As a somewhat pedantic Briton, I found this film incredibly horrible. Some people may not be able to tell, but the "English" children were in fact American and having difficulty sustaining their Australian accents. This is just one example of the lack of effort that went into this confusing and patronising film which stereotyped many of its characters. Other things that annoyed me included the riddle and diary, which most certainly did not go with Mary Lennox's reserved character, the setting, which was clearly an American hotel (with no Yorkshire weather), and the patronising nature of the scenes showing their "growing friendship". I watched this with three other English children and two Americans and none of us could restrain ourselves from making snide comments about the poor acting and other elements that I have already mentioned. This film would be funny to watch again- but only because it was so bad.
Review of Return to the Secret Garden
