The Tears Say It All: ‘Princess’ Satisfies

In “A Little Princess,” Sara Crewe, the pampered and kind daughter of a widowed British officer, must leave India for an oppressive boarding school where she is forced to become a servant after hearing her beloved father has been killed in WWI. (Rated G)

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A fairy tale like this hits home, mixing a kid’s-eye view of how the world really is with an ageless, elegant view of how it ought to be. It also tells the story of a different kind of princess--one that girls really like .

Armed with the love of her father, the beauty of Indian folklore and the courage to speak up, Sara earns back her pedestal from her peers at Miss Minchin’s Seminary for Girls. She challenges the wicked Miss Minchin and the school bully, Lavinia. She befriends Becky, a black servant girl, inspires Miss Minchin’s lovelorn sister to run away with the milkman and dances on a snowy balcony to magical music provided by the Indian valet next door.

Her stories of India, illustrated by exotically costumed actors, transform her own despair and that of others.

Who cares that the plot gets by with outrageous coincidences and the cliche of amnesia?

By the heart-rending conclusion, girls were wiping their eyes or choking back tears. Even those wearing baseball caps and All-Star jackets said they believed that all girls are princesses too.

“It was the best movie I ever saw,” said Brittany Piha, 8, still enthralled after leaving the theater.

“It was really emotional,” said her friend Amanda Rita, 8.

For most girls, the best part came at the end, where let’s just say what goes around comes around.

Deidra Garner, 8, sat next to her friend Dana Migliaccio, 7, and said, “She saw me wiping my eyes because I was crying and then she started crying.”

Girls also giggled in the movie, particularly when Sara doused Miss Minchin with soot, and when the chunky sister of Miss Minchin fell on her skinny suitor while trying to elope.

Kala Shahani, who said she is “almost 10,” preferred “A Little Princess” to “The Secret Garden,” both of which are based on novels by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Largely dark, the movie does show some war scenes that might disturb young children. But it is told from a child’s viewpoint, even filmed from low angles. It also captures the peculiar viciousness of girls’ societies as well as an ideal love between Sara and her widowed father.

“He wanted everything the best for his daughter,” Kala said. “He gave her things that made her remember the mom. He said that when her mom smiled, her eyes twinkled and [Sara] did the same, so he was trying to tell her that she was like her mom.”

Her friend Lauren Leffard, 10, admired Sara for the way she expressed herself.

This is a princess who could calmly and matter-of-factly call the nastiest girl in school a “snotty, two-faced bully.” To her face.

Lauren said her brother rejected seeing the movie, assuming that it was “for little kids.” But the girls said grown-ups and even some boys might like it too.

“It’s funny and sad, and I think my mom would like it,” Lauren said.