Boredom in Seattle, hilarity in Gotland

After the epic endurance feat that was Cleopatra, we decided we needed something significantly lighter for classic movie Sunday two weekends ago. I felt like something a bit frothy so we got a supposed modern classic, While You Were Sleeping.

UGH. In my opinion, this movie is not deserving of its romantic comedy classic status. It's not like I had high expectations and I was even prepared to overlook the tenuous plot foundations (how hard is it to say, 'I'm sorry, no, you've misunderstood, I'm not his fiancee, I'm the woman who saved his life'? I'm pretty sure the family would have been just as pleased to meet her). But, feasibility aside, it just went on way too long. Even though it's only an hour and 43 minutes, it felt much longer. It was too much to buy into and too frustrating that Sandra Bullock's character let it get to the point that it did before telling the truth. This movie did not fill me with warm romantic fuzzies. It irritated me. The best thing about the whole movie was the grandmother, played by Glynis Johns, the woman who played the mother in Mary Poppins.

Last weekend, however, was a triumph. Pippi Longstocking. The 1969 version made from a collection of episodes from the Swedish TV series. I hadn't seen it before (I'd only watched the 1986 American version when I was younger) and it was hilarious! Mainly because of the English speaking voices dubbed over the Swedish - the accents and voices of the characters seemed to change a lot, my favourite were the criminals who initially sounded kind of Mexican but by the next time we saw them they had become British.

The girl who played Pippi was so cute and gave Pippi such personality and the little girl and boy who become her friends were such cute wee Swedish ingenues. The story itself and some of the dialogue and editing was so random it was extremely entertaining. The special effects were especially special.

I found out from my good friend Wikipedia that the show was set in Visby in Gotland, an island belonging to Sweden. My family on the Jacobson side were originally from Gotland so that pleased me greatly. I've decided that this fact, combined with my hair colour, means I pretty much AM Pippi Longstocking. I wonder how my flatmates would feel if I got a monkey?