The wonderful classic A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett retold by vegetables? Sounds a little strange, but in fact is a lovely, entertaining, and well done Veggie Tales DVD production by Big Idea Entertainment. I loved that the show emphasizes two themes: that each person is an important and loved child of God, and that we can and should be nice to everyone, no matter what. These are two lessons that I want my children to learn, so I appreciated an entertaining movie that reinforced what I’m trying to teach at home.
The story of the little princess is the story of Sara Crew, a girl who has grown up with wealth and now must live in a boarding school paid for by her wealthy father while he goes to serve in the military during war. When her father is killed and his fortune lost, Sara suddenly finds herself a servant without anything in this world except her conviction that she is important to God and can love those around her, even when she is mistreated. This is a story of personal empowerment and I love how it teaches children that while they can’t always control their circumstances, they are responsible for how they respond to their circumstances, for their emotions, and their actions.
The music in the show is also great. One of the beginning songs includes Sara Crew’s father singing to her about how she is his princess as well as God’s little princess. Another song reminds everyone to keep going through hard times and to love others. These catchy tunes are great for teaching strong morals.
The Silly Song in The Penniless Princess is about two friends who communicate with each other through text messages, even when they are in the same room. This was hard for my children to understand because the song “types” the messages onto the screen and my children can’t read yet. Even though they didn’t understand the silly song, they laughed at the silly characters and enjoyed it. It made me smile as a parent because the silly song is all too true, teens and tweens today can often communicate better through texting than through real conversations! The silly song hits on this in a humorous way.
The main characters in The Penniless Princess are all girls, and the show clearly speaks to young girls, but even my 4 year old son also enjoyed the music, the humor, and I hope picked up on the good messages as well. I hope that Big Idea will someday make a more boy-ish veggie tales with similar messages of individual worth and kindness to all, but until that happens we’ll be watching The Penniless Princess as a family, and enjoying every minute!
The Penniless Princess: God’s Little Girl
Big Idea Entertainment
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Preorder specials available at: http://store.veggietales.com/penniless-princess-pre-order-offers.html
| Appealed to My Children | 5 |
| Appealed to Adults | 3 |
| Would Listen to/Watch More Than Once | 5 |
| Child Appropriate Content | 5 |
| I Would Purchase This For My Family | yes |
| I Would Purchase This As a Gift | yes |
| Overall Rating | 5 |
All ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.
Meet the Reviewer!
Janice Richardson is an elementary
school teacher turned stay-at-home
mom of three energetic little ones,
ages 4, 2 and 5 months. She enjoys
playing with her family, being outdoors,
and eating chocolate. Janice blogs
about some of the activities she and her
children enjoy at babybrainstorm.blogspot.com.
One of her goals is to someday visit
each of the 50 states and each continent.
