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List Price: $34.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 37830
Released: November 8, 2005 |
| Our Price: $23.00 |
| Used Price: $13.97 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Experience all the charm of a homespun saga as TALES FROM AVONLEA takes you on enchanting journeys of unforgettable trials and triumphs. In this soul-stirring collection, Sara Stanley comes of age in an all-new environment filled with family, friends, and foes. Amazing events follow as Sara gets acquainted with her emotionally guarded guardian, Aunt Hetty, and feuds and frolics with her prank-playing cousins, Felix and Felicity. Through the sharing of dreams, disappointments, and life's little everyday disasters, they not only find their way -- but also a very special place in one another's hearts. Full of love, laughs, and lessons, and cherished characters of all ages, TALES FROM AVONLEA imparts time-honored values and ventures that never go out of style.
Description of Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season:
Set in turn-of-the-century Canada, this Emmy-winning children’s classic is drawn from four novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables fame (notably The Story Girl and The Golden Road). Known as Avonlea in the US and Road to Avonlea north of the border, Tales From Avonlea presents the first season of the CBC/Disney Channel co-production. When her widowed father is accused of embezzlement, wealthy, wide-eyed Sara (Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter) is sent to live with working class relatives on Prince Edward Island ("The Journey Begins"). Thus marks the start of seven years in tight-knit Avonlea. Sara's maternal family, the Kings, assume she'll be arriving from Montreal alone, but she's accompanied by the imposing Nanny Banks (Frances Hyland), who immediately starts pushing everyone around, so Sarah's aunts, Hettie (Jackie Burroughs) and Olivia (Mag Ruffman), send her away. Sarah is heartbroken. Plus her cousins Felix (Zachary Bennett) and Felicity (Gema Zamprogna) are most unkind, but cousin Andrew (Joel Blake), who is more mature than the rest, becomes a fast friend (while Felicity gets her comeuppance in "Proof of the Pudding").
Throughout the year Sarah will make other friends, like shy inventor/photographer Jasper Dale (R.H. Thomson). With his help, she'll convince a wealthy businessman to make a sizable donation to the school library fund. "You are unstoppable," Dale tells her in "The Story Girl Earns Her Name." Then there's pious busybody Rachel Lynde (Patricia Hamilton). She and Sarah will bond after a smallpox epidemic brings them together in "The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham's." Other friends include Peg Bowen (Susan E. Cox), "The Witch of Avonlea," and Lynde's housemate, Marilla Cuthbert (Colleen Dewhurst, who previously appeared with Hamilton in 1985's Anne of Green Gables). Avonlea ran for six more seasons and became Canada's longest-running, highest-rated TV series. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season Reviews:
Count me a huge fan of this critically acclaimed series! 
2009-05-28 - Perhaps a few eyebrows will be raised when a middle-aged guy chooses to review a show like "Tales From Avonlea". I make no apologies. For in my opinion, "Tales From Avonlea" is one of the finest television series ever produced. Based on the novels of Lucy Maud Montgomery and filmed entirely in Canada by a Canadian production company "Tales of Avonlea" managed to maintain a consistently high quality for six full seasons, a pretty rare achievement these days. My wife and I began watching "Tales From Avonlea" in the early 1990's when the show first aired in the U.S. on The Disney Channel. Much to my surprise I quickly became a huge fan. It was a refreshing break from the low-brow comedies and violent police dramas that dominated the airwaves in those days. We looked forward to our weekly visit with the fine people of Avonlea, a small community on Prince Edward Island. For us this really was appointment viewing.
"Tales from Avonlea: The Complete First Season" includes all 13 episodes from the inaugural season of this renowned series. We were really quite surprised and pleased to discover that there were 4 or 5 episodes in this set that we had never even seen before!
It is quite possible that we did not discover this show until it was into its second season sometime in the early 1990's. For me what sets "Avonlea" apart from most other TV shows is the tremendous cast of charactors in the series. Everyone has their favorites but I most enjoyed the work of Jackie Burroughs who plays the quirky schoolteacher Aunt Hetty in the series. Meanwhile, it it virtually impossible not to be smitten with series star Sarah Polley who plays the effervescent Sara Stanley. Even as a young child her work is positively compelling! Likewise for young Zachary Bennett who plays the mischievous Felix King. Really, the same could be said for just about all of the children who appear in this series. The kids really do steal the show! And I would be remiss if I failed to mention the fine work of some of the adult actors in this series including Cedric Smith and Lally Cadeau who play Alec and Janet King. Producer Kevin Sullivan is certainly to be commended for putting together an incredibly talented ensemble of largely unknown Canadian actors for this series. As a viewer you really do feel like you have a window into what life was really like on Prince Edward Island at the turn of the 20th century. The fact of the matter is that "Tales from Avonlea" ranks as one of the most popular Canadian television shows of all-time.
"Tales of Avonlea: The Complete First Season" features that rare combination of superb writing, splendid acting, and amazing photography. This is a show that can be enjoyed by viewers of all ages and needless to say is wonderful family viewing. Now I must reveal to you a dirty little secret.....I know several men my age who love this show. They just won't tell you! Very highly recommended!
Avonlea 1st Season 
2009-02-24 - After watching the series, I was very unhappy with how each of the episodes has scene deletions. My wife and I recorded these shows on VHS many years ago and have seen scenes that have been deleted from the DVD's. We will look to other providers of this series as we and my family have enjoyed these programs.
Tales of Avonlea- the Complete First Season
2007-10-28 - As a mother and grandmother it is good to be able to watch something that I don't have to fast forward or worry about questionable language while watching with kids. IT is great to watch for the whole family.
Don't waste your money.....buy Road to Avonlea instead. 
2007-08-09 - I was so excited when I found out Disney was selling "Tales from Avonlea", aka "Road to Avonlea" for around $29.00. I had been wanting to buy the series for years but in most stores the cost of one season (13 episodes)from the Sullivan release ranged from $69.99 to $99.99 and I just couldn't come to terms with paying that price for so few episodes. So when this title came out from Disney for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost I decided to buy it figuring they changed the name due to copy rights but it must be the same show.
Well, it's the same show all right but each episode has been shortened by 10 to 13 minutes. While I was watching it I really felt like some scenes didn't make sense and it felt very choppy so I went to the Sullivan website and read the reviews and found out that episodes had been shortened on the Disney release to allow enough time for commercials and other comments were that they had lost or couldn't find the minutes that were missing. It wasn't 100% clear as to the real reason why it was shortened but it was.
I decided to buy Season one and two of Road to Avonlea at Music World today for $69.99 each and watched the original pilot episode from season one with the pilot episode of season one of the Disney release side by side at the same time and sure enough 13 minutes were missing throughout the Disney release.
If you are a true, die hard fan, of this Canadian Classic Television show I recommend that you buy the Sullivan release of Road to Avonlea instead. All 7 seasons are now available and if you look around you can get them for a fair price. It will be double the cost of this one but you will get all the episodes complete along with a lot of extras/special features which this set does not have.
If you are not a die hard fan of the show and only saw these episodes on the Disney channel and don't care if you miss some scenes then buy this set cause you don't know what you're missing anyway. LOL!!!
Oh and both versions of the show do have a poor DVD transfew of picture and sound but considering the show is almost 20 years old and Canadian it shouldn't really interfere with your enjoyment of this amazing classic.
I hope this info helps.
Crowd pleaser
2007-06-27 - This product was so very enjoyable and so very wholesome, we enjoyed watching it as a family without any concern for language or what they might show. Great family movie
