I was wondering how people thought Mara Wilson's performance held up next to Natalie Wood's in the original. I thought Wilson was adorable, but the intelligence of the character wasn't there the way it was in Wood's interpretation.
shareHello Issac - I agree with you 100% regarding Wilson VS Wood. Both actors were wonderful but Natalie had that extra special something. It is possible too the way the script was written toning down the intelligence of the child. I don't know just guessing but Miss Wilson is obviously very bright but it just did not shine thru as much as it did with Natalie Wood. Cah
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they were both great but something about natalie annoys me a little.
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spencer breslin in the kid
I found Natalie annoying as well. Not to bash her performance but I guess her underlying attitude just always rubs me the wrong way.
shareIn no way is Mara Wilson anywhere near as good as Natalie Wood...
Come to think of it in no way is Mara Wilson a good actress.
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natalie's performance is the best child performance ever. No contest, not even close.
ivan
I agree with you too Isaac. I think Wilson had more of a sweetness to her by nature. Both Wilson and Woods did a fabulous job with the character and brought bits of themselves into the character. Both young ladies grew up in different times. Back in the time of the original, children were brought up in more stern environments and child actors back then were in far less of a laid back environment on most sets. the intelligence came across so well with woods as she had a more stern way about her. As Wilson had a more sweet way about her. I absolutely love both versions of the film.
shareNo comparisons. Natalie Wood was by far the better Susan!
Horrible remake. A disgrace.
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Natalie for sure. Her performance was brilliant, better than some of todays adult actors. Most kids "act" where as she "reacts" to the various characters around her. I felt her facial expressions, overall mannerisms and the emotions and inflections of her voice were spot on. She was delightful in her role and very believable. She really did come across as this cynical, jaded little girl who is gradually convinced and ultimately won over by this jolly old elf she encounters. Most of the time I cringe at child actors, I rarely watch those family shows like Full House etc. because the acting is so, well, cringe worthy and the kids are made to be cutesie, but wow Natalie was on the same level as the adult actors in the movie. Very natural indeed.
Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.
I wrote a review of my thoughts on the 1947 and 1994 films. This is the portion that focused on Natalie and Mara:
One of the biggest kicks of the original film is getting to see the legendary Natalie Wood as a little kid. Skeptical Susan Walker is the most famous of all Natalie's childhood roles, and she was obviously a pro at acting from a very young age. And while Mara Wilson is a fine young actress too, she loses much to her cliched character.
Natalie's Susan is an intelligent child, but still realistic and believable. She sounds like an intelligent child, while Mara sounds more like a depressed forty-year-old. She has a sad expression on her face for most of the film and speaks all her lines in a whisper. Such a limited role is an insult to Mara as an actress, and I believe that being typecast in this way was one reason why Mara left acting altogether. Mara also has much more screentime than Natalie (who was not yet famous), and so we see a lot of her sad, precocious little girl look, which gets old fast and cheapens the film.
The rest of my review comparing the two films, if anyone's interested, is here:
http://community.livejournal.com/forever_starlet/14024.html
Least we forget, there is a cynicism in Natalie Wood's Susan Walker that is supposed to be there. Doris Walker passed on her own view of the world to her daughter, resulting in the young Susan to seem more grown up. Add in her higher intelligence for her age and she seems a lot more mature for her age. It's very delightful to watch her question her own belief system then to be let down at the Christmas party towards the end of the movie when she doesn't get the present she wanted and thus fall back on that old belief system. What makes this so delightful is having Maureen O'Hara, who as Doris Walker has had her belief system changed, tell her she has to believe and we see her downcast in the car repeating "I believe. I believe. It's silly but I believe." only to have that old belief system come crashing down as they drive past the very house she had asked for.
I don't have that same felling with Mara Wilson. Her Susan Walker is missing something that fails to make the character iconic. Even if Natalie Wood had never played the role that missing element would have failed to give us an iconic image.
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Both Natalie Wood and Mara Wilson gave wonderful and very cute performances in their repective films, but I admit I do prefer Natalie, it was a little more intelligent and warm.
"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985)