This is based on a dear book from my childhood, one of the rare SF books available in my elementary school library. I read it several times -- little did I know that there were more in the series. (Perhaps they had not been written yet...)

A couple years ago I bought the boxed set of 4 paperbacks, with beautifully painted Jodi Lee covers. I had the privlege of seeing one of those original paintings and hearing Ms. Lee talk about her creation of these paintings.

Amazingly, I still have not finished the series! I have one more book to read. Truth to tell, I was not as pleased with the 2nd and 3rd books, as they dealt with the same characters, but virtually no mention is made of the incredible things that had happened in the earlier books.

Now, on to the TV movie. This appeared out of the blue in my TV guide last week. I had no idea they were working on this adaptation. That being said -- It was pretty good, is all.

My first and really only nit is that Meg wore glasses in the book. Normally something like this wouldn't bother me, but it was such a key part of her personality that it really felt missing here. Other than that, the realizations of the characters was exceptional. Meg was wonderful and I was constantly reminded of Melissa Gilbert from Little House on the Prairie from her looks. The guy who played Calvin was excellent, a fine balance of maturity and adolescent gawkiness. Oddly, when I saw "The Ring" last year, one thing that struck me was how much the boy in that reminded me of Charles Wallace, and now he played him in this movie! He was creepily precocious, and seeing him with red glowing eyes was one of the spookiest things I've ever seen. I couldn't quite reconcile Alfre Woodard's Mrs Whatsit with my visualization, but she was fine.

I was surprised that with all the times I had read the book, I remembered some passages verbatim, while forgetting whole scenes altogether. It struck me that even she had just rescued her father there was still 90 minutes left in the program and I had no idea what was going to happen! (Well, it's been a long time since I read it!)

Aside from a couple spectacular shots, the special effects were about as elaborate as an average Hercules episode, I'm afraid to say. Still, it was nice to see a live-action version of a work that shaped my early interest in science fiction (or fantasy, if you prefer). I was certainly the first person in my family to know what a "tesseract" was...

I liked these books very much when I first came across them in the library, too.

Although this is a difficult project to make into a movie at the moment, when every company seems intent on showing off special effects by sacrificing the story and any tender, subtle, poetic points the books might have. When was the movie made, by whom? Was there too much f/x, or just the right amount? Was it a success? (Maybe it will come to germany, too?) Is there a trailer somewhere on the net, maybe?