neurotic terror of a kid lurching into adult consciousness learning just how dangerous that notebook we all carry around in our heads really is, end quote.
John Anderson of the Los Angeles Times also commented on the film's darker elements, writing, quote, it is fun, yes, but it isn't afraid to expose the nastiness of youth or the offhand cruelty of one girl's ego. This is not a happy little movie about the sweetness of childhood, end quote.
Barbara Schulgasser, writing for the San Francisco examiner, dismissed the film, saying that the protagonist was, quote, the kind of kid I'm not looking forward to meeting as a grown up. While the well loved novel was apparently about the admirable battle a kid must wage in order to become an artist in the face of pure disapproval, the movie seems to be about a mean spirited tyke who has no scruples. If that kind of person wants to become an artist, it's okay by me, but I don't have to root for her. End quote. It's a child. It's a child. I don't know, I'll have to watch the movie and see. Maybe I'll agree, but I was like, this is a weird review. And then finally, Roger Ebert praised the performance of Michelle Trachtenberg, but conceded, quote, it is not a very technically accomplished movie. The pacing is slow and there are scenes that seem amateurish, but since Harriet doesn't intend to inspire anyone to become a movie critic, perhaps it will work a certain charm for its target audience. End quote. He gave it two out of four stars. So not a huge fan, but not like a horrible review.
As always, you can do us a favor by heading over Facebook, Instagram, threads, Blue Sky, Goodreads, any of those places interact. We'd love to hear from you so we can talk about it on these prequel episodes. You can also head over to Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, drop us a nice little rating and a review that helps us out, and you could Support
[email protected] this film is lit. Katie. Where can people watch Harriet the Spy?
[00:27:14] Speaker C: As always, check with your local library. I think there's probably a pretty good chance they'll have this one. Maybe. Probably.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: I assume it got a DVD release.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: I'm sure it did.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Probably.
[00:27:25] Speaker C: And you can probably get the book at the same time.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Yeah, you definitely get the book, that's for sure.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: You can also check with your local video rental store if you still have one of those.
Otherwise you can stream this with a subscription to Fubo, Paramount plus or Kanopy, or you can rent it for around four bucks from Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube or Fandango Stream.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: There you go. Yeah, Paramount plus is like, I think Nickelodeon. All their stuff is on Paramount Plus. That's where the Goosebumps show was, even though the episodes we were looking for wasn't on there for some reason. I'm still not sure why, but. But yeah, no, I'm interested to see. I. Like I said, I remember watching this as a kid. I don't think I ever read this. I don't remember reading it.
[00:28:09] Speaker C: I'm pretty positive I read, but
[00:28:10] Speaker A: I know I watched this movie at least once when it came out in 96. So I was like, yeah, it was
[00:28:16] Speaker C: like we were the target audience.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: I'm sure I watched it when I was 8 and then probably didn't see it ever again and I remember nothing about it so. But no, I am interested to see, especially after reading a few of those reviews about how it's darker than that. Would not have been my thought based on like my vague cultural memory of the movie. Would not have been
[00:28:34] Speaker C: unlike the Nickelodeon of it all.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I would have assumed it was kind of a silly like Disney original style movie more than anything. But yeah, I don't know. Yeah, we'll see. Should be interesting. Should be a lot of fun. Come back in one week's time. We're talking about Harriet the Spy until that time. Guys, gals, I'm battery pals and everybody else,
[00:28:52] Speaker C: keep reading books, keep
[00:28:53] Speaker A: watching movies and
[00:28:54] Speaker C: keep being awesome.
