A Waltons Thanksgiving

This is not 1930s Virginia. I wasn't born during The Waltons series original run. And that doesn't and shouldn't matter because art, whether it's music, television, movies, even artwork itself, moves you, transports you and if powerful enough - it has the ability to inspire and transform you. CW's Waltons is not Earl Hamner Jr.'s Waltons. I was skeptical coming into it. This is CW after all. I proceeded positively...and cautiously. I ever saw last year's CW's Waltons movie and it's safe to say I never will now. CW'S A Waltons Thanksgiving movie does not resemble Hamner's Waltons visually, verbally, historically or morally. It's also missing a kid. Where's Ben? Why are CW'S Waltons daughters so bossy and unlikable now? Twenty-three minutes in, and I barely see the Waltons patriarch played by Teddy Sears? Last year's CW's Waltons movie got 960,000 viewers. Great for CW. This year's movie attracted about 500,000 less (Fewer? Help me Stannis.) viewers. I see why. I lasted 25 minutes and decided to go watch Hamner's Waltons instead.

Why on earth would you even try to redo/imitate an iconic show like The Waltons? There's no point, especially when the end result is mediocre at best. The only way A Waltons Thanksgiving works is if you know nothing whatsoever about the original show, or better yet, never even heard of it. And you'd also have to know absolutely nothing about the Great Depression and its grinding poverty; segregation and the Jim Crow south; rural farm life; social hierarchy; and just life in general in the mid-1930s. It was no happy-go-lucky picnic back then.

The acting in this movie is average at best, with occasional scenery-chewing by Bellamy Young (Olivia). But then Patricia Neal and Michael Learned are very tough acts to follow.

The dialogue in this movie was also way off, at times much more 2022 than 1934. The clothes were too bright and spiffy. In 1934, no rural farm family would waste pumpkins to decorate a porch. They'd be pureed and canned for winter or stored in the root cellar. Food was not for decoration. And in the mountains of Virginia, is it really warm enough in late November to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside in short sleeved clothes?

These may seem like nit-picky observations, but to a true Waltons fan, they matter. Hence, this movie would be best targeted to a Waltons newbie.

Very disappointing.

This was an excellent show that has all the quality and character of the original series that touches the heartstrings of what is upright and overflowing with an often rare goodness seldom seen in the morals we experience in this world almost 50 years after the original series.

How wonderful to be suspended in a world free from technology, hype and the distraction we experience in todays world often devoid of meaningful interaction with those we come in contact on a daily bases. What a joy to see that those that we touch can be effected in one positive life changing event

The special topped off a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you Magnolia Hill!

This is the second TV-movie on The CW to feature the Walton family played by new actors, with Richard Thomas as the narrator.

Once again the family is supposedly going through a hard time, but in the middle of The Depression, they live in a nice house which probably needs painting, and John-Boy has his own room. The clothes don't look quite as good but that's just because the family members are shown working.

Everyone is polite (or at least they can be) and brothers and sisters bicker, as they do, but there is love here. There are family values and the need to be responsible is shown.

Ryan Newman does a great job as the abused kid who works for the fair. He shows a positive attitude and intelligence and he is quite a salesman.

Rebecca Koon also stands out as the somewhat less than perfect Grandma. Alpha Trivette is somewhat less colorful and more moral than Will Geer but still a fine man.

The first movie was G-rated. This one could have been although it has a couple of bad words and just enough suggested violence to get the point across. The boy is kicked a couple of times but never hit on screen.

And, of course, there are references to drinking. Usually it is the perfectly harmless Baldwins' "recipe".

Marcelle LeBlanc is a very good singer. Christian Finlayson is a good banjo player.

The movie doesn't quite live up to the ideal of the TV series but it is good family entertainment everyone can enjoy. It's almost as good as the Christmas movie from last year.

I gave this a fair shot. Even though I watched the Christmas episode and wasn't that impressed. I absolutely love the original The Waltons series and still watch it today. So I was excited to have more of the Walton family and company. Until I watched it and it didn't really even feel like The Waltons. There is none of the original charm and authenticity that made me love the original so much.

The costumes are wrong- they feel entirely too modern. Like someone playing dress up rather than a costume department.

The acting feels stiff and forced. It's like the actors know nothing about the characters or the time period. Again, there's something decidedly modern in the way they interact and behave. I'm also not sure why they're all putting on accents when no one really had much of one in the original. I might be able to overlook that, but they're bad accents, too.

The dialogue is average at best- and that's being generous. Admittedly, some of the dialogue from the original show was a bit on the nose and cheesy at times, but it never felt overwhelmingly so. Because I believed the actors and their characters. They felt authentic. Not only is this dialogue corny, but it has a very modern flair to it. Certain turns of phrase and the way in which the lines are delivered feel off. The biggest offender I can remember here is when John-Boy is listing off everyone entering in competitions at the fair. If I only heard the dialogue, I wouldn't guess this was meant to be taking place in 1934.

I think the casting is off, too. I've seen a number of these actors in other things and they're not bad actors. They just don't really fit here. Again, they don't feel authentic. Olivia, John, Grandma, and Grandpa all especially feel wrong. Olivia especially has none of the maternal, soft but stern qualities that she had in the series. John, Grandma, and Grandpa also feel like entirely different characters. No matter who played these characters or how they played them, I don't think I'd ever find them comparable to the original. But I can say that they could certainly be played better and do a little more justice to who came before.

And the supporting characters are all wrong, too. I won't go too far into that but all I needed to hear was the Baldwin sisters actually referring to 'the recipe' as moonshine to know that someone hadn't really done their homework as far as characterization goes.

Obviously a remake isn't going to be exactly like the original, nor should it be. But there are some that are worse than others. I would have to say this is one of the worse ones. Even the Christmas special was better and I didn't particularly care for that.

Bottom line- nothing feels authentic and there is not even a hint of the original charm. All the same, it is a feel good, wholesome movie and I do appreciate that. It's almost better to just pretend this is unrelated to The Waltons many know and love. It's not a bad movie on its own, but it's a poor representation of the original characters and series.