little princess sara

Subject: little princess sara Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:15 am

“Sally”
was the Arabic name given to the Japanese anime adaptation of Frances Hodgson
Burnett’s famous novel “A Little
Princess”. Her real name was Sara.

The
anime was made by Nippon Animation in 1985, and got translated into French,
German, Italian and Arabic. The story in its essence criticises child labour by
taking us on a magnificent journey through the life of a little girl called Sara
(known as Sally in the Arabic version). She captured our hearts when we saw her
on TV, her smiles were charming and her tears cut deep down in our souls.

It is the story of a girl born in India to a wealthy English man and his French
wife. She lost her mother at a younger age; and
because of work demands in India her father enrolled her in an elite boarding
school in England where they taught her mother’s native language, French. She
was kind, gentle, clever and very good- hearted. No wonder she made friends and
also jealous enemies.

In the
beginning it was all well for little Sally, treated like a little princess in
the boarding school until the day the unfortunate news came that her father died
and had lost all his fortune. She was degraded to a servant by Ms Minchin,
ill-treated by the cook and the cleaner, teased and insulted by some of her
previous mates who deeply hated and envied her.

But
in the depth of her misery she made friends with Peter and Becky, and learnt to
cope and smile and dream of a better

tomorrow. In a “fairytale- like” twist of fate she regained her original status,
adopted by her father’s best friend and trade partner who lived next door to the
boarding school. Sally the servant became the little princess once again.

“Sally”
was a story of inner strength and resilience, good- heartedness, faith
and tolerance that overcomes life’s mishaps and forgives people’s prejudice and
cruelty.

From
her we learnt that life is a cycle, a cycle of happiness and sadness, cruelty
and kindness, poverty and wealth; and that
nothing remains the same, but in the darkest hours we could always hope for a
brighter future.

Written by Suzi from
Australia