Anne of Green Gables (1985) Review – A Story That Taught Me How to Imagine
Imagination can turn even the quietest place into home.
π₯ Film Overview
Title: Anne of Green Gables
Director: Kevin Sullivan
Release: December 1-2, 1985 (CBC, two-part miniseries)
Runtime: 199 minutes (3 hours 19 minutes total)
Genre: Drama, Family, Period Drama
Screenplay: Kevin Sullivan (based on the 1908 novel by L.M. Montgomery)
Studio: CBC Television, Sullivan Entertainment
Music: Hagood Hardy
Rating: IMDb 8.6 / 100% Rotten Tomatoes
Awards: Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program (1986), 8 Gemini Awards including Best Actress (Megan Follows), Peabody Award
Cast: Megan Follows (Anne Shirley), Colleen Dewhurst (Marilla Cuthbert), Richard Farnsworth (Matthew Cuthbert), Jonathan Crombie (Gilbert Blythe), Schuyler Grant (Diana Barry)
π Plot Summary
In 1880s Prince Edward Island, elderly siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert send to an orphanage for a boy to help with farm work. Through a misunderstanding, they receive Anne Shirley—a 13-year-old girl with red hair, freckles, and an imagination vast enough to fill every corner of Green Gables.
Anne arrives as a whirlwind of chatter and dreams. She renames ordinary places with romantic titles: the pond becomes "The Lake of Shining Waters," a simple lane transforms into "The White Way of Delight." She recites poetry, invents elaborate stories, and apologizes profusely for her mistakes while making new ones moments later.
Marilla, practical and stern, initially plans to send Anne back. But Matthew, quiet and gentle, sees something in the strange, talkative girl—a spark he can't bear to extinguish. Reluctantly, Marilla agrees to let Anne stay.
What follows isn't a fairy tale. Anne's imagination leads her into trouble: she accidentally gets her best friend Diana drunk on what she thinks is raspberry cordial (it's currant wine). She dyes her despised red hair, hoping for raven black, and ends up with green. She tries to impress Gilbert Blythe, the boy who teased her about her hair, by walking across a ridgepole and falls into the water.
But through every mishap, Anne learns. She earns Marilla's grudging affection and then her fierce love. She excels at school, wins academic honors, and forges friendships that will last a lifetime. When tragedy strikes and Matthew dies, Anne makes a choice: she gives up her scholarship to stay at Green Gables with Marilla, recognizing that love and duty can be chosen with open eyes.
Kevin Sullivan's 1985 adaptation became the most-watched Canadian television drama in history and introduced L.M. Montgomery's beloved character to a new generation.
πΈ Key Themes
Imagination as Survival and Joy
Anne's imagination isn't frivolous escapism—it's how she survives. Orphaned, unwanted, passed from home to home, Anne learned early that if reality is unbearable, you can create a better one inside your mind.
But her imagination doesn't just help her endure hardship—it transforms the world for everyone around her. Marilla, who has lived her whole life in strict practicality, begins to see beauty she'd stopped noticing. Matthew, lonely and shy, finds joy in Anne's stories.
The film suggests that imagination isn't childish. It's a way of seeing—a refusal to accept that the world is only what it appears to be.
Belonging and the Family We Choose
Anne arrives at Green Gables by mistake, but she stays by choice—and more importantly, Marilla and Matthew choose her. Their love isn't instant or effortless. It's earned through patience, mistakes, forgiveness, and the slow realization that family isn't about blood—it's about commitment.
Anne's journey from "nobody wanted me" to "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers" is a journey toward belonging. Green Gables becomes home not because it's perfect, but because it's hers.
Growing Up Without Losing Wonder
The film follows Anne from age 13 to 16, showing her transformation from impulsive child to thoughtful young woman. She learns to control her temper, think before she speaks, and accept consequences for her actions.
But crucially, she doesn't lose her imagination. Growing up doesn't mean becoming practical and dull—it means learning to balance wonder with responsibility, dreams with duty.
The Value of Kindness in a Harsh World
Anne faces cruelty: Mrs. Lynde mocks her appearance, other children tease her, adults dismiss her. But she also encounters profound kindness: Matthew's quiet advocacy, Marilla's gradual softening, Diana's unwavering friendship, Miss Stacy's encouragement.
The film shows that kindness isn't weakness—it's what allows Anne to thrive. Matthew's gentle belief in her gives her confidence. Marilla's stern but loving guidance teaches her discipline. These small acts of care reshape Anne's entire life.
π¬ What Makes This Film Special
Megan Follows' Luminous Performance
At 16, Megan Follows embodied Anne Shirley so completely that for millions of viewers, she is Anne. Her performance captures Anne's chatter, her melodrama, her fierce pride, and her vulnerability. Follows won a Gemini Award and became forever associated with the role, reprising it in two sequels.
Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth's Chemistry
Dewhurst and Farnsworth, both veteran actors, bring depth to Marilla and Matthew. Dewhurst's Marilla transforms from rigid spinster to a woman capable of deep, protective love. Farnsworth's Matthew, in what became one of his most beloved roles, conveys volumes through silence—his gentle smile, his quiet pride in Anne, his wordless understanding.
