The Lowdown

No two ways about it, this one is definitely a children's film. It's only 45 minutes long, which makes it difficult to bring out the nuances of the original story. It also may or may not be a musical version.

Some Observations

• In this version, Edmond is framed for stealing a gold watch. The plotline about him being implicated in a plot to facilitate the Emperor Napoleon's escape from Elba island and restore him to the French throne is absent.
• Villefort is entirely omitted. Danglars is a policeman or something, and Fernand is already an army general. Caderousse is also there.
• There's a song right at the start, then a long gap without any songs, then another song about three quarters of the way through, then no more songs.
• Fernand is VERY dastardly in this one. Even moreso than Guy Pearce.
• There are two talking animals in it: Edmond's cat Louis, and Fernand's dog (un-named). All other character are human.
• The 'revenge payoff' element of the plot largely consisted of Edmond stabbing people in the bottom with his sword and going "Ha HA!"
• At the end he gets together with the girl who's pretending to be a boy, even though they've only spoken twice.
• Interestingly, the blurb on the back of the DVD case gives Danglars name incorrectly as 'Dorleac'. There's no character called Dorleac in this, or in any of The Count of Monte Cristo except in the 2002 film where the jailer in the Chateau d'If has this name, so they must have got mixed up while writing the blurb in a really lazy way. I've often suspected that DVD cover blurbs are written in batches by people who have not seen the feature, and this only adds fuel to that fire.

The Verdict

This is a film for children, and a poorly made one.

Characters and Plot Elements