I love this series, every section is more interesting than the last as we see a group of people’s lives progress. It’s particularly interesting for me because my mum is the same age, so it’s nice to see what England was like in the times she was growing up, getting married etc. This was shown on ITV in May this year so it may take a while for it to get shown everywhere. This is the first Up show I’ve actually seen in the year it was made, the others we discovered all at once and watched them almost back to back :) Now we have to wait another 7 years for the next one, hehe.

As of yet there are only 2 episodes in series 15, so this one will take some time.

As others have said, it’s a loooong book. I have stopped and started with it quite a few times, but now I’m determined to finish it. I am not that interested in it, really, none of the characters have been really able to hold my interest, and the length keeps daunting me (I’m only a third of the way through it). I’ll reserve real judgement till I’m finished…whenever that may be :)

All the Astrid Lindgren books I have read so far have been good, but not this one. Emil is an asshole. He gets a soup bowl stuck on his head, costs his parents worry and money getting him to the doctor, then, since he removed the bowl himself, they then think that he has saved them money (since the dr. didn’t charge them as much) and on the way home give him a coin. He swallows this, necessitating a further trip to the doc’s (where they just came from), the doctor doesn’t charge them as he says it will pass with no trouble, but that Emil should eat some flour rolls (a sweet dough type thing) to make sure the coin doesn’t harm his insides. So the parents then buy him the rolls, his dad glues the soup bowl back together, and Emil precedes to get it stuck on his head once again.

And that’s just one of the stories. The others are very similar, the recurring theme being that this Emil kid is a complete screw up, with idiotic parents and no sense of right or wrong. Main characters are people you can identify with and want to succeed in stories. If that is your main character, who would want him to succeed? I certainly didn’t.

Well, because the series isn’t finished yet. I keep checking IMDb’s epsiode listing and FINALLY they have released a date for the next episode, ‘The Silence of The Clamps’ as the 23rd of June this year. So I’m guessing that I’ll be finished consuming this series by mid September, unless there are any other breaks in the showing of episodes.

For me, it’s a good film to see because it helps in my learning of Swedish. And there’s a whole series of these films; Astrid Lindgren’s children’s stories adapted for tv, then made into DVDs. I’m sure children who love the stories would greatly enjoy the films too. However, I am an adult, and if Mio min Mio is anything to go by, it’s going to be a long, hard struggle to watch these films. I can get over the really bad effects and put it down to the era of the films (Christian Bale is a child in this). But, the plot is just, well, nonsensical. Of course, a little bit of artistic license must be given since it’s a fantasy film, but still.

The story is of an orphan boy, Bosse (Nick Pickard) in Sweden who has very strict adoptive parents, they actually wanted a girl, and it seems they don’t really like him because of this. He has one friend who he hangs out with (Bale), and there’s a lady at a corner shop who gives him the eyes all the time. Later the boy decides to run away, and meets the googly eye lady. It transpires that the boy is in fact the long lost prince of a far off land. The corner shop lady recognises him, gets him to send a letter for her (rather than tell him anything), and then he is transported away to this wonderful land (on a giant floating head’s long, grey beard, no less). There he meets his father (Timothy Bottoms), who calls him Mio, which is apparently his actual name, and then he gets a horse, and a best friend, the spitting image of his old friend, but again, a different name.

From there on in, I stopped caring. The characters aren’t likeable, or relatable to, the plot is just bland, and all in all, it wasn’t for me. I also don’t understand why, in a Swedish film, there are so few actual Swedish people in it? I could understand it if they were trying to get the film to be more successful in other countries, but then, if that was the case, why isn’t it in English? Nobody knew Christian Bale back then (this was before Empire of the Sun), so the only ‘headliner’ I can see would be Christopher Lee who plays the evil guy in the film (like you couldn’t have guessed). Kids who enjoyed the book might like the film, but I have a feeling, the book has more detail, and less ‘why?’ moments.

Bra att läsa igen, särskilt på annat språk! Men det var lite konstigt att se referenser till Herr och Fru Bennets fem döttrar, när de bara nämnde tre i hela boken. Värför inte bara säga att de hade tre, om de andra var så ovanliga att nämna? Men, det spelar ingen roll för min del, för jag gillar den här boken.

Why is this in AFI’s 100 Years 100 Laughs list? I didn’t laugh once. It was an okay film, but certainly not a comedy.

I realised after watching a bit, that I have actually seen most of this film on tv, only it was late, and I didn’t catch the start. So, I have now seen it almost twice.

“Why are the pretty ones always insane?”