Kevin Sullivan's Faithful Adaptation
Director Kevin Sullivan remained remarkably faithful to L.M. Montgomery's novel while making smart choices for adaptation. He shot on location in Prince Edward Island, capturing the landscape that inspired Montgomery. The period details feel authentic, the pacing allows scenes to breathe, and the script preserves Montgomery's language wherever possible.
Sullivan's adaptation became the definitive version, overshadowing earlier film versions and setting the standard for all future adaptations.
Hagood Hardy's Memorable Score
Composer Hagood Hardy created a score that feels timeless—sweeping, emotional, pastoral. The main theme has become inseparable from the story itself, evoking nostalgia for generations of viewers.
Cultural Impact and Enduring Legacy
The 1985 Anne of Green Gables became a cultural phenomenon, particularly in Canada and Japan (where Anne's story has resonated deeply since the 1950s). It spawned two sequels: Anne of Avonlea (1987) and Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story (2000), though neither matched the original's impact.
The miniseries has been remastered and re-released multiple times, finding new audiences with each generation. It remains the highest-rated Canadian drama in history.
π Where to Watch (2025)
Streaming: Amazon Prime Video, BritBox, Hoopla (library card required), Tubi (free with ads)
Rent/Buy: Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play, YouTube
Physical Media: Available on DVD and Blu-ray (Sullivan Entertainment restored edition)
Note: Availability varies by region and changes frequently. Check your local streaming services for current options. The 1985 miniseries is often packaged with its sequel, Anne of Avonlea. Multiple adaptations exist, including the 2017 Netflix/CBC series Anne with an E, but the 1985 version remains the most beloved.
π Final Thoughts
Anne of Green Gables endures because it understands something essential: imagination isn't escapism—it's survival, transformation, and resistance against a world that often tries to make us smaller.
Anne arrives at Green Gables unwanted and leaves having changed everyone she met. Not through grand gestures, but through her refusal to see the world as only ordinary. Her insistence that a pond can be a "Lake of Shining Waters" isn't denial—it's an act of creation, a way of making beauty where none seemed to exist.
L.M. Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables in 1908, but the story has never felt dated. Every generation finds something in Anne that speaks to them: her loneliness, her longing to belong, her determination to see beauty despite hardship, her fierce belief that imagination makes life worth living.
For viewers who grew up with Anne, returning to the 1985 adaptation feels like coming home. The landscapes of Prince Edward Island, Megan Follows' luminous performance, Hagood Hardy's score—all evoke a particular kind of nostalgia, not for a time we lived through, but for a feeling we remember: the belief that ordinary life could be magical if only we looked at it the right way.
For new viewers discovering Anne for the first time, the miniseries offers something increasingly rare: a story that takes its time, trusts its audience, and believes that kindness, imagination, and perseverance matter more than cynicism or irony.
Anne of Green Gables doesn't promise that imagination solves everything. Anne still faces loss, disappointment, and hard choices. But it suggests that imagination gives us the strength to face those things—and that a life lived with wonder, even in the midst of difficulty, is a life worth living.
π Personal Reflection
Almost everyone carries a childhood memory of a character they admired, or a book they returned to again and again. For me, one of those books was Anne of Green Gables.
As a child, I remember wishing I had an attic of my own. I imagined how it would feel to retreat into a small, quiet space just like Anne did. Although Anne herself disliked her red hair, in my imagination it looked wonderful, and there were moments when I wished I had red hair too.
What I envied most, however, was not her appearance, but her imagination. Anne had the ability to transform ordinary days into something luminous. Looking back, I think I followed her example, letting my own imagination wander freely alongside hers.
Today, Anne of Green Gables exists in many forms—films, animations, and adaptations—making it easier than ever to encounter the story again. And yet, every time I return to it, I find myself smiling without realizing it.
Despite the harshness of Anne's circumstances, she consistently offers something gentle and new. Now, even at an age when one might be meeting grandchildren, Anne continues to quietly encourage my ability to imagine.
Anneμ μ¬μ ν μ‘°μ©ν λμ μμλ ₯μ κΉ¨μ΄λ€.
(A reflection in my native Korean—because some truths about imagination as home feel truer in the language of your heart.)
Anne of Green Gables continues to gently awaken imagination in anyone who meets her.
π¬ Join the Conversation
Did you grow up with Anne of Green Gables? What character or story shaped your childhood imagination? Do you still return to the stories that first taught you how to dream? Share your thoughts below.
π¬ More from Cinematic Sanctuaries
If Anne of Green Gables reminded you of imagination's gentle power, explore:
- Little Women – Sisters, choices, and finding your own path
- Kiki's Delivery Service – A young witch building a life in a new town
- My Neighbor Totoro – Childhood wonder and the magic of ordinary days
Each film in our collection reminds us that healing comes in many forms—through family we choose, bonds we create, and the quiet courage to keep searching for home.
π€ About the Author
Young Lee has spent years quietly collecting and sharing films that offer comfort rather than answers—stories that value slow moments, ordinary lives, and unseen effort. As an everyday viewer, they believe cinema can remind us that slowness still has meaning in a fast-moving world.
Read more articles from this author on Cinematic Sanctuaries.
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