History YMMV / ALittlePrincess

** Applied much more in the case of the first ever adaptation. Mary Pickford played Sara Crewe. She was a slight woman, but she was still 25 years old when she played the schoolgirl, and looked - well, like an adult. The answer of 'WTH casting agency' is answered though by the fact that Mary Pickford was a. a massive star and b. the producer of the film.

* It's possible to read Sara as mixed-race in the book. Phrases like 'her little brown hand' and 'small, dark face' are ambiguous, and her belief that she is not pretty because she is dark, as compared to the blonde, blue-eyed prettiness of a childhood friend, makes all the more sense if she is a non-white child in white society. Miss. Minchin's hatred of Sara being fuelled by bigotry would also make a lot of sense in the text as written - that she is made furious by the wealth and 'uppity' behaviour of this non-white girl. Sara's treatment from her fellow servants would similarly make sense. Their resentment seems extreme if their only point of irritation with Sara is that she used to be pampered. If you imagine Sara is from a demographic these low-staus women are used to seeing as being the only people they can comfortably feel superior to, their resentment of Sara's wealth and their schadenfreude at her losing it makes a lot of sense.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: In the 1995 film, the entire scene of the girls stealing Sara's locket from Minchin's office. Lottie pretends to be crying so loudly that it distracts Amelia. After trying to quieten Lottie, Amelia runs down to the kitchen to get Sara (because she can calm Lottie down). By the time they get back upstairs, the girls have the locket and Lottie cheerfully walks past Amelia and Sara. Additionally Minchin comes back early and opens the door to her office, so Becky screams to distract her. Becky stutters for a few seconds while the rest of the girls clear out of the door before saying "I thought I saw a mouse". Minchin rolls her eyes and turns to walk into her office, bumping into the door (which had been closed by Ermengarde).

* WTHCastingAgency: Less a casting issue than a hairdressing one, but Sara in the book feels she is ugly specifically because of her lack of blonde curls. The two most well-known film adaptions cast Shirley Temple and Liesel Matthews respectively, and gave them blond curls.

* FreudianExcuse: The 1995 film and 1986 miniseries show brief scenes of Miss Minchin crying or almost losing control after abusing Sara. Notably, this happens in the 1995 film after Sara brings up the fact that her father told her she was a princess, and asks whether Minchin's own father ever did, too. Viewers are apparently meant to speculate that Minchin had a difficult childhood and perhaps a DisappearedDad.

* NightmareFuel: The film adaptation adds a great big grizzly Hydra thing made out of thorns.
** From the original book, Sara's fate at the hands of Miss Minchin. There's no clear explanation as to why Miss Minchin has always resented the little girl so much, and Sara had no clue she hated her until her father dies and Miss Minchin no longer has to treat her like a parlor boarder anymore. (She had sensed earlier, however, that Miss Minchin fawned on her mainly because she was rich.) Miss Minchin is definitely one of the cruelest {{Sadist Teacher}}s in fiction.
*** Actually, there are three explanations for Miss Minchin's hate. One is the below mentioned scene when Sara unwittingly embarrasses her, in which is explicitly stated that this was the moment resentment started. The second is stated towards the very end, when her sister says that she couldn't stand the fact that Sara saw through her from the very beginning, suggesting that Miss Minchin felt inferior to her, even when she lost everything. The third is more substantial: Miss Minchin thought that Sara would be the key to a lot of money. Instead she ended up with a lot of debts.
** Miss Minchin seems to resent Sara's precocious self possession, intelligence and ability to read people, even adults. She never forgives Sara for unintentionally embarrassing when she insists Sara study French and it turns out Sara is already fluent in the language.

* PlayingAgainstType: Liam Cunningham as a loving and doting father is definitely a change.
** RetroactiveRecognition: [[Series/GameOfThrones Ser Davos]] is Sara's father!

