"Wild Child"
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What You Need To Know:
With a delightful musical score and imaginative story, PIPPI LONGSTOCKING is an amusing diversion for younger children, but it may dismay parents who may object to seeing a wild girl rebuff all attempts at moral correction, as she celebrates carefree childhood as an end in itself. Her father, the Captain, returns at a crucial moment in the movie version, but then inexplicably leaves his 9-year old daughter to fend for herself in town while he departs on yet another sea going voyage. PIPPI LONGSTOCKING is a fun way to spend an afternoon matinee with the children, but beware of the story’s blatant undercutting of parental authority. In Ephesians 6:1-2, the Bible teaches children to obey their parents and parents to raise their children properly.
Content:
(Ro, V, N) Romantic worldview of a young tomboy Swedish girl; no obscenities or profanities; girl throws men & wrestles with man; no sex; and, brief cartoon depiction of girl’s underwear
More Detail:
Swedish housewife and storyteller, Astrid Lindgren, wrote the charming fantasy, PIPPI LONGSTOCKING, around 1950 for her children and their friends. She invented a strong orphan tomboy heroine, who wears one long stocking on her right foot, and called her Pippi, the only daughter of Swedish Merchant Marine Captain John Longstocking. Pippi’s mother died when she was a tiny baby, and Pippi believes she is now with God in heaven. In Astrid Lingren’s novel, Captain Longstocking gets blown overboard during a gale at sea, but Pippi is absolutely sure that he will come back and is even now king of the cannibals on a cannibal island. In 1997’s animated musical, Pippi tries to rescue her father, but as she disengages the lifeboat, the sea dashes it to pieces. The sailors take the ship to port, where it is repaired, and Pippi returns to her girlhood homestead, Villa Villekulla, to live by herself.
Next door live the boy, Tommy, and the girl, Anika, whose parents have suggested they play boring croquet. As Tommy misses his croquet ball, he sees Pippi walking backwards in oversize shoes. Pippi explains that she is just doing what they do in Egypt, where everyone walks backwards. Tommy questions her as to whether she has really been to Egypt, and she assures him she has. Then she flips over to walk on her hands and says that that’s the way people walk in India. Tommy challenges her on that, too, and she admits she was lying. She agrees with Anika that it is bad to lie. She invites Tommy and Anika to come over to eat Pippi’s pancakes and to play Thingfinder with her. Pippi shows them her father’s chest of gold coins.
Seeing her playing in the front yard, a disapproving passing townswoman, Mrs. Brucillious, imperiously demands to see her parents. Pippi tells her matter-of-factly that she has none. Outraged at her antics, Mrs. Brucillious vows to put Pippi in a children’s home. Lodging a complaint at the police station, she inveigles the town’s inept constables to investigate Pippi. Cling and Clang, the constables, arrive the next day, but smart aleck Pippi outsmarts them and they end up helping her install roofing on Villa Villekulla’s high-cornered roof. They agree that Pippi is best left alone in her own house.
Tommy and Anika invite Pippi to school on the pretext that if she doesn’t come, she won’t get any Christmas vacation. She wants Christmas vacation. So, she visits their class, but misbehaves, talking back to the teacher and causing mayhem. Restricting her after class, the teacher tries to talk sense into her, but she refuses all correction, preferring to play by herself. She leaves school for home.
Meanwhile, two burglars in the police station overhear Mrs. Brucillious mention that Pippi keeps a chest full of gold at her house. They escape while Cling and Clang go fishing. Arriving at the house, they ask Pippi if they can have the chest of gold. She gives it to them, but then takes it back before they can carry it out of the house. She picks them up and throws them out of the house with supernatural strength. They run for cover back into the conveniently passing police car. In this way, Pippi triumphs over every adult subterfuge intended to repress her irrepressible personality.
With a delightful musical score, and imaginative story, PIPPI LONGSTOCKING is an amusing diversion for younger children, who want to imagine that they can escape all semblance of parental authority. Comically peculiar, with high quality cartooning, PIPPI LONGSTOCKING yet may dismay parents who see a wild girl rebuff all attempts at moral correction, as she celebrates carefree childhood as an end in itself. Her father, the Captain, returns at a crucial moment in the movie version, but then inexplicably leaves his 9-year old daughter to fend for herself in town while he departs on yet another seagoing voyage.
PIPPI LONGSTOCKING is a fun way to spend an afternoon matinee with the children, but beware of the story’s blatant undercutting of parental authority. In Ephesians 6:1-2, the Bible teaches children to obey their parents and parents to raise their children properly.