Pajiba

I had no idea Abigail Breslin played Kit Kittredge. She's pretty much unrecognizable in the role (at least to me, and at least in the trailers).

All I needed was to see the headline o this on the main page and I will now have a Spin Doctors song in my head all day. Not sure if I should be upset at you about this or not.

The Spin Doctors weren't one of the two things that I meant to allude to, but now I've got that song in my head too. Crap. - AB

OMG!! the review is totally suffering from cranial-rectal inverson. And all of you who listen to him/her (I haven't actually read the review or checked who wrote it yet) are mindless pajizombies. And all of you who don't listen are are just pajibatrarians.

My favorite part of this movie was when that creepy guy was feeding that lady into the wood chipper and Steve Busce...

Wait, where the hell am I?

I don't understand why this was limited release to begin with. I figured the American Girl franchise would be such a slam dunk that it would be in every theater in America.

My daughter loved it, and although it went zany and cliched a bit at the end, we thought it was wonderful.

Okay, read the review. Sounds nice enough. If I had a daughter 12 or under I'd take her to see it. But I only have sons cause I know how to do it right (the secret is in how you curl your toes).

So she discovers Daddy in the soup kitchen?? I actually got choked up reading that line... What the hell is wrong wit--

Aw, crap. I think I'm about to start my period.

I'll accept the film is a nice little lesson in perceiving parental financial woes, but believe me the Bratz franchise could take lessons in crass commercialism from the American Girl people. Having the misfortune to live in the same town as the first American Girl store and having the further misfortune of nieces and assorted god-daughters who visit from time to time, I can assure you they miss no opportunity to rob adults of their money. Afternoon tea (a finger sandwich and a miniscule glass of lemonade) with the dolls is more expensive than a full tea across the road in the Drake hotel. They charge to BLOW DRY and STYLE the dolls' hair. Seriously. It goes on and on.

The Spin Doctors weren't one of the two things that I meant to allude to, but now I've got that song in my head too. Crap. - AB

HA! Also - what did you mean?

I'm a brit so we obviously dont have the American Girl industry but we...well, me and my sister as near as I know are aware of the thing...wasn't one of the Wonka kids in one of them?

The one who was then in the Hilary Swank thing about the Ten Plagues hitting some southern town?

Annabella...something?

But it's an industry I think I support, it seems to promote ...well, being a kid, for little girls, unlike the Bratz thing which is...just evil...plus...are they historically accurate in their films?

I've been to an American Girl store in New York, I even have an American Girl doll(a gift from an ex-pat relative who confused me with my at the time nine year old sibling) and she...well she lives on my windowsill and is a little bit creepy

I must say I'm surprised lil Breslin is in something as...fairly low ranking as this but then again...Breslin can do what she likes, she's awesome and a lil bit intimidating.

EricD, pay attention kid, i've apologised and made peace over on the Hancock thread...

If you're just being a twit, then grow up

If you made that comment without realising...then fine, what everisms, try and keep updated

wait, PaddyDog, they CHARGE to do DOLLS hair??

Seriously??

thats...more than a little wrong

I might see this just because we haven't seen Julia Ormond in a long while. Guess Hollywood's too busy reigning blessings on such great acting talents as Cameron Diaz, Jessica Alba, and LiLo?

Yes Nadine. I have your same dilemma. They do seem to encourage young girls to be young girls so points for that, but they charge for EVERYTHING. If they could charge for breathing while in their shop, they would and unfortunately I see so many little girls just collecting the AG stuff as opposed to playing with it, i.e., it's all about having the most AG the stuff and not about the experience. BUT, I love that you have one as a gift from a relative who thinks you're a little girl. That's priceless.

See, PaddyDog, you've left something pretty substantial out. I suspect this is because you are a man. If you are a woman and you enter the American Doll Compound with a child and a doll, they will not only cajole you to style the doll's hair: they want to style YOUR hair and your daughter's hair in the same fashion as the doll. And that, my friend, is a whole new level of creepy.

I'm a man? That's quite a surprise to me. You think I have a case against my gyneacologist? She's been charging me for PAP smears and breast exams for years.