* TearJerker: It's amazing how heart-wrenching four simple little words can be. "I shall die presently."
** The 1995 movie's climax counts as a tearjerker as well.
** To say nothing of Sara's first night in the attic. Yhe book tells us it cannot possibly relate what Sara goes through. The movie shows us a broken little girl, crying for her papa in a chalk-drawn circle of protection all alone *sniffsniff*
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: almost all the adaptations have this with regards to Sara's redecorated room. In the book, Mr Carrisford and Ram Dass secretly decorate Sara's quarters and leave her things like hot food, warm blankets, and a fire in the grate. Most films (the 1917, the 1939 and the 1995 amongst others) have Miss Minchin discover this, assume that Sara and Becky have stolen the finery, and this event prompts the climax of the story. In the book, Miss Minchin never sees the room. And when Carrisford sends over a lot of packages with beautiful clothes, delivered at the ''front'' door, he includes a note. Minchin correctly concludes Sara has a rich relative or friend, and resumes [[SycophanticServant acting obsequious]] toward her.
* ValuesDissonance: Several minor details that seem odd, like the greenishness of Sara's eyes being some kind of huge obstacle to her ever being considered a traditional beauty.
** Sara "sees herself as ugly" because with her slender build, short dark hair, green eyes, and olive skin she does not in any way match the Victorian-Edwardian image of child beauty; she compares herself to another child in her father's regiment, who has "dimples and rose-colored cheeks, and long hair the color of gold." Black hair was also not a good hair color to have in 19th-Century British India -- as it suggested Sara (or her mother) might be mixed-race. Also at various points we get mentions of Sara's "brown" hand and "small dark face".

*** Plus the fact that social class was largely cast in concrete at that time. Becky ''could not'' rise above her station even if she wanted to. In this rigidly stratified environment, the best Becky could hope for would be to secure a place in a nice house with a kind-hearted mistress who would make sure she was well-fed, clothed, and sheltered...which is exactly what she gets (and the ending strongly implies that Becky's place in the household is more a companion to Sara than a servant, anyway).

** To say nothing of Sara's first night in the attic. the book tells us it cannot possibly relate what Sara goes through. The movie shows us a broken little girl, crying for her papa in a chalk-drawn circle of protection all alone *sniffsniff*

* ValuesDissonance: several minor details that seem odd, like the greenishness of Sara's eyes being some kind of huge obstacle to her ever being considered a traditional beauty.
** Sara "sees herself as ugly" because -- with her slender build, short dark hair, green eyes, and olive skin -- she does not in any way match the Victorian-Edwardian image of child beauty; she compares herself to another child in her father's regiment, who has "dimples and rose-colored cheeks, and long hair the color of gold." Black hair was also not a good hair color to have in 19th-Century British India -- as it suggested Sara (or her mother) might be mixed-race. Also at various points we get mentions of Sara's "brown" hand and "small dark face".

** From the original book, Sara's fate at the hands of Miss Minchin. There's no clear explanation as to why Miss Minchin has always resented the little girl so much, and Sara had no clue she hated her until her father dies and Miss Minchin no longer has to treat her like a parlor boarder anymore. (She had sensed earlier, however, that Miss Minchin fawned on her mainly because she was rich). Miss Minchin is definitely one of the cruelest {{Sadist Teacher}}s in fiction.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Most people are aware that there's a book, but certain elements of the films are so ingrained in the audience's awareness of the story that it's quite a shock to go back and discover how different the original text is. Mostly striking is that Sara's father doesn't go off to war (UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar in the 1939 version, UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in the 1995 version), he really ''does'' die (in a more mundane manner), Sara was at Miss Michin's for at least ten years, and Becky isn't black.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Most people are aware that there's a book, but certain elements of the films are so ingrained in the audience's awareness of the story that it's quite a shock to go back and discover how different the original text is. Mostly striking is that Sara's father really ''does'' die in the book, that he wasn't in a war (UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar in the 1939 version, UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in the 1995 version), Sara was at Miss Michin's for at least ten years, and Becky isn't black.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Most people are aware that there's a book, but certain elements of the films are so ingrained in the audience's awareness of the story that it's quite a shock to go back and discover how different the original text is. Mostly striking is that Sara's father really ''does'' die in the book, that UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar (or UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, in the 1995 version) isn't a backdrop, Sara was at Miss Michin's for at least ten years, and Becky isn't black.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Most people are aware that there's a book, but certain elements of the films are so ingrained in the audience's awareness of the story that it's quite a shock to go back and discover how different the original text is. Mostly striking is that Sara's father really ''does'' die in the book, that the Second Boer War (or UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, in the 1995 version) isn't a backdrop, Sara was at Miss Michin's for at least ten years, and Becky isn't black.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Most people are aware that there's a book, but certain elements of the films are so ingrained in the audience's awareness of the story that it's quite a shock to go back and discover how different the original text is. Mostly striking is that Sara's father really ''does'' die in the book, that the Second Boer War isn't a backdrop, Sara was at Miss Michin's for at least ten years, and Becky isn't black.

