Review of Harriet the Spy (1996) by Eric On His Fantasy Quest V — 29 Mar 2009

Welcome to the spy-house: Harriet M. Welsch writes private thoughts on her notebook while sneakingly spying on other people, all encouraged by her nanny and friend Ole Golly. She's hoping that she would be an aspiring writer someday. But one day at a park, Harriet's notebook was taken by a clique - headed by Marion Hawthorne - who reads all of Harriet's secrets. Such comments were hurtful for Harriet's best friends, science geek Janie and the sport-loving Sport, so her classmates shun her. The film's fine, but when I read the original Harriet The Spy from Louise Fitzhugh, I knew there are some differences between this and the novel; the story order and the racially diverse class are a few of these. Is it because the original novel was too long? Fitzhugh wrote a few other books about the titular character so I thought Harriet The Spy could have been a TV show with all the chapters to follow along.

Directed by Bronwen Hughes, Harriet The Spy has good acting from the following cast:

1.) Michelle Trachtenberg (Harriet M. Welsch).

2.) Gregory Smith (Simon "Sport" Roque).

3.) Vanessa Lee Chester (Janie Gibbs).

4.) Rosie O'Donnell (Ole Golly).

5.) J. Smith-Cameron (Mrs. Welsch).

6.) Robert Joy (Mr. Welsch).

7.) Charlotte Sullivan (Marion Hawthorne).

8.) Eartha Kitt (Agatha K. Plummer).

The film version of Harriet The Spy may be too short - and I therefore stick to the novel - but at least it's fun to watch. A treasure from the '90s golden heyday of Nickelodeon (their first film feature), it gave me the real definition of "spy" trained for espionage, not to mention learning secrets from others.