A different pirate movie

So. You need to know that I'm not a fan of the other pirate movies. I fell asleep halfway through a DVD of the first one a few years ago & have never been enthused enough to actually finish watching it. Didn't notice and didn't care when the second one came out. Not lining up to see the third one. And more to the point, not letting my kids see any of them.

I'll tell you what I suggest as an alternative:



Yes, a 1975 production of Pippi Longstocking in the High Seas. This movie is delightfully cheesy and whimsical and unpretentious. It's a total antithesis of the hollywood blockbuster glitzy productions, and it is innocently charming.

It is dubbed (why yes! Other countries do make movies and they don't all speak English!) and not very well dubbed either, so there's a fair bit of humour in the lips moving & mismatched voice thing. It has the lamest special effects. I'm guessing that as I write this, there are year-end elementary school productions which have more elaborate theatrical effects than this film.

There is an incredible innocence in this film (& the other Pippi productions starring Inger Nilsson) which I can't help but feel nostalgic about. The most incredible part of this movie for me is right at the beginning, when Tommy and Annika's parents are going away for a 3 week holiday and leaving the kids behind - to be watched over by 9 year old Pippi. Now granted, Pippi is not just any girl, but still......

The rest of the movie is sweet, silly, adventurous, with just a bit of drama thrown in. And no scantily clad anorexic woman-child characters. Just oddly dressed real-looking children, chubby men, monkeys and parrots. Try it.