Harriet the Spy (film)

Infobox Film
name = Harriet the Spy


director = Bronwen Hughes
producer = Marykay Powell
writer = Louise Fitzhugh (novel)
Greg Taylor
Julie Talen (adaptation)
Douglas Petrie
Theresa Rebeck (screenplay)
starring = Michelle Trachtenberg
Gregory Smith
Rosie O'Donnell
distributor = Paramount Pictures
Nickelodeon Movies
released = July 10, 1996
runtime = 100 minutes
country = USA
language = English
imdb_id = 0116493

Harriet the Spy is a 1996 film adaptation of the 1964 children's book of the same name, drawn and written by Louise Fitzhugh, and starring Michelle Trachtenberg as the titular character.

This film was produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, and originally released in movie theatres in 1996.

Cast

* Michelle Trachtenberg....Harriet M. Welsch
* Gregory Smith....Simon "Sport" Rocque
* Vanessa Lee Chester....Jane "Janie" Gibbs
* Rosie O'Donnell....Ole Golly
* J. Smith-Cameron....Mrs. Welsch
* Robert Joy....Mr. Welsch
* Charlotte Sullivan....Marion Hawthorne

Douglas Petrie and Michelle Trachtenberg would reunite on Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Petrie worked as a staff writer and Trachtenberg would play Dawn Summers in the last 3 seasons.

Differences between the book and the movie version

* Among the episodes in the novel cut from the movie version included Ole Golly taking Harriet and Sport to meet her reclusive (and presumably mentally ill) mother in Chapter One, and a brief subplot about Harriet and Janie rebelling against their mothers' decisions to send them to dance school to make them more "ladylike". It can be assumed that the "dance school" storyline was cut because of the many changes in social conventions since the novel was first published.
* In the book, Ole Golly leaves the Welsch household to marry Mr. Waldenstein and move to Montreal. In the movie, Ole Golly merely decides it's time to move on, and for Harriet to be more independent. Later in the movie, Ole Golly returns for a visit to talk to Harriet about white lies and apologies, rather than writing to her.
* A subplot was added to the movie, involving the use of pen ink "foot tattoos" as a symbol of Harriet, Sport and Janie's friendship. When Harriet lost her friends, she was later seen furiously erasing her foot tattoo. When she regained them later in the movie, they were seen exchanging foot tattoos again.
* Little Joe Curry, the deliveryman for the Dei Santis' grocery on Harriet's spy route, disappeared from the movie version, but his trademark personality traits were given to Ole Golly's beau, Mr. Waldenstein. In the movie, Mr. Waldenstein is a delivery boy for the Hong Fat food emporium and passes food through a window to a group of hungry children.
* The movie wanted a more racially diverse cast, as opposed to the book. This is evidenced by Rachel, a white character originally (drawn in the book as having dark hair and freckles and wearing glasses), being portrayed as Asian, and Janie being played by an African-American actress, Vanessa Lee Chester; in the book, Janie was a Caucasian girl with blonde hair and freckles.
* In the book, the immigrant family on Harriet's spy route, the Dei Santis, are Italian-American. In the movie, the family is Chinese-American, and the family name is changed from Dei Santi to Hong Fat (although the subplot about the lazy son wanting to take the truck remained intact).

Television series

In September 2004, Mainframe Entertainment announced that Protocol Entertainment will produce a new "Harriet the Spy" live-action television series, consisting of at least 22 half-hour episodes. [http://mainframe.ca/news/articles/news/040921N0.pdf] As of June 2008, such a series has yet to appear on television. It is currently unknown if Nickelodeon would have any participation in the series.

External links

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