An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving

This was fate. I found a DVD of a Louisa May Alcott story for free on the side of the road. 

I'd heard of the story before, but I hadn't read it. Since Halloween is over, and it's a little too early for me to begin my Christmas movie viewings, I've been trying to compile some Thanksgiving themed movies that I can indulge in for this month. Obviously, this was meant to be.

This was a made-for-TV movie that debuted on the Hallmark channel. It did pretty well. I enjoyed the movie for what it is, but it does have ALOT of similarities to Little Women, which made me a little suspicious. I  know that Alcott wrote this story following the success of Little Women, but it seemed a little odd that she would write a short story with so many similar themes and conflicts, when she's proven to be a writer capable of so many different types of literature.

So after I finished the movie, I found my copy of the short story. I noticed that it's only about 30 pages long, and I wondered how such a story could be so short in the book and over an hour and a half on the screen.

It appears that the script for the TV movie stuff had entire storylines added in. The text simply describes how the children in a family try to make Thanksgiving dinner by themselves, after their mother must leave to visit their ailing grandmother.

The movie however has: a widowed mother raising her children, while struggling to pay the rent, and an estranged grandmother, who happens to be very wealthy who comes to visit. 

And just in case you might have forgotten what Little Women is like, this movie includes: a bout with scarlet fever, a father who served in the Civil War, a tomboyish, imaginative girl who enjoys writing stories, and a charming boy who lives next door who is her best friend.  .  .

**awkward silence**

So, the movie is obviously intended to appeal to fans of Little Women, but if I wanted to watch Little Women, I would just.  .  .watch my DVD of Little Women.  .  .makes sense, right?

I'd watch An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving again, especially since I found it for free, now that I've already resigned myself to the fact that it appears to be a slightly different version of the story I already know.