Royal Diaries, The (DVD)

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Since 1999, Scholastic Press has published a series of books called "The Royal Diaries," which was a spin-off of "Dear America," their highly successful series of journals "written" by young girls who lived at key points in American history. Given the Disney princess craze, it's a brilliant idea to offer young girls stories about real princesses. Some 20 books have been published thus far, penned by respected writers and encompassing a wide range of countries and time periods. Elizabeth 1, Cleopatra VII, and Isabel were the first three books published in the series, and in 2000 HBO created TV movies based on each. They haven't adapted anything since, but if the sales figures for this DVD are impressive, the brass might be persuaded to take up the series again. In that case, fans could look forward to a volume showcasing Marie Antoinette, Anastasia, and Nzingha: Warrior Queen of Matamba, Angola, Africa; Kaiulani (Hawaii), Lady of Ch'iao Kuo (China), and Victoria (England); Mary, Queen of Scots, Sondok (Korea), and Jahanara (India); Eleanor of Aquitaine, Kristina (Sweden), and Elisabeth (Austria-Hungary); Weetamoo (Pocassets, Massachusetts-Rhode Island), Lady of Palenque (Mesoamarica), and Kazunomiya (Japan); and finally Anacaona (Haiti), Catherine the Great, and another royal diary yet to be published.

The production values are certainly impressive for these 26-minute films. If the goal is to transport young viewers into another time period and to create a sense of the princesses' worlds and the way that they saw them, then Scholastic and HBO have hit their mark. And that's one of the main reasons that young people read biographies: to get a sense of what it might have been like to live during a different time. There's plenty of period ambience here, but little ones who see those animated princesses and think how lovely it would be to have their own Prince Charming also will get a dose of reality. In the "Isabel" movie, for example, we catch Izzie long before she authorized the Spanish Inquisition that sent thousands to their deaths. Here, we see her at an age when she's torn between two brothers, thrust into the center of a civil war, and dependent upon a friend and an archbishop to help her sort things out. That nasty stuff she did later is merely mentioned in a postscript, along with the fact that she was responsible for bankrolling Columbus. There are similar situations with the other princesses, and the emphasis is on strength and wisdom, education and good judgment. In other words, this series (and these princesses) are all about promoting GIRL POWER. And of course that's wonderful. But don't look for much in the way of excitement. There's more intrigue than there is excitement, and peril, like the violence, is mostly kept offstage or in the shadows.

Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile, Egypt, 57 B.C.
The book by Kristiana Gregory zeroes in on Cleopatra when she was just 12 years old, though she's slightly older in the film version. As with "I, Claudius," there's intrigue here, right off the bat. Her father, the Pharoh Ptolemy, narrowly escaped death when an poisonous adder placed in his quarters killed a servant instead, and when he reaches for a glass of wine to steady his nerves, a young and suspicious Cleopatra insists that the servant who poured the wine be the first to drink it. Of course, he too dies. Elisa Moolecherry is perfectly cast as young Cleopatra who is just learning to assert herself and trust her own judgment, and proves to be more politically astute and socially aware than her father, who clearly drinks too much wine-though not so much as to be stumbling and slurring, mind you. That he's a tippler is conveyed by "Where's my glass?" and his daughter's response, "It's in your hand." Being born into a royal family is no cake walk, as "Let them eat cake" Marie Antoinette can attest. The peasants can be revolting, and you can't trust anyone. Just about everyone with royal blood seems to want a crack at the throne. The main plot thread involves young Cleopatra going to Rome with her father to solicit help to deal with an increasingly restless and dangerous public. There, she matches wits with Julius Caesar, Marc Anthony, and Cicero, and earns their respect. Ptolemy's attitude toward the peasants is despicable, whereas Cleopatra has a peasant for a best friend. Little touches like that will help contemporary audiences connect with this princess.

The costumes are gorgeous, and apart from one Prince Valiant hairdo on a confidante, so are the hairstyles. The sets look believably solid, especially against a backdrop that looks like the Nile and the Mediterranean, with camels ambling this way and that. No crocodiles, though, and no cheetahs or leopards. No chariots either, for that matter. Call it a more lavishly staged and cinematic version of "I, Claudius," where the focus is on human interaction but the backdrop seems constantly moving. Younger girls than the target age group will enjoy this as well, though they will have to have some things explained to them. Both the language and the politics require some concentration to grasp. There are some nice touches, as when the Romans actually speak Latin, while the anachronistic elements are only occasional. Example? When Cleopatra tells Cicero that his prophetess Sybil is right only 50 percent of the time and he responds, "That's not true," her quick comeback is awfully modern: "You wish." But that's really the only head-snapper in an otherwise believable foray into another time period.