Madeline is a clever movie about a brave and smart little girl and how she stands up to Pepito and Lord Covington. It can be syrupy and corny sometimes but it's got some entertaining moments, too.Hattie Jones is a pretty decent actor for her first role. She may not have had the acting chops to play Madeline, but she still did pretty good for her age. Her anger, her fearlessness, her mischief, her sadness, her precociousness was enjoyable to watch and this was my movie as a kid. Most of the other actors also did well for their roles and personalities but I didn't like Vicki. It's too bad I couldn't get to see more of Hattie. Some people may have problems with her having a British accent instead of a French accent, though.Madeline doesn't act much like a real kid because of her acting too mature for her age but she's a unique character and her bravery, friendliness, and fierce personality are good qualities in a little girl. Pepito is a good character because he changes from a troublesome little boy, to a friendly and helpful boy. Lord Covington is a sympathetic and relatable antagonist because he wants to close down the school because of his sadness for the death of his wife.Now my real problems are:They picked a little Asian girl to be one of the girls, I don't think this was used in the book? I haven't read much of it.I've never liked the trouble Madeline and the girls cause. Yes, I know they're children, but they shouldn't be influencing girls to act like them. And also, yes it's a movie, but I never liked seeing kids misbehaving a lot. And the kids cry over an appendix, while it's faithful to the book, I think that them crying over something like getting their appendix out is weird. I still remember fondly watching this movie as a kid and over the Summer and Fall in 2015. It's not one of the best movies to watch, in fact, it might be forgettable because of its formulaic writing, storytelling, characters and directing but this mostly lies in the writing and directing, though it's certainly better than the Madeline cartoons that were out in the 80s and 90s and always had been to me, being 11 years old and watching the movie, I was too old for the cartoons. I didn't care much for them.

What a waste. A charming book for little girls is turned into the "adventures" of a group of representative, largely disagreeable little girls. Some makes no sense: why is the owner of a house in Paris "Lord Covington"? Why do some of the girls speak with English accents? But that's almost beside the point. Suddenly there are kidnappers, and the aggravating boy next door becomes all warm and fuzzy. Then Madeline suddenly understands Lord Covington and he becomes all warm and fuzzy too. Like a very bad Halmark Hall of Fame special.Frances MacDermond is good here. Some of the photography of Paris is good - though the Eiffel Tower appears everywhere, as if to keep reminding us that we are in Paris even though it seems to be populated with English.If you liked the children's books, stick with them. This movie isn't at all done in the same spirit. And the "spirit" of this movie is just to provoke a few very manipulated tears.

In Paris, twelve girls study in a school owned and sponsored by Lady Covington (Stéphane Audran) and managed by a sister, Miss Clavel (Frances McDormand). The youngest and orphan is the six years old Madeline (Hatty Jones). Their neighbor is the Ambassador of Spain, his wife and his son Pepito. When Lady Covington dies, her husband decided to sell the house. Meanwhile, some bad guys plan to kidnap Pepito. This average comedy is very predictable. However, the little, sweet and adorable Hatty Jones makes the difference. This was the last movie I watched in 2003 and I do not regret, since it is a nice family entertainment. My vote is six.

The fixation with turning any old cartoon or TV series into a contemporary movie continues with this adaptation of the classic chidren's stories and cartoons. So much care and attention has been lavished on getting absolutely everything right that you can't help but think to yourself, why did they bother? Sure, it's reasonably pleasant while it's on, and overwhelmingly inoffensive, but do we actually gain much from having a 1998 live action version of Madeline? What does it add exactly?At least Frances McDormand gets to dabble a little in gentle comedy. Nigel Hawthorne wanders in and out only long enough to pick up his paycheque. However, in one all-too-brief scene Stephane Audran shows how it should be done. Little Hatty Jones is charm itself as Madeline, engaging in various misadventures that lack the urgency of most other kiddie movies, and almost certainly the same level of violence.It's a film about 9 year old girls. And because of its inoffensive nature in all areas, that's precisely who's going to like it the most.