naomielsanders This is an interesting take on a classic TV series of a young girl in a French school. It's interesting to take this as they expanded all the characters, like the the girls at the school having all different personalities. I do like Hatty Jones' take on Madaline (she does have a cute voice) as well as Nigel Hawthorne as Lord Covington, especially since he's played parts ranging from King George (in the Madness of King George) to Professor Porter (in Tarzan).I'm not going to give anything away (if you're looking at these reviews, wondering if you should watch this, I would recommend it for girls 10 upwards) but it is lovely. Good actors, good script, combining some of the elements of the original series with the new parts that they put in.Serioulsy, I would recommend it. It's sweet, but also gripping at times (not telling you when! That's cheating). However bad and girly you think it is, watch it. Then, if you still think the same... well, you can think what you think, I still like it!

richard-1787 What a waste. A charming book for little girls is turned into the "adventures" of a group of representative, largely disagreeable little girls. Some makes no sense: why is the owner of a house in Paris "Lord Covington"? Why do some of the girls speak with English accents? But that's almost beside the point. Suddenly there are kidnappers, and the aggravating boy next door becomes all warm and fuzzy. Then Madeline suddenly understands Lord Covington and he becomes all warm and fuzzy too. Like a very bad Halmark Hall of Fame special.Frances MacDermond is good here. Some of the photography of Paris is good - though the Eiffel Tower appears everywhere, as if to keep reminding us that we are in Paris even though it seems to be populated with English.If you liked the children's books, stick with them. This movie isn't at all done in the same spirit. And the "spirit" of this movie is just to provoke a few very manipulated tears.

bigwig_thalyi Normally I steer well clear of films that are made for young children and for little girls as this one obviously was but once in a while you can be pleasantly surprised and this was one of those occasions. This film is magic and unlike a lot of children's films made nowadays it was not covered in so much sweetness that it was overpowering. Madeline,played superbly by Hatty Jones in her only film to date,is a little girl, who lives in a school run by a nun, along with a lot of other little girls. When the owner of the school threatens to shut down the school and sell it Madeline and her friends come up with daring schemes to repel future owners of the establishment. The movie has plenty of humorous moments including an hysterical meal scene involving a dead chicken called Fred. Children don't need films filled with innuendo or heavily coated with saccharin they need films that remind them what it is like to be a child and the wondrous magic that that involves.This is such a movie.It is a film that any parent would feel is perfectly safe for a child to watch without supervision. The only minor problem,as my wife pointed out,is the occasional switch from English to french which younger children might find confusing. That aside this a delicious children's movie that can be enjoyed by the whole family time and time again

k_syndicate It wouldn't be fair to judge this movie on a comparitive scale or measure it my some objective movie standards. Leave that to the experts. I can give you one good reason for watching this movie. Hatty Jones. Super performance. One sample would do. Watch her face react after hearing Lady Covington's death. For more, keep track of this girl's expressions thru the movie. Its simply great. Madeline is a movie for kids between the age of 0-100.