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* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: almost all the adaptations have this with regards to Sara's redecorated room. In the book, Mr Carrisford and Ram Dass secretly decorate Sara's quaters and leave her things like hot food at meal-times and warm blankets, and a fire in the grate. Most films (the 1917, the 1939 and the 1995 amongst others) have Miss Minchin discover this, assume that Sara and Becky have stolen the finery, and this event prompts the climax of the story. In the book Miss Minchin never sees the room. And when Carrisford sends over a lot of packages with beautiful clothes, delivered at the ''front'' door, he includes a note. Minchin correctly concludes Sara has a rich relative or friend, and resumes [[SycophanticServant acting obsequious]] toward her.

*** Plus the fact that social class was largely cast in concrete at that time. Becky ''could not'' rise above her station even if she wanted to.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: almost all the adaptations have this with regards to Sara's redecorated room. In the book, Mr Carrisford and Ram Dass secretly decorate Sara's quaters and leave her things like hot food at meal-times and warm blankets, and a fire in the grate. Most films (the 1917, the 1939 and the 1995 amongst others) have Miss Minchin discover this, assume that Sara and Becky have stolen the finery, and this event prompts the climax of the story. In the book Miss Minchin never sees the room. And when Carrisford sends over a lot of packages with beautiful clothes and a warm coat, delivered at the ''front'' door, he includes a note: "To be worn ''every day''. Will be replaced with others when necessary." Miss Minchin correctly concludes that Sara has a rich "friend", and resumes [[SycophanticServant acting obsequious]] toward her.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: almost all the adaptations have this with regards to Sara's redecorated room. In the book, Mr Carrisford and Ram Dass secretly decorate Sara's quaters and leave her things like hot food at meal-times and warm blankets, and a fire in the grate. Most films (the 1917, the 1939 and the 1995 amongst others) have Miss Minchin discover this, assume that Sara and Becky have stolen the finery, and this event prompts the climax of the story. In the book Miss Minchin never sees the room.

* CanonSue: Sara [[SuetifulAllAlong is oddly beautiful but sees herself as ugly, because she doesn't fit the Victorian-Edwardian image of child beauty at all]]. She is unfailingly kind and just, has an ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount, is crazy-smart, learned fluent French from her mother, has every child who isn't a total witch at her beck and call, and has no temper outside of a righteous fire for any wrong.
** She's also a PuritySue and SympatheticSue. The book is about how everyone should feel sorry for the beautiful, intelligent, kind Sara who has been cast to the wolves of fate by the evil adults around her.
*** She does ostracize her friends after she loses her fortune, become unreasonably angry at Ermengarde for asking whether she was "very unhappy" on one occasion, and reflects that this outburst proves that at heart she is "not a nice girl".
*** And besides, she's [[EscapistCharacter hard not to like]] and has the GrandfatherClause on her side.
** She also gets away with her Suishness because the book is to some extent an examination of that very trope. Sara notes with internal cynicism the worshiping attitudes of everyone around her to her apparent perfection. She points out that she has been lucky to have been born into wealth, and has never had any reason to be anything but gracious. When she is tested by adversity graciousness does not come so easily to her. She struggles to remain patient with Ermengarde, to give most of her food to a hungrier child etc. It is only through a titanic exertion of her imagination and intelligence she is able to maintain the dignity, kindness and largesse she thinks of as 'princess' qualities
** Notable is also that she is very close to breaking down a couple of times, especially towards the end of the book. Only unexpected moments of kindness help her to keep the bitterness at bay. In a way, she is only able to hold on her kindness because that is the only thing she has left. She might look like a beggar, but she refuses to feel like one. Thus making her kindness less an annoying character trait, but more something to cheer on, because it is the only weapon she has against Miss Minchin.

