Hi, I'm Alison, going to be around a bit more now as off work recovering after abdominal surgery. ...
Hi, I'm Alison, going to be around a bit more now as off work recovering after abdominal surgery. I also write on Dooyoo under the same name but under the picture of my dog Oscar!
Member since:27.07.2003
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Nanny McPhee was a popular children's film in 2005 and was released to DVD in February 2006. It is based on the Nurse Matilda stories written by Christianna Brand and has been adapted to the big screen by the actress Emma Thompson. In doing so she has also cast herself in the starring role (I guess it's one of the perks of being the screenwriter!) as Nanny McPhee.
The Plot =========
This is the story of the Brown family. Mr Brown (played by Colin Firth) and his seven very rowdy and mischievous children. Mrs Brown has died and the family have gone through a string of different nannies but none can tame the children. In fact the children take great delight in plotting and planning ways of getting rid of the nannies in the quickest possible time and they keep a chart of each nanny and how long it took for them to leave. The eldest child Simon (who was the boy in Love Actually) is the main instigator of the mischief although the others need very little encouragement to join in. As if this isn't enough for poor Mr Brown to contend with his rich Aunt is putting increasing pressure on him to find a new wife and mother for the children or she will withdraw the allowance that helps support his small wage as a make-up artist in the undertakers!
In to a very chaotic scene in the kitchen comes the mysterious and almost witch-like Nanny McPhee. She is unlike any Nanny the children have ever seen
with warts on her face, huge eyebrows which meet in the middle, buck-teeth and a magic stick she is a force to be reckoned with. However the Brown children are not giving up that easily and a power struggle emerges. Who will win? Will Mr Brown find a wife? What is the secret behind Nanny McPhee? Will the children ever behave? And will they all live happily ever after? Well I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to watch the film!
My Thoughts ==============
I didn't see this at the cinema but decided to rent it recently, my husband wasn't very keen to watch it at first. I enjoy watching a lot of children's films like Shrek, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and the Harry Potter films so was keen to see if it was in the same league as these films. I actually enjoyed the film but I don't think its one of the best children's films ever released.
The basic idea behind the film is fairly simple and it does have a lot of similarities with Mary Poppins (one of my favourite childhood films). However while Mary Poppins was a very presentable friendly faced nanny, Nanny McPhee is not a nanny that children would feel very relaxed with. In fact she is the kind of person that children would run from, who wants to be babysat by a witch!! And how desperate must Mr Brown be to hire her! Also there isn't the musical element in this film that there is in Mary Poppins.
The film is fairly predictable, from the very start you can guess what is going to happen. I guess it's difficult when an adult is reviewing a film that really is aimed at children but I felt that there weren't enough elements of surprise. Some films although aimed at children have enough elements to make them appealing to adults especially with some of the humour, e.g. Shrek I think has a lot of jokes that are aimed at the adults and would be way above children's heads. However in Nanny McPhee I didn't feel that there was any jokes that were there for the adults, it really is just a children's film. The humour is very childlike, therefore we have cake fights and the children putting insects in the sandwiches of a lady who is a potential step-mum.
However having said all that there are aspects of the film which are very clever. The subtle transformation of Nanny McPhee as she teaches the children different lessons and slowly turns into a normal looking person has been carefully planned out. The acting in the film is very good. Many people say you should never work with children or animals but this film combines the two perfectly. We have seven children and a whole farmyard of animals including donkeys, dogs and ducks. Emma Thomson makes a wonderful Nanny McPhee who can be both scary and caring. She has a wonderful way with the children and rather than telling them what to do she tries to make them see the best thing to do for themselves. It's quite a change of role from her usual work but she is very convincing, which when you're playing a witch-like nanny is quite a difficult thing to do! On the other hand I found that casting Colin Firth as the father of seven children wasn't very believable. I like Colin Firth as an actor, especially in Pride and Prejudice and in Love Actually. I just couldn't see him as the father of 7 children, yes he can do the slightly scatty role well and not be able to express his feelings for women but I didn't think he was the best person for the job.
I would recommend this film if you have children, I think they would enjoy it. It also might reassure you if you have badly behaved children that the Brown children might be worse! I guess you could always threaten them with Nanny McPhee!!! However if you are looking for a film for yourself this might not be the best out there but I still enjoyed watching it and my husbands opinion which was somewhat shorter and more concise that what I have just written was "It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be!".
DVD Features:
=======
Nanny McPhee Makeover - This was quite an interesting look at how they did the make-up and added things like the nose, teeth and warts to transform Emma Thompson into Nanny McPhee.
Casting The Children - This feature looked at how they chose the children and how they had to look at how they would all react with each other.
Deleted Scenes - As it says the scenes that didn't make it. Most of these were no great loss, they also had an alternative start to the film, this was cut out because it was a bit longwinded.
Gag Reel - This wasn't really that exciting. More clips of them getting lines wrong but not particularly funny.
How Nanny McPhee Came To Be - This looked at how the film came about. It looked at Christianna Brand and how her grandfather had told her the stories about Nurse Matilda and the terrible Brown children and then as she grew older she wrote the books which are what Emma Thompson based her film on.
Audio Commentaries - Just the usual commentaries, I never listen to these.
With hairy warts, a stern-looking unibrow and one extremely protruding buck-tooth,Nanny ... more
McPheeis a wonderfully comedic substitute for Mary Poppins in this entertaining family fantasy. By loosely adapting Christianna Brand'sNurse Matildachildren's books...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
With hairy warts, a stern-looking unibrow and one extremely protruding buck-tooth,Nanny ... more
McPheeis a wonderfully comedic substitute for Mary Poppins in this entertaining family fantasy. By loosely adapting Christianna Brand'sNurse Matildachildren's books...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
![Nanny McPhee [DVD] [2005]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/76556673.jpg "Nanny McPhee [DVD] [2005]")
Jun 4th, 2006
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