Plain, old, unromantic Anne Shirley

Today, I watched the new Anne of Green Gables movie. I love the books and the first two movies with Megan Follows. The latest two are so far removed from the original story that they are barely recognizable. In the latest incarnation, Gilbert was killed in WWII and Anne returns to Green Gables and discovers a letter from her father. It was revealed that Anne's father is still alive but they were separated. The movie basically covers the years before Anne went to Green Gables and her middle aged life. It is consistant with the movie from 2000 but not to the stories, at all. I liked how they incorporated some of the footage from the early movies, showing Marilla and Mrs Hammond in flashbacks. They also had the original Rachel Lynde as an old woman. I am puzzled about the casting because the original movie, I believe used mainly Canadian actors in main rolls for funding purposes. This movie had people like Shirley Maclaine (as the Elder Mrs Thomas), Rachel Blanchard (as Louisa Thomas), and Barbara Hershey as the elder Anne. I thought the girl playing the young, young Anne was interesting because she used some of the speech patterns and intonation as Megan Follows did in the first two. The movie was alright but it lost some of the humour that I loved about the first two movies and had more of a dramatic plot. I would definitely prefer the first two movies or any of the books over this one.