(Untitled)

[philstar22]

To the people involved in making Anne: The Continuing Story and An Avonlea ChristmasWhat is with your obsession with showing these characters during World War One? The Continuing Story doesn't even make any sense since in the books, by the time the war comes, Anne and Gilbert already have two sons old enough to fight. The two of them go off to

Comments

[pathology_doc]

Is your problem with the way World War One was referenced, or the fact that it was referenced at all? Because there are very good reasons for referencing (and even giving increased emphasis to) World War One if it's actually contemporary with the canon they're retelling/re-interpreting.

[philstar22]

It is both. It isn't actually contemporary. They screwed up the timeline. In the books, Anne and Gilbert are married and have children when the war starts. The third movie shifted the timeline by 20 years for no good reason. The first two movies and the early books are set in the late 1800s.

Also, the way they reference it is not faithful to the way the author references it in the book she does use. She doesn't focus on the actual fighting much at all. She keeps the focus on Avonlea and on how the war effects small towns. And the tone is a lot more hopeful and positive and in-line with the other books.

[pathology_doc]

Aha, yes, that clarifies things a great deal. I see what you're getting at now - they've done a wholesale Time Transplant so they could weave some good old home-front angst into the story, yes?

Um, no. Even if you can excuse the time-shift, Home Front was kept as un-angsty as possible. The one thing they didn't hide (because they couldn't) was the casualty lists, although there's no doubting how grim the situation was IRL.

[philstar22]

Exactly. And the book totally manages to capture what the home front was really like in a way the movies fail at.

And the Avonlea movie even fails at capturing the reality of war with its need to remain family friendly. For the entire movie, one character is "missing in action" only to turn up with just a broken arm at the end. And his mother goes from being very anti-war and blaming everyone for getting him to enlist to making up with everyone and no longer speaking out against the war just because her son is home.

[pseudohistorian]

Canadian fiction is somewhat fixated on World War I in general. If they can find a way to incorporate it more directly into the proceedings, they'll do it.