The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking

Annika's not even whiny!  And, no, that's not a plus.

The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking
July 29, 1988
Columbia
Children's, Comedy, Musical, Fantasy
VHS
C-

Maybe it's generational bias, but I just can't get into this late '80s take compared to the badly dubbed but endearing European imports of my childhood.  The thing is, although this claims to be "new," there are a lot more adventures recycled from the Inger Nilsson series than from the books.  I'm pretty sure the cows eating Tommy and Annika's clothing only happens in Pippi on the Run, not to mention the appearance of that movie's "glue man" character, here played by Dick Van Patten.  What is new in this version includes things of dubious value: lots of songs, or rather a handful of songs repeated ad nauseam; a setting that's vaguely Florida in the Truman era; and Pippi facing setbacks that make me think Irving Thalberg came back from the dead and advised Ken Annakin.  The Pirate Movie director wrote and directed this, and we can see such PM touches as beefcake (Hello, Fridolf!), talking animals (one voiced by Frank Welker), an ice-cream salesman, and of course pirates.

The Thalbergization is seen in the way the title character (played by relatively over-the-hill but eager thirteen-year-old Tami Erin) is handled.  Yes, she still has strength, spunk, and magic powers, but she twice shows fear, something the book's Pippi (and of course Nilsson's) never did.  Worse than that, while the Pippi of twenty years ago successfully fended off the threats of robbers and a children's home, this Pippi ends up in an orphanage (run by Eileen Brennan, who can't decide if she's auditioning for Annie or playing a well-meaning overworked social worker).  There's an interwoven thread about evil real-estate developers (hey, things had changed in Florida in the 60 years since Cocoanuts) wanting Pippi's house.  Oh, and this was what really sunk the movie for me: even though Pippi has her traditional interest in art, she never brightens up Villa Villekulla when she gets out her painting supplies, and it remains drab and gray.

All that said, I don't hate this movie.  It's harmless enough, especially for kids under the age of maybe 9.