One of the most classic novels revolving around dance is none other than, Ballet Shoes, by Noel Straetfeild. The story involves around Pauline, Posy, and Petrova Fossil, who are adopted sisters all brought to 'Gum's' (Great-Uncle-Mathew) house in London during the 1930s, and are taken in by his great-niece, Sylvia, and her nanny, Nana. Throughout the novel, it shows their childhood growing up, where they are eventually put into a financial crisis due to the dwindling amount of money leftover from Gum's last visit, which was unfortunately many years ago. The three sisters then join a stage school, where they learn to dance, act, and sing, and eventually earn money from participating in plays and performances. After taking classes for awhile, their talents and destinies become clearer, with Posy becoming a prima ballerina, Pauline becoming a Hollywood film star, and Petrova becoming facinated with automobiles and airplanes. With all of them diverging paths, they can't help but wonder what will happen next to the Fossil legacy, and end up vowing that since both Posy and Pauline won't be able to make it into the history books, that it will be Petrova to make the Fossil name famous.
Now as for my opinion of the novel! Personally, I absolutely adored the story, as I loved how all of them were able to compliment one another, and yet be so different. Another one of my favourite elements of the story is how they all have different talents and specialties, but they aren't necessarily 'good' at everything. Additionally, I enjoyed the many trials and tribuals that three girls went through, that made me, as a reader, silently cheer for their success, and feel empathy for their difficulties. I also liked how no matter what there was always apart of me who could relate to an element in each character, if not another continously, as they have such a wide range of talents. Additionally, I liked how the author made it so they had their own last name, and that while Petrova initially seems to have the short end of the stick, she ends up being the one who will put their names in the history books for a major accomplishment, such as flying an airplane or working with automobiles. Moreover, my favourite scenes from the novel was both "The Midsummer's Night Dream" Rehearsal with Petrova's difficulty in saying "And I" as Mustardseed, as I know how it feels to try so hard, but not even understanding what you're doing wrong, and wanting to fix it, along with the "Alice in Wonderland" scene with Pauline winning the role of "Alice", as I thought that Straetfeild's interpretation and description of what it's like in the acting industry is so true. Especially, when Winifred says that Pauline will always get the part no matter how talented she is, as being blonde she will always look the part. Overall, I loved the novel and would definitely recommend reading it if you haven't already. For Reference published in 1936, there are also 11 books in the series, however, they are only loosely related to each other.
As for the movie version of Ballet Shoes, I absolutely loved it! With Emma Watson as Pauline, Yasmin Paige as Petrova, Lucy Boynton as Posy, Richard Griffiths as Great Uncle Matthew (Gum), Victoria Wood as Nana, and Emilia Fox as Sylvia Brown, it's a terrific cast. Some of my favourite scenes that were amazing to see in real life versus imagining it (which is also pretty amazing if you ask me :)), include Pauline seeing her film for the first time and instantly becoming a film star, Posy dancing for Manoff's ballet, and Gum arriving home. All of the actors and actresses throughout the movie were brilliant, and made the story come to life, unlike a lot of other book-to-movie adaptations, which is an extremely difficult thing to do. Some of the differences between the book and the movie are: the ages of the characters (in the movie they are about 2-4 years older than their characters), the relationship between Mr. Simpson and Garnie (Sylvia) (in the movie Mr.Simpson was recently widowed and falls in love with Garnie, however, in the novel his wife is alive and there is no romance between them), the depiction of Winifred (in the novel Winifred is a lot nicer towards the Fossil sisters, and doesn't reveal her father's illness until much later in the novel, compared to the movie, where she is seen as arrogant and barely references her father's current state), Pauline's role as 'Alice' (in the movie her role is permanently taken from her, while in the novel, her role is taken for one performance and given to Winifred, but is given back to her after she quickly learned her lesson), the academy's musical (this scene doesn't appear in the movie), and Posy's response to Madame's illness (in the book, Posy is in distress about Madame and feels abandoned as no one will tell her how serious her illness is, whereas in the movie, Posy is shown as selfish and unsympathetic, as she only cares about her own dance training, with no sympathy towards Madame at all. For Reference the movie is rated PG (for smoking), 1hr 24min, and was out in theatres: August 26th, 2008.
Interesting Fast Facts About the Movie Adaptation:
1. Emma Watson had to dye her hair blonde twice for it to turn blonde for the role.
2. Lucy Boynton had to dye her hair bright red for the role.
3. Richard Griffiths (Gum) previously played "Vernon Dursley" in the Harry Potter franchise, along with his co-stars Emma Watson (Pauline) as "Hermione Granger", and Gemma Jones (Dr. Jakes) as "Poppy Pomfrey", all star in this film. However, since none of their scenes were together very often in the Harry Potter films, they hadn't actually worked together until this film.
4. Emma Watson's sister portrayed her as a younger Pauline Fossil (Lucie Watson).
5. Emma Watson received the script right after she finished filming the fifth film in the Harry Potter franchise.
6. For the character of Posy and the more difficult dancing scenes, Lucy Boynton had a body-double.
7. In preparation for the film Emma, Lucy, and Yasmin all took ballet lessons.
You can buy the novel here: Amazon.ca, Chapters, and Barnes & Noble.
You can buy the DVD adaptation here: Amazon.ca
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