An American Girl Story - Melody 1963: Love Has To Win (Movie Review)
Growing up I had American Girl magazines, but I believe around the time my last issue was present was when the American Girl doll Kit was coming out.
Nothing against her but I felt as though I was getting a little bit too old to be looking at doll magazines.
Fast forwarding to adulthood I see grown adults on YouTube literally monetizing off of being a doll collector. Nothing wrong with that but I never knew that was such a thing or at least a typical career route.
I could just see the looks on my folks faces if I told them that I wanted to be a doll collector growing up haha. I dk they may support it if I were to actually show that I am making some type of monetary gain off of it. Which I would not be doing because what is in my bank account is literally nobody's business.
Anyways during my American Girl journey, I only knew of one African American Girl doll by the name of Addy who is known as the first African American Girl Doll.
This Melody character was foreign to me (even though her time period is based on 1963) but still she didn’t come out when I was young.
With getting a whiff of nostalgia I happened to come across this character on YouTube and was like oh wow these dolls actually have movies, so I decided to just give it a try and look at it.
I will post the link to the movie below. You're welcome.
Some stills from the movie
Alot of these frames that I grabbed show a lot of depth placement between the character melody and the other supporting roles such as her mother, friends, classmates, etc.
Frames where themes of joy and overcoming where displayed
-Top left frame: When Melody was hugging her mother you see that the camera is angled behind the daughter to showcase her mother’s love for her daughter.
-Top middle frame: When Melody is shown more closer to the camera than her mother you can feel the emotion of her mother being proud of her daughter facing her fears and showing confidence.
-Top right frame: You see the space between Melody and her mother so that both characters emotions are showcased equally throughout the scene.
With the dialect that was going on the film was able to capture the emotion that was displayed through high/low lit saturation and angles such as:
-Bottom left frame: When the character Melody was talking to her friends outside the camera is angled behind melody as you only see her friends faces to display a natural outdoor setting to make you feel as if you were there with them.
-Middle bottom frame: When melody was talking to her mother: Warm low lit and the camera is angled behind melody to showcase the mothers’ frustrations and worries towards her daughter.
-Right bottom frame: When melody was in the store looking at the dolls because she is bothered that she doesn’t like the dress, and she wishes she can have nice things.
I felt as though I could relate to the main character of the movie due to me growing up in a predominately white area having to figure out where I fit in at while feeling outnumbered.
Lessons that were learned throughout the film:
-Standing up for what is right.
- Accepting that you may not always have people to back up with what you feel (luckily most of her classmates and teacher eventually stood by the main characters side in the end when they realized they were in the wrong)
-Be okay with being the minority/outnumbered.
-You may deal with getting blamed for things due to other people’s personal insecurities.
-Know that love will always win.
What I would rate this movie: 10/10
Even though the main characters of the movie were African American anyone from any background can benefit from watching the movie. It honestly was a great movie with a lot of lessons that can be learned.
Especially love will win. No pun intended.
I definitely would recommend this movie to anyone that is going through an emotional hardship with a loved one or with yourself.
If you do decide to check out this movie definitely let me know down below in the comments what you think.
Also, you can reach out to me via social media📲:
YouTube @chynnacinemas