Yeah. I LOVED the American Girl series when I was a kid. I bought every book, including the self help ones that were completely useless after you've went over them once. Like the one about how to start a business or redecorate your room. I never had one of the American girl historical dolls, but I did have one of the baby dolls and forced my mom to buy it a bunch of really cute but overly expensive accesories (rain coat. bracelet. stroller). I even wore the American Girl clothing line.

That being said, I never heard of Kitt - the last series I read was the one about Josefina, a young Mexican girl during the Mexican American war. Kitt must have come out after I got tired of AG.

I honestly didn't realize the franchise was still going strong and I am so glad my niece hasn't gotten sucked into it. Yet.

Like PaddyDog said, AG does encourage little girls to be little girls, and it also helps them with history, but seriously - there's something about it that just seems like a money racket. And I'm not talking about the store (I think the store was brand new in the nineties when I was into AG, so I've never been to one of them). There were certain parts of the bookstores I went to when I was little that were just covered in AG books. And every time I had to by a few of them. And a week later I would want a few more. I actually still have a lot of them - I was looking at a AG cook book I got way back then and I don't remember making any of those recipes.

I never had one of the dolls, barely heard of 'em, so I never made the connection between doll and film. And if I had a kid, I'd expect the little creature to be clamoring for a typewriter and a chicken feed sack dress afterwards, not one of the dolls.

So, in my sweet oblivion, I just thought it was nice to see a nice little flick. It reminded me of the old Sunday afternoon Disney movies I loved that starred plucky little fuckers like Natty Gann. Definitely spanked the ass of that other family offering, the one with the charming doomsday glimpse of earth and a robot, in a very roofie-esque move, seducing a comatose iEgg.

She's a creepy little doll but I cant hate her because she's such a ...proper little girls doll...when I was a kid I had rag dolls, I had the occasional barbie (and yes, I was one of THOSE children who cut their hair and made them tomboys) or I had these porcelain (sp) dolls my grandmother would get me...that makes me sound like I'm about a hundred years old...I'm twenty one.

but I mean to say...they where age appropriate dolls who...in doll terms, had no concerns about their mobile phones or make up or boys...Bratz and like the devil, haha, and American Girl...well they SEEMED like inherantly good products but now it seems they're just a money making conglomerate like everything else =S

At least while they'r sucking the money and souls out of the parents, the little girls are having age appropriate fun...or they're collecting age appropriate dolls and accesories at the very least...

And...megbon, American Doll Compound adds its own level of creepy to proceedings! Is there an army of American Doll girls being cultured? Will they ...will they take over the world with their traditional views and values and have all women pregnant and barefoot but spirited and spunky in long dresses and apparently motionless wigs??

All of us in dresses and those...okay, honestly neat little ankle boots i've always craved a pair of, saving the world from racism, poor...ness and...other bad stuff?!

or am I MAYBE letting my imaginate get the best of me?

Not only can you have your hair and your doll's hair styles to match, you can buy matching outfits, and even special order a doll "that looks like you" (ie parents choose out appropriate skin tone/hair color/eye color). It's vaguely creepy, but a lot more healthy than the Bratz dolls or the Barbie thing.

I heard a speech by the woman who founded the entire enterprise, and I'm convinced she had good motives (write fun books for kids to teach them American History). There was always some commercialization in it (I remembering drooling over the catalogs as a little girl), but it increased dramatically when Mattel bought the company. So I blame them.

And Joan Cusack? Does a wicked impression of a drug fiend. She's oddly twitchy and scrunch-faced all throughout and then finally lets loose at the end with a rousing verbal interpretation of Freebird. I love the woman, but she was out of whack in this movie.

PHYSICAL interpretation would make a little more sense there. Possibly not a lot, but some. Damn that last braincell, too preoccupied with just hanging on for dear life to bother actually working.

