Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I have always had an obsession with the Anne of Green Gables movies. ALways. to the point that one of the things on my "bucket list" is to eventually visit the green gables homestead in PEI where the films were made. first off they have someone ELSE playing ANne - Megan Follows and Johnathon Crombie ( gilbert) apparently refused to be in the film because it was so vastly different from the books ) .. PLUS Sullivan killed off Gilbert - GILBERT!!! claiming he died in WW2.. which in itself is a load of horse-crap, and would warrant a tar and feathering at the hands of the fans ... !! but now all of a sudden, Anne's parents also did NOT die of scarlet fever when she was 3 months old..( REALLY?!?!?! ) but her mother supposedly actually died when Anne was 11, in a horse buggy accident and her father has been alive this whole time?? ( are you freaking kidding me??? )Diana is nowhere to be found, there is ZERO mention of any of Anne and Gil's other 4 children.. ( only of Dominic ( who was never even mentioned in the series ) and one other child Ummmm.. NO!!! to any TRUE A.O.G.G fans.. this is next door to a travesty of Epic proportions!! when you have such a Strong connection to a series throughout your childhood, and then some Nimrod goes and changes everything you loved and held sacred about the stories...this is NOT OKAY!! what a waste of time.

No, seriously, this film pretty much just made me think of bad Harry Potter darkfic.(you know, the "abusive!Weasleys!", "Harmony!", "evil!Ron!", "Snape is secretly Harry's father!" kind of crap). And if you're creating a movie, it shouldn't seem like it's an awful fanfiction created by an angsty tween girl.It wasn't a bad movie in itself(pretty scenery, decent actors), but why did Kevin Sullivan feel the need to connect it to the Anne universe? It bears no resemblance to the books whatsoever.Oh, and Sullivan clearly doesn't know much about history. World War One happened when Anne's youngest child was 15-16. Clearly not what A New Beginning states. By that time, Gilbert was way too old to enter the war. And I SERIOUSLY cannot grasp why Anne suddenly wasn't an orphan? It made her seem like a sick liar, and I don't think the canonical Anne would ever deliberately make up a story like that.

I had heard this was being made and have just seen it for the first time. Kevin Sullivan should be mortified, but I doubt that he has the good taste to know it. The writing is dreadful, the rape of the original story and characters appalling, the abuse of an iconic Canadian story tragic. And on top of that, the quality of the film-making is and insult to the term 'amateur'. It's painful.I have heard tales of the legendary hubris of Mr. Sullivan but this falls below even the lowest expectation. The directing is so bad he manages to make well known accomplished American actors unwatchable. The sentimental posturing of Barbara Hershey is laughable and Shirley MacLaine looks like she's checking for exits. I guess everyone needs to top up the retirement fund, even legends. Fair enough. But what do a couple of ageing American stars know about Canada or the history of a maritime island most Americans never heard of? What do they have to do with the heart or memory of this story? Their rhythm is wrong. Hollywood plunked itself down in PEI farmland to tell them who they were. Ridiculous. Offensive.Kevin Sullivan, whatever glutinous ambitious distortions and abuses you have flung across the memory of this story, you could hardly have done worse than this piece of insulting exploitive drivel. I find it difficult to imagine anyone in Canada will ever watch anything you are attached to again. Shame on any Canadian agency for funding you. I commend the past cast members for eschewing this abortion of a script and certainly you as a 'director'.Hard enough to get Canadian stories told...but this is criminal.

It has been years since I've seen the original Anne of Green Gable films and I think I've only seen the third installment once. Nonetheless the first two films are two of my favorite films and brilliant classics of the story and very much defined Anne of Green Gables as much as the books have ever been. So I was excited to see Kevin Sullivan adapt another story about Anne Shirley and her life. I knew by looking at the commercials that it would be a different spin on the story and maybe even take liberties with the story and I'm okay with that if it fits. I will give Sullivan credit this story does manage to mostly fit perfectly in with the other films he made. However it also changes the entire Anne Shirley story a great deal and while some reviewers argue it doesn't matter I think it does. The entire concept of Anne not being a true "orphan" is a liberty that I don't think should have taken. Her existence as an orphan shaped her entire life. But the new adventures, the story before she came to Green Gables is still fun and interesting and it gives you a new side to the overall story which is a welcome addition.If there is one truly brilliant thing to come from this film it is the performance of the young Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Anne Shirley. Meghan Follows embodied and created the single best character performance of Anne Shirley, it would seemingly be impossible to find someone who could do the same job at the same caliber and yet here comes young Hannah and she does exactly that. Her performance is brilliant, Emmy worthy (or Canadian equivalent), and she is completely believable as a predecessor to the character Follows created. She is a gem! I don't know what circumstances prevented Meghan Follows from returning to her role as the older Anne but Sullivan should have stopped at nothing to bring her back. She could have easily played that role and instead they got Barbara Hershey? A peculiar and wrong choice for the role. She was just boring and didn't have any of the heart required to play this role. By calculations she should have been mid 40's at the oldest and she looked and acted like she was in her sixties. For big fans of the original you will be pleased to see the return of Jayne Eastwood as Mrs. Hammond, and a brief cameo by Patricia Hamilton as the classic character Rachel Lynde.What has made Anne of Green Gables the classics they are thus far are the adventures and the midadventures. On top of that the characters are probably the most important part. So what made this installment not meet the previous grandeur of the series? The adventures were there, the stories in tact but the characters lacked the same depth and heart. Outside of the main character there were no supporting characters that you really become enthralled with. Certainly if you happen upon this film without seeing the previous ones you might not catch some of the true story behind it but then you might find it more entertaining but if you, like me and millions of others, are enormous passionate fans of the original films (especially the first two) then you'll appreciate the attempt at continuing Anne's story but miss the heart. 7/10