Anne of Avonlea (1987 Miniseries)

This post contains detailed plot description and spoilers for the books Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island. It contains spoilers for both the 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries and the 1987 Anne of Avonlea miniseries.

I love Anne of Green Gables. When I was 16 years old (circa 2005) I caught the end of part one of the Megan Follows miniseries on television one night – the scenes with the raspberry cordial and Anne and Diana‘s sad parting. When I turned off the television, I thought to myself – I’m pretty sure I still have that book in a box destined for a yard sale. I had purchased it at age 11 but it was too advanced me as a young reader. I went into my basement and found the old pink Bantam paperback and devoured it over the next several days. I laughed aloud during the Story Club scenes, grinned when Anne broke her slate, teared up at Matthew’s passing, smiled when Gilbert gave up the school for Anne. I later rented (on VHS!) and watched the entire movie. Loved it. 

I went on to read Anne of Avonlea, of the Island, Windy Poplars, and House of Dreams over the next year. And purchased the Anne of Green Gables double videocassette box set at a yard sale to watch and rewatch.

I don’t remember when I watched Anne of Avonlea/Anne of Green Gables, The Sequel for the first time… As a teenager? As an adult? When I received the box set of the three Kevin Sullivan films as a college student? All I know is, I am not a fan of this second movie. I also feel guilty about that, because it has the same actors reprising the same beloved characters, and I know many Anne fans adore it.

I love these books more than any of the hundreds of books I have read in my life, and have read and reread them more than any other books, especially Anne of Green Gables – and part of the reason I love the first film so much is because it so closely follows the book. It’s not perfect, events are omitted, rearranged, some scenes and characters interchanged. But it is a very faithful adaptation, and the actors cast capture the book characters perfectly, in my opinion. Colleen Dewhurst is Marilla, down to her facial expressions and gravelly voice. And there couldn’t be a better Matthew than Richard Farnsworth, even without the beard.

Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island I love nearly as much as the first book. (I’ll hold my comments about Windy Poplars for another time). Avonlea has Anne’s adventures in the AVIS (especially the Tory Road incident), her time as a schoolmarm, the introduction of Mr. Harrison and the Keith twins, Miss Lavender and Echo Lodge, and all the usual outdoor romps and domestic details that make these stories wonderful. 

Island introduces Phil and Aunt Jimsy, further develops Pris and Stella, and of course, the jewel that is Patty‘s Place. (Oh yeah, I guess Roy Gardner’s there, too.) It’s one of the best college novels in which not a single scene takes place in a classroom! Ruby’s passing matures Anne from some of her girlish romantic fantasies and Gilbert’s brush with death, of course, brings her into adulthood. 

These both contain wonderful new characters in addition to familiar favorites, and beautiful and well developed new places (LMM writes setting second to none). I’ll even give Windy Poplars some credit here – Spook’s Hollow, Rebecca Dew, and Anne’s landladies are all enjoyable, as well.

With all of that to work with, the second film starts strong with Anne as schoolmarm and aspiring writer. There is breathtaking coastal scenery in the first few minutes alone, and then familiar favorite scenes: Dolly the cow and the Rollings Reliable contest. Yes, they are reworked (Dolly is now Mrs. Lynde’s cow and several of Mr. Harrison’s lines are attributed to Gilbert) but they still ring true to the heart of the source material.

There are several wonderful scenes depicting the depth of Anne and Marilla’s adult friendship – some of my favorite scenes in the books are the domestic moments of Anne and Marilla sitting together on their front step together talking over their day(s). This translates well to the screen when they are walking with the cows in the pasture– we see their loving familial relationship against the beautiful PEI scenery. It’s warm and homey. We then have Gilbert’s thwarted proposal and Diana’s wedding before  Anne sets off to Kingsport.  

Ugh. And here is where my interest is lost. I struggle with stories where people are cruel to the main character for no reason. And the Pringles cruelty towards Anne is completely unwarranted, and I don’t enjoy watching her struggle with nasty students. Then we have all those scenes of Katherine Brooke treating her poorly for no reason than her own inherent unhappiness. This is the part of the movie I play while I’m doing something else (washing dishes, folding laundry, etc). 

Don’t even get me started on Captain Harris as a love interest. Anne is suddenly drawn to a man many years her senior, who is also the father of one of her students? No. Just no. And there is nothing dark, dashing, romantic about him, in my opinion. He’s just an older man that she has unpleasant encounters with. She knows him so briefly, and we know Anne well enough to know that she wouldn’t consider marriage to someone she barely knew. (In Anne of the Island, she is in a relationship with Roy for two years and, of course, still turns him down.) Ugh, just ugh on that weird romantic plot.

There is also the “Anne as writer” plot in the last act of the film – yes, Anne does write some short stories and sketches for publication, but she is never an aspiring novelist who writes about her home – that’s Jo March in Little Women, not Anne Shirley. 

I am so happy when we return to Avonlea, even if Katherine Brooke does come, too. The film does end strong with scenes at Green Gables, Anne’s revelation of her true feelings, and the romantic final scene.

Avonlea scenes, the old favorite characters, any and all dialogue lifted directly from the book = love. Everything to do with Kingsport Ladies College? No thank you.

I have to end by saying I have yet to watch The Continuing Story, as I know that it is an entirely new story about Anne and Gilbert, and the timeline is all wrong to the original content – Anne’s children were involved in WWI, not Anne and Gilbert. I’m sure I will watch it someday and just try very hard to think of it as its own story that happens to have characters with familiar names. We’ll see.