Libraryliz please stop telling me what American Girl can do I have to sleep with that doll watching me tonight and I'm now wholly convinced she's going to eat my eyes or suck out my soul like that little troll tried to do to Drew Barrymore...and I dont have a cat to save me.

and DAMN Mattel!! God they're wicked people.

soyousay, I dont think Joan has ever played IN whack in any movie, ever...She's always just a BIT tweaked, what ever she's in...wasn't she in another Breslin one, with Kate Hudson and Hayden Pannattiere as an older sister and parent? And she was pissed when the kids got left to Hudson?

She played that film like she was on the crack too, and she was supposed to be a suburban housewife type... she always does, I'm sure I'm not the only one to suspect she's just...nucking futs

AY! PaddyDog, I am SO sorry to have confused your gender. I blame my friend Pat of the XY chromosome with whom I associate the name "Paddy!" I feel a perfect ass (well, I've been married for a while now so perfect asses are probably a thing of my past). If I ever see you out and about in this awesome town we live in, I promise to buy you a beer or a car or something.

Oh, and Nadine, I totally get a compound vibe from the American Doll store. There is something very culty about it.

having been in one of those stores (after the doll was sent I visited New York and was compelled to check the place out) and now thinking about it....yeah, no, totally, compound, cult....oh god guys....we're doomed

No problem, Megbon. Many Pajibans seem to think I'm a man, presumably a gay one since I have been known to profess my lust for Christopher Ecclestone on these pages at least weekly, and when regular Pajiban, Nicole, was just a newbie I once threatened to beat her up if she didn't get her virtual hands off of my boyfriend. I'll take the car if you're still offering. Beer doesn't do much for me. By the way, the "Paddy" part of my name refers to Irishness. The "dog" part, I'm not really sure (although I do have dogs). When I first started posting on Pajiba (back when we had to punch our posts onto index cards that were then fed into a machine), I picked a name without thinking too much about it not realizing that this would become an addiction.

So I totally read these books when I was 9. And then I graduated to Sun Fire teen books. They were like the American Girls but they were teens and always had to choose between two boys to love. And they never chose the rich boy. (Stupid) and then from there I graduated to full on romance novels. So I don't know what that says about me. Apparently I have a low I.Q.

I was initially boycotting this movie because I can't stand the American Girl company anymore, because of the Mattel buyout. While I'm glad that the movie isn't total crap, it sucks that the AG is so Barbie-fied now. A father of a friend used to work in the store and she dragged me there every fucking chance she got. I could handle the dresses and the doll accessories, but now it's backpacks, bras, travel cases, you name it, they've slapped their label on it. I really wish Pleasant Rowland hadn't sold the company.

And yes, they charge for everything, including the hair styling. The two dolls I own could use replacement heads, but I ain't paying for that.

They're also leaning away from the historical aspect of the series, which was the highlight of it. I admit it, I read every book.

Oh my god, American Girls was my -life- when I was little. I had a Samantha doll, my cousin had Molly, a friend had Felicity and so on. And of course those books were as addictive as crack (while providing a history lesson, amazing).

I'm 21 now, but this franchise will always hold a special place for me. The books, the dolls, those addictive merchandise catalogues...love it. I hope my six year old sister will eventually get as much joy out of the series as I did.

Okay, okay, I know I'm only twenty-one, but I'm going a little nostalgic here.
I myself had three American Girl dolls: Addy, Felicity, and the one that looked like me (for real, you designed it yourself). My sister had Kiersten and the one that looked like her (but if you ask me, they were pretty much the same except that Kiersten had braided hair, which she later unbraided...I digress). Back then those dolls ran about $100 and change, but damn if I did not want every accessory. The difference between these dolls and Barbies though, was that I began to understand the importance of keeping them neat and tidy. Of putting them to bed every night and folding their clothes instead of just throwing them in the bin and moving along. My eight and five year old sister however, have had no such revelations. Ever since the American Girls were bought out by Matel, the prices dropped dramatically. Now my sisters don't have dolls of their own, but I'll be dammed if they don't treat our old ones like yesterdays trash. It breaks my heart to see them toss around the tokens of my youth like that. I poured over the catalogues every season, and they didn't even know that this movie existed.

Wow. I got a little emo there.

