The Secret of Mary Lennox

When we were little, Ciara (around age 2 on the right, now 18) and I had two video tapes that we nearly wore out from watching so frequently. Every now and then, we'd rediscover them and watch them over and over for a few weeks. We still have them, and now Mia (who just turned 5) is watching them. They were a set of video tapes that we somehow decided were "hers" and "mine," and we had many of those sets. I don't know how it started; maybe we just got two at a time and decided which one each of us liked better. But either way, my movie was A Little Princess, and hers was The Secret Garden. To us, we were the characters. I was Sara Crewe, and she was Mary Lennox. I was overly sympathetic and she was fearless. But I was a princess and she was an explorer, so we took care of each other.

Both of the movies I still find absolutely beautiful, and the more I watch them, the more I love them. Last fall, I made an animation about Sara Crewe. It was completely outside of my comfort zone, but I felt it was necessary. And while I normally grow to hate the majority of my pieces, or at least dislike watching them, this one I'm still proud of.

Lately I've been feeling like making something about Mary Lennox. Besides the fact that she was so fearless and adventurous, I happen to be a total fan of her clothes. Really, anything little girls wore in the Victorian/Edwardian eras are styles that I totally would wear today, as a 21 year old (maybe modified a bit...).

My desktop is littered with images of vintage boots and hair bows and gardens. And my sketchbook is filled with sketches of paper dolls and animation sets. If I ever have the time, and I finalize my ideas, I would make such a lovely stop motion. Maybe at the end of summer or beginning of fall I could figure something out. Besides, I love animating real people in outdoor settings, and early fall is the best time for that (both for temperature and aesthetics, in my opinion).

The above movie features scenes from the 1949 version of The Secret Garden. I've never seen this one, but definitely need to. Just from the clip, you can see that the 1993 version kept many similarities in their Mary.

This is the trailer for the 1993 version that Ciara and I loved so much. It sounds mildly silly from the narrator's lines, but trust me, if you haven't seen it, you really should. It's beautiful.

And of course I felt obligated to share Pogo's remix using sounds from the movie. Amazing.

I even made an Etsy treasury today based on the movie. I really want to make an animation.

PS. Ciara's been best friends with this girl since kindergarten, and she recently told me that the reason she wanted to befriend her in the first place was because she thought she looked like Mary Lennox! I totally approve.

As always, click images for sources.