With this many adaptations, that garden's not much of a secret now, is it?
Clockwise from top left:
Clockwise from top left:
Works based on The Secret Garden (1911)note , the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Anime & Manga
- Himitsu no Hanazono (1991-1992), an anime series starring Mina Tominaga as Mary as well as several other well-known seiyuu. Like the musical version, it expands the story quite a bit, focusing a lot on four elements: the Sowerby family (and not only Susan, but also her youngest kids); Lillias Craven's personality and her influence around those who surrounded her; Colin's notoriously frailer-than-in-other-adaptations health, and his long and difficult way to physical recovery with Dickon and Mary's help; and the Canon Foreigners Camilla (a Romani young woman who acts as Mary's Cool Big Sis), and Maximilian "Max" Hawkins (an accountant who used to work for the Cravens). Not to be confused with Himitsu no Hanazono (2007), a Japanese comedy.
- The Secret Garden (2017), an OEL Manga published by Seven Seas Entertainment.
- The Secret Garden/Le jardin secret (2021), A French Comic-Book Adaptation published by Dargaud and in English by Europe Comics.
- The Secret Garden (2021), A Graphic Novel published by Andrews McMeel Publishing
- The Secret Garden (1919), starring Lila Lee. Very little is known about this film, as it's thought to be lost.
- The Secret Garden (1949), starring Margaret O'Brien and a very young Dean Stockwell. This film was done mostly in black-and-white, but made use of Technicolor for the garden segments, in a move similar to The Wizard of Oz.
- The Secret Garden (1993), starring Kate Maberly and directed by Agnieszka Holland. This is probably the most well-known of the films. The film features excellent cinematography, a haunting mood, and Maggie Smith in the role of Mrs. Medlock.
- The Secret Garden (2020), starring Dixie Egerickx and directed by Marc Munden. It also features Julie Walters as Mrs. Medlock and Colin Firth as Archibald Craven. The time period is changed from the original Edwardian setting to 1947, with the beginning now taking place in the context of The Partition of India.
- The Secret Garden (1975), a TV series starring Sarah Hollis Andrews. This series remained extremely faithful to the source material and kept most of the characters and plot threads that other adaptations tend to excise, most prominently Susan Sowerby and her children.
- The Secret Garden
(1987), an episode of the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV series starring Gennie James. Notorious because a certain someone undergoes a Death by Adaptation.
- The Secret Garden (1991), a musical version that premiered on Broadway. This version placed more emphasis on the adults, with much of the plot being narrated by a ghostly chorus of "Dreamers". It also expands the plot considerably, up to adding in a primary conflict in the form of Archibald Craven's brother Dr. Neville Craven, who was in a love triangle with his own brother and Lillias, and is charged with both keeping Colin healthy and keeping the estate in order while Archibald is away.
Other adaptations contain examples of the following tropes:
- Age Lift: The 1987 movie Book Ends the story with grown-up versions of Mary and Colin.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: The 2020 film makes this the cause of Mary's Parental Neglect. Her mother lost her sister to a terminal illness and was always too depressed to be around Mary, who reminded her of said sister.
- Break the Cutie: In the anime version, Camilla and Max Hawkins were horribly broken in their backstories, which also influences Max in his revenge quest against Archibald. Not to mention, we get to see exactly how badly Lillias's Death by Childbirth broke Mr. Craven himself...
- Casting Gag: Colin Firth played adult Colin in the 1987 movie and went on to play Archibald Craven (Colin's father) in the 2020 version.
- Cute Kitten: In the anime, Mary has a kitten named Patty, the only thing Mary treats with a shred of kindness prior to her Character Development.
- Death by Adaptation: Dickon, in the 1987 film version. He and Colin both enlisted in the British Army for WWI, while Mary joined the Nurse Corps. Dickon was killed in action in the Argonne Forest while Colin comes home with a wound that gives him a limp.
- Delicate and Sickly: In the anime series, Colin is actually ill and crippled. And he almost dies at some point.
- Driven to Suicide: In the anime, when it seems he's about to lose the manor to Hawkins and be economically ruined, Archibald Craven makes arrangements for Mary's and Colin's caretaking and gets ready to blow his brains off with a gun while staring at a picture of his dear Lillias. He backs off at the last moment.
- Framing Device: The 1987 movie begins with Mary as a young woman returning to the manor and encountering Ben. The story is then told in flashbacks before returning to the present, where an equally grown-up Colin joins her and proposes to her.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: "Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary" is briefly used in the anime, where a boy taunts Mary with it in the first episode.
- Kissing Cousins: Averted in the 1987 version, which changes Mr. Craven from Mary's uncle to an old family friend who agreed to take her in.
- Love Hurts: In the anime, and how. Not only did Archibald cross the Despair Event Horizon when his dear Lillias died, but Camilla and Max Hawkins become Star-Crossed Lovers as well.
- Missing Mom: While both Mary's parents are dead, she tends to think of her mother more often than her father.
- Also very cranked up in the anime series, where Colin's mom Lillias is painted as Messianic Archetype and things got horrible in the manor immediately after she died. Also, at the start, Mary is seen singing a song and then thinking of both her mother and her nanny but not about her dad.
- Motifs: The 1987 film particularly likes Flower Motifs.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Mary, rather jarringly, has a Texan American accent in the 1987 version. Occasionally she can be heard trying for a British accent, but it just doesn't work. There's also that one scene where she attempts a Yorkshire accent...
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In the Broadway Recording, you can tell that the actors tried really hard with their Yorkshire and RP accents, but they're still pretty cringeworthy.
- Relationship Upgrade: Mary and Colin get engaged at the conclusion of the 1987 movie.
- Setting Update: The 2020 version is set in 1947 as opposed to the customary Edwardian setting. The filmmakers believed that the original time period was too remote for modern kids but also noted that it couldn't take place in the present day because the story relies on social services not existing. And since 1947 was the last year in which The Raj existed, keeping Mary's original backstory was probably also a factor.
- Single-Minded Twins: Dickon and Martha's youngest siblings in the anime series.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth:
- The 1987 Hallmark adaptation invoked this by killing off Dickon!
- Lillias, in the anime series.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: The 1987 version made the Cravens old family friends of Mary's parents, in order for Colin to be Promoted to Love Interest while avoiding Kissing Cousins.
- Why Didn't I Think of That?: Mary has a moment of this when thinking why nobody likes her. Martha suggests that Mary does not like herself very much and indeed she does not; Mary says that she had never thought of that before.
