So my Google alerts, um, alerted me to this story yesterday about yet another Laura Ingalls Wilder project in the works. This comes from Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green, who was quoted as saying he has read Little House in the Big Woods. (We will generously assume that was only the beginning of his research.)
Will it work? Impossible to know. I’m glad someone’s trying, though, even if he’s the eleventy millionth one to do so.
Which LIW projects outside of the books did you enjoy the most? Here’s my admittedly fully biased opinion, in no particular order:
Beyond the Prairie: The one The Wilder Life author and LauraPalooza guest Wendy McClure affectionately refers to as “the one with the crazy Dawson’s Creek girl“—and I concur with the description—had pretty much nothing going for it. Bad clothes, bad hair, bad everything. It creeped me out. And I still have trouble with that name “Loudermilk.”
Little House, the Musical. (Click just to hear the music!) I loved this. I loved it in Minneapolis, I loved it in New Jersey, and I loved it in Denver. Even with the mis-pronounciation of Manly’s name. Kara Lindsay brought a dimension to Laura I didn’t think I could discover; Kevin Massey became Almanzo in the flesh in a way I never thought possible. The two knelt down for a sweet little wedding at every performance—and then did it for real this past year. Swoon. (And let’s not forget Carly Rose Sonenclar, who played Carrie, made her own splash last year on The X Factor. Remember?)
Little House on the Prairie Disney miniseries. I waxed poetic about this Friendly production in the Homesteader already. Suffice it to say: it could have worked. It really could have worked. But it didn’t. (Although I don’t think Mary could ever be cast more perfectly.)
Rose books. I count these as Laura experiences outside the realm of the books. Tell me I’m not the only one who was excited to read about Laura debating. Resolved: the Rose books feel just a teensy bit like a Laura continuation.
What say you? Which LIW projects worked—or didn’t work—for you?