Heh. I remember obsessing over the catalogues too. One of them got wet and unreadable and I actually called the company to have them send a new one... It was that bad.

I actually worked as a "doll stylist" in an AG store during a holiday break when I was in college. Braiding their hair cost twenty dollars. TWENTY DOLLARS.
We would also charge five dollars to, no lie, tie a bow around the bald little babydoll's head. The kids really loved it though, and I didn't run into as many horror-show parents or children as I expected.

I was a terribly spoiled child, as I received an American Girl doll and doll outfits every year for Christmas when I was little (even after I stopped asking for them...I think Mom and Grandma were living vicariously). And I can tell you, there are some pretty substantial differences in quality between my first doll (a late 80's Samantha) and the ones I received later. Which, really, would be fine if they'd merely been trying to make the whole "AG experience" more affordable/available. But...I don't know, maybe it's me, but cheaper dress fabric and less-realistic hair also seemed indicative of a change in the mission, you know?

I agree with libraryliz's post and those similar to it -- obviously, there has always been some element of commercialization involved, but the original intentions always seemed somewhat grounded in the idea that American history and reading could be combined with fun and imaginative play. But Mattel's gradual deemphasis on the historical experience in favor of modernity and self-identification sort of makes it, you know, just another line of dolls. I pretty much checked out of the entire concept once I hit puberty, so I've never experienced one of these AG stores. But if their nod to the company's original mission is an over-priced afternoon tea...yikes, man.

"when Joan Cusack wildly and repeatedly flaps her arms, I pretty much figured that, between takes, she'd slammed several shots of Grey Goose vodka and tried to fly away like those pretty birds on the bottle. "

Bwah! Things like this are why reading Pajiba at work in an open-plan office is not a good idea. I think I managed to successfully pass it off as a coughing fit though, so it's all good for now...

God help me because I have a daughter who I want to be interested in history and not sluts, but this movie sounds dull as dirt.

Holy shit, there are people here young enough to have HAD an American Doll?

Every time I start really getting into my age, all "fuck yeah, here come my FORTIES!! YEAHHH!!!!!" I have one of these moments, which just sucks all the air out of my faux bravado.

Anywho, my 13 year old daughter was once practically in love with Kit. When she was younger, she looked JUST like the girl on the book covers (not Abigail Breslen). I don't know if we'll see this or not. I never did buy her a doll, they were freaking $85. Puh-leeze. HOWEVER, it was a great experience for her to read all those books. She learned a hell of a lot about history (there are sections in the back of each book that go into the history of the period the girl lives in).

Anastasia, I'm too old for American Girl dolls, too.

....... Wow, my American Girl doll phase is still within recent memory. I'm twenty, so I'd say I played with mine up until about 6 years ago. Now she sits in a little rocking chair next to my rocking chair in my room at home. She is dressed in her best. God knows what happened to the rest of my dolls.

Those dolls introduced me to history in a way no other toy could. I read the books, I poured over the catalogs and eagerly absorbed every detail of the historical dress and furniture, and I played really, really detailed games based on this knowledge with my doll. She was Felicity, but my best friend's was Addy, so there was a lot of "fleeing the plantation." I identify a lot of my interest in cultural history and anthropology in what I found fascinating in those dolls.

As for the commercialization - it sounds as if it's gone over the top. I used to go to the Store with my friend and her mom for my birthday every year, and we would gape at the displays of clothing, go to musical performances, pore over books, and then each get one (not particularly expensive) thing to eat for lunch and maybe one new outfit. Of course, I was twelve, so God knows the commercialism I probably didn't notice all around me. My point is that the content of the product does NOT encourage consumerism, unlike the Bratz. Every toy is a product; they all cost money and are investments. It's sad if they've gotten a bit tacky about it, but I've never felt like American Girl promoted consumerism except in the predictable "we want you to buy our product" sort of way.

I'm really defensive today.

I still won't see the movie - nostalgia isn't quite enough. I am glad that it didn't suck, though.

I guess I should add myself to the ranks of twenty-something Pajibans who owned American Girl dolls. I had Kirsten and my little sister had Felicity, but my best friend had them ALL. Lucky.

