You knew this was going to be bad...

Knew it was going to be bad when I saw Martin Sheen was involved, period.
Martin Sheen playing Matthew Cuthbert? Really? Aside from the fact that he's a total derelict, he hasn't 1/10th the gravitas or talent of Richard Farnsworth.

I had the same thoughts about the pig. Matthew's character was steadfast and shy in the book, not comic relief like this. I will always love that he bought Anne a dress with puffed sleeves.

Am I overthinking this or do you all think that was a wink and nod to the 80s fans? Cause that scene did make me think of the scene in Anne of Avonlea when Anne took a faceplant in mud.

Totally Agree. Matthew was not a slapstick comic in any version ever. yakkity yakkity Yak to his horse, and then the faceplant in the mud. I was looking at it with a friend across town, and we simultaneously texted "Uh Oh" to each other.

That was my thought, too. I understand that it's difficult to adapt a book to a movie in a way that pleases all the viewers, but that scene made it very clear that the makers of this movie were not afraid to make big changes to the material. I didn't make it much farther than that, but I'm not sure I'll take the time to sit through this movie.

With that first humiliating face-in-the-mud scene I thought Uh oh, we're in for a revisionist 21st Century Anne of Green Gables, in which the adults are not principled, self-effacing, traditional, stiff-upper-lipped, practical, pious, and modest, but foolish, hapless, sort of directionless, in need of "guidance" from Anne, and more modern neurotic than 19th C idiosyncratic (the latter of which is how they were drawn in the book, and in many film depictions).

And Anne--instead of being simply bright, sparkling, pure-spirited, impetuous, imaginative, passionate, impulsive, guileless, precocious--ended up seeming sort of spoiled, bratty, narcissistic, lacking vulnerability and sweetness, petulant, defiant, glib, manipulative, and smart-assed/saucy. She grew on me a bit by the end, but really wish someone a bit sweeter, and who looked more naturally the part, had been cast.

Also on casting, Linda Kash as Mrs. Barry and Julia Lalonde as Diana Barry was strange; they look almost as far from Irish or English as is possible!

It wasn't atrocious, but recently I saw the version from the 1980s and thought it would feel stale or dated, but it didn't and was visually gorgeous!