A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story

Like many people, I grew up "Loving" Annette Funicello. This wonderul movie has so many treats besides her biography. It depicts life in the 50's in Hollywood - Walt Disney's discovery of Annette, the making of the Mickey Mouse Club, a young Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, and later Frankie Avalon & Shelly Fabares playing their adult selves. Most of all, the film has such "heart" and is so moving & inspiring as Annette discovers and deals with her MS disease. Hopefully soon the film will go to DVD and some or all of the profits will help with the fight of this disease. If you are lucky enough to catch it on TV - tape it!!

This movie was a great way to get some understanding of someone who seems to have been famous forever. It's fun and keeps moving, but at times it was hard to keep track of the passage of time in the film. It didn't seem clear how much time was passing from scene to scene and, before I knew it, it was 1987.

Although she grew up in what many would describe as a fairy-tale world, this movie shows that not all Hollywood productions are "happily ever after". I was glad to see that, unlike many biographies, Annette chose to tell the true story, both happy and sad. Her failed relationship with Paul Anka, her divorce from Jack, and her subsequent revealing of her MS, shows what a strong and wonderful person she is. A true stroke of genius by the writers, directors, producers, and Annie herself to use the real Annette throughout the movie and to use her real family during Gina's wedding. I hope her surgery in 1999 was successful and that she is doing well.

Annette and I were born in the same year, 1942. I was alway neutral about Annette. While I thought she was cute, I was not a big fan. She lived inside our black and white television set and was not very real. After awhile she dropped out of sight and was largely forgotten by me.

Then I saw the movie about her life on our large screen color TV. Something made me watch the movie even though I had better things to do. Within the next 120 minutes Annette became a real person with normal problems. As the movie ends the actors are replaced with the real person they are playing. Frankie Avalon becomes Frankie Avalon. An Annette ends up being herself in the movie. There is nothing boastful about the movie. Annette is not put up on a pedestal. Her fight with MS becomes very real in her life and you experience it. The film ends with a real life situation that will bring both smiles and tears to your face.

If you grew up with Annette Funicello and you enjoyed your youth, you owe it to yourself to watch this movie. I wish I knew how to contact her and tell her how revealing and entertaining the movie is.

I would love to share this movie with my granddaughter but apparently it is not available for purchase. If you were a fan of Annette's and haven't had a chance to see this movie you've missed a good story. Making it even better is that it is told by Annette herself. I started as a fan of the Mouseketeers. Later I was hooked on the "beach" movies. I read all those teen magazines growing up to follow her story. It was only as I got older that I realized they printed "fluff". Watching this movie you see her real life. It wasn't all beach parties and songs. Annette lived an interesting life and never let the downs keep her there. I hope those "in charge" release this movie for purchase...or, at least, show it again on t.v.