* StoicWoobie: When she falls on hard times, Sara does her best to maintain her dignity and inner strength, not letting on that she is suffering to any of her friends. The [[ALittlePrincessSara anime adaptation]] takes this trope UpToEleven, showing how she [[YamatoNadeshiko bravely accepts her fate]], but many adaptations, particularly those made in the States, make her a SpiritedYoungLady, so that she doesn't seem passive.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The book was meant to be a critique of Britain's "welfare system", with the goal of making sure everyone has gainful employment. Boys get sent to the Navy and girls to domestic service. They are enslaved instead of becoming productive members of society.

** The situation involving Becky coming along as Sara's maid may be due to the fact that, as a lower-class member, Becky doesn't have the education to gain other employment or respectability in her era.

* ValuesDissonance: Same as Unfortunate Implications, plus several minor details that seem odd, like the greenishness of Sara's eyes being some kind of huge obstacle to her ever being considered a traditional beauty.

** The situation involving Becky coming along as Sara's maid may be due to the fact that, as a lower-class member, Becky doesn't have the education to gain other employment or respectability in her era. However, that leads to a whole other set of UnfortunateImplications because Sara could have offered Becky said education at the same time as completing her own.

* UnfortunateImplications: Apart from the colonialist attitude toward India and Indians, the book is pretty loaded with old-school classism. The flip side of Sara's NiceToTheWaiter tendencies is that Becky in particular is a [[SubordinateExcuse groveling doormat]], constantly thanking Sara for being friends with her, talking about how she's not worthy, etc. Conspicuously, when Ram Dass and Mr. Carrisford begin to secretly help "the little girl in the attic," they mean Sara and ignore Becky. Sara does invite her to share, but she gets Sara's seconds when it comes to anything that's not food -- Sara gets a lovely new down mattress and blanket, for instance, and Becky's equally happy to get Sara's old ones to add to her own. When Becky first finds out that Sara is about to go from filthy rich to the life that she herself has been leading for years -- without the benefit of an education, or a fantasy life to retreat to -- her reaction is to beg Miss Minchin to let her keep waiting on Sara, since she won't be used to taking care of herself. Her happy ending consists of going to live with Sara in Carrisford's house... as her maid. A big step up in the world in the Edwardian Era, and anyone would rather work for Sara than Miss Minchin, but it rankles to a modern reader.
** It's worth noting how much modern adaptations such as the 1995 movie downplay the classist attitudes. Sara's speech about how "every girl is a princess" replaces Book Sara's determination to behave like a princess in order to maintain vestiges of the social class she was born to. Also, Becky is adopted at the end, rather than taken on as a lady's maid.
** The 1986 TV series, a very close adaptation, adds a scene in which Sara promises Becky that she might be officially a maid, but will always be first and foremost her friend.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: almost all the adaptations have this with regards to Sara's redecorated room. In the book, Mr Carrisford and Ram Dass secretly decorate Sara's quaters and leave herthings like hot food at meal-times and warm blankets, and a fire in the grate. Most films (the 1917, the 1939 and the 1995 amongst others) have Miss Minchin discover this, assume that Sara and Becky have stolen the finery, and this event prompts the climax of the story. In the book Miss Minchin never sees the room.