Based on the Newberry Medal winning, children's fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle.
Story of an awkward girl named Meg who longs to have her missing father returned to his family. Both of Meg's parents are scientists and her fathers disappearance may be related to his research. The adventure begins when Meg's incredibly precocious younger brother Charles Wallace tells her he believes he can find their father. Meg finds herself drawn to the quest along with a popular school athlete named Calvin. Guiding them on their way is a trio of mysterious women named Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Whatsit.
The approach by Disney is a simple retelling the story in a fairly straightforward style. There is nothing special or remarkable about the visual or stylistic approach, the essence of the production is the story.
The fairly impressive cast includes Alison Elliot (Wings of the Dove), Kate Nelligan and Alfre Woodard as the three mysterious women. The other standout cast member is the young David Dorfman who plays Charles Wallace, he's probably best known as the son from "The Ring" and its sequel.
The special affects are sufficient to tell the story and little more. While some may find them a little lacking (probably due to budget) it's worth mentioning that just a decade or so earlier and it would have been technically impossible or prohibitively expensive to achieve the effects necessary to tell this story.
As with most Canadian produced efforts the quintessentially Canadian flavor of the production fairly quickly became obvious. Whether it's the British Columbia locations (where it was all filmed) or more likely the extensive Canadian cast (even though their origins may not be immediately obvious) its derivation quickly became apparent at least to me.
Story of an awkward girl named Meg who longs to have her missing father returned to his family. Both of Meg's parents are scientists and her fathers disappearance may be related to his research. The adventure begins when Meg's incredibly precocious younger brother Charles Wallace tells her he believes he can find their father. Meg finds herself drawn to the quest along with a popular school athlete named Calvin. Guiding them on their way is a trio of mysterious women named Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Whatsit.
The approach by Disney is a simple retelling the story in a fairly straightforward style. There is nothing special or remarkable about the visual or stylistic approach, the essence of the production is the story.
The fairly impressive cast includes Alison Elliot (Wings of the Dove), Kate Nelligan and Alfre Woodard as the three mysterious women. The other standout cast member is the young David Dorfman who plays Charles Wallace, he's probably best known as the son from "The Ring" and its sequel.
The special affects are sufficient to tell the story and little more. While some may find them a little lacking (probably due to budget) it's worth mentioning that just a decade or so earlier and it would have been technically impossible or prohibitively expensive to achieve the effects necessary to tell this story.
As with most Canadian produced efforts the quintessentially Canadian flavor of the production fairly quickly became obvious. Whether it's the British Columbia locations (where it was all filmed) or more likely the extensive Canadian cast (even though their origins may not be immediately obvious) its derivation quickly became apparent at least to me.