Anyway, I'm glad to see other people here appreciate how the products celebrate childhood and give a little American history lesson at the same time. Pleasant Rowland's vision was to provide quality products that could become heirlooms - remember the explanation she used to print on the back of catalogs? Since the Mattel buyout, things have gotten a little less classy. Eg: They have a new historical doll named Julie, from the..1970's??? You can buy all these Marcia Brady-esque accessories for her, which are fun, but seriously folks. She does not belong in the same category with runaway slave girl and immigrant girl who loses her best friend to cholera.

Speaking of which, does anyone else feel the Addy movie is long overdue? Also one for my girl Kirsten, who don't get no respect. All the AG flicks tend to have lamer plot arcs than those skinny little books, however, so maybe that's a good thing. I kindof don't want to see Kirsten avert a war between Indians and settlers. That cabin fire was dramatic enough.

So here's my advice for parents considering the American Girl dolls -- hella expensive for anything and everything. I had two sets of books (Felicity and Molly) and a couple of the other ones I got as random presents throughout elementary school. I also had an activity book for Felicity and a cooking book for Addy, but the dolls? Not so much. Very expensive. And your kid will probably want every single accessory. I know I did. So if you buy them a doll, DO NOT under any circumstances let them see a catalog or the sales site. Because seriously, there will be a lot of tears shed for the forbidden $45 11" dress. And don't forget the clothes! The matching clothes. I was always either too fat or too tall for the clothes but boy did I dream of that $180 Samantha cloak. Oh, it was lovely.

Also, Empress of All The Russians mentions the former owner's heirloom vision. I had forgotten all about that but I do remember reading those statements, way back in ye olden third grade days of 1996. It's sad that the dolls are apparently of poorer quality now. I mean, I DO think that what I loved and wished for every dang holiday was expensive. Even now, I'd think it was expensive. But everything always looked and felt solid (my friends had some of the dolls and furniture) and didn't fall apart. Plus, as others have mentioned, you really wanted to take care of these dolls, tuck them into bed, brush their hair carefully, never ever let your little brother chop off the doll's hair with a pair of Fiskers, never marker in makeup on the doll's face. And the hospital! You could box up your broken doll and send them to get fixed and they'd come home with a little hospital gown and bracelet! (So I am told. Like I said, I missed out on all that.)

I'm sad it's headed towards Barbie land.

I just now got around to reading this thread, but boy did it bring back some poignant memories. My Felicity doll was the first thing I ever saved up money to buy. My parents were very poor, so it took me an ENTIRE YEAR of odd jobs around the house to save up enough money just to buy the doll...forget any of the accessories. And I, like a few other people on here, had a group of girlfriends who each had one. My rich friend April had all the accessories, so of course we would always congregate at her house to play with them. I remember hours of longing while poring through that catalog...I never did get any accessories, but boy did I treat that doll as if it was made of gold. They really were exquisitely made back then. Thanks, Pajibans, for bringing back something I haven't thought about in years.

We took my daughter, age 9, to see the new AG movie 2 weeks ago. While my wife and I liked a lot of it (it did become a little corny in the third act) we were struck by the absolute lack of any mention of any type of religion in the film. (This was a time period of our history when most of America went to church or synagogue at least once per week.) There were several places in the film where it felt glaringly obvious: There was no preacher or song leader in the soup kitchen; The mother didn't pray for help when she was agonising over the money box; and most obvious-- no prayer or mention of "GOD" at Thanksgiving itself!
We felt that the film had been "sanitized" for the PC crowd, and it made for a family of disappointed viewers here.

On another note: The dolls and accessories ARE very expensive, and that is with them all being made in china now! The accessories do seem to be well made, though.
We have never let my daughter get her hair done, see the stage show, or go to tea because of the exhorbitant fees!
She has strawberry blond hair, freckles and blue eyes, so there is no "like me" doll that looks like her. Thank God for that!
I hope she outgrows this phase soon, but I doubt it--her favorite aunt at age 48 is still into them!