Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Little House on the Prairie series is much more entertaining and well-done! Merideth Monroe, who played Laura, was too modern and independent. That guyish hat she wore was annoying! The most obvious and disappointing thing, though, was that the family seemed distant to each other most of the time, more like mismatched cardboard stage props pretending to go together. The actor who played Pa did pretty well in the situation, but he still seemed too gruff, and Ma seemed way too cold! I'd rather see the Little House on the Prairie series any day!

First and Formost I feel I have the right to comment on this movie as someone who once when she was 10 almost got the tour guide fired from the Farmer Boy Museum because I knew more about the house then the tour guide did.

I have to say the writers and the directors of this film did a horrible job. A lot of things in this movie really just tick me off, for starters in the beginning when they were searching for the lost children in the storm, they found one of the children with a baby whom was still alive and it made me wonder, why in the world would someone have a baby outside in a snow storm?! it just doesn't make sense to me. They also showed during the snowstorm that the teacher was Almanzo's sister Eliza Jane Wilder which also in fact is wrong because she didn't on appear until after all of the blizzards. *They had a Redheaded Mary when in fact Mary had Blonde hair *The Laura they cast did a horrible job, she's not a great actress to begin with and she also had blonde hair when laura had brown. *The hail storm wasn't even close to looking realistic *They had a brown haired Grace, when really Grace had blonde hair. *In one scene Almanzo mentioned going with his brother Royal to visit there parents in New York, however when Almanzo was 18 his family moved to Spring Valley, Minnesota. At that time Laura was only 8. *The said Laura's teaching Job was 30 miles away when in fact it was only 12

There is so much more but I don't want to run out of space, however I would like to say that truly the little things do count and had they fixed these problems along with the others this movie would have been much more enjoyable.

So much more could have been done with this wonderful literary series. Instead, at least four books were hastily sped through, leaving a dizzying series of events, most of which were so condensed and convoluted in this film to be unrecognizable to any reader of the books. The prairie settings were very realistic and true to life, some of the casting was good (particularly Lindsay Crouse and Richard Thomas and Ma and Pa) but I was not impressed by Meridith Monroe's portrayal of Laura. Much attention was given to setting and costuming, but Monroe's flowing 90's hair and boisterous mannerisms left me cold. The movie does improve a bit towards the end, but for the first hour I was wondering where in the world it was going. Perhaps if this were produced instead as a miniseries, it would have had more impact. For those only familiar with the totally fictional "Little House" TV series it will give some insight to her life that was completely passed over; for others who want to know the real story of Laura, her books, and all the wonderful autobiographical material out there, will serve you much better than this.

Okay, this movie was absolutely horrible. I am a very loyal Laura Ingalls Wilder fan and I have read biographies about her and believe me almost NONE of this was factual. First off, Laura Ingalls Wilder was an obvious brunette and it was pointed out in almost every book. Even though she did not like some of the customs of ladies, she still followed those customs. Like, she even put her hair up! Plus, she was no where near ditzy. She was smart and sincere and very honest. Honestly, if I was going to make a movie based on this wonderful woman's life, I would be as loyal to it as possible! Another thing, Laura and Almanzo lost their second child about a few weeks after he was born, he was not stillborn. Furthermore, she did not have a passion for writing until she was much older. And the girls who played Laura's sisters were underplayed and her parents were not loveable like they were in the book. Laura did not truly love Almanzo Wilder until they became engaged actually. She liked him and admired him but she did not actually love him until they were engaged. Obviously the makers of this movie took some creative liberties with this movie, and I did not like them. Don't waste your time seeing this movie.

I was spoon-fed generous portions of Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was a child. It was good to see "The Long Winter" finally make it onto film. But the romantic stuff shown after Laura and Almanzo got married? Gee, I don't remember that from "These Happy Golden Years" or "The First Four Years"! I thought the hailstorm was realistic. When the house burned down, it was a hot summer day as I recall. This movie says the fire was caused by a hay tie in the winter time. I see on IMDb that other people found other stuff wrong. I don't really have a problem with the casting, but I never thought about it. I agree that the TV series took great liberties with Laura Ingalls Wilder's material. The way I see it, the discrepancies could have been so easily avoided that the makers were stupid not to just make this movie right.