Product Details

• Actors: Sarah Polley, Jackie Burroughs, R.H. Thomson, Robert Collins, Mag Ruffman
• Directors: Bruce Pittman, Don McBrearty, Harvey Frost, Paul Shapiro, René Bonnière
• Writers: Fiona McHugh
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: November 8, 2005
• Run Time: 590 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AXWGSG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,532 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

TALES FROM AVONLEA:SEASON ONE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Huge Disappointment for True Avonlea Fans, January 14, 2006

By 

Z Wetz "zlwetz" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season (DVD)

I have been looking forward to watching this DVD since I first found out that it was being released. When I put in the first episode tonight, I was extremely disappointed. Many important sections were cut out, including the two that explain Sara's decision as to if she is staying in Avonlea or not. As well, much of the background music is missing, which is incredibly noticeable for anyone who watched the show when it was originally on Disney channel, or who has watched the previous DVD and VHS releases of various episodes. These changes were not made known anywhere on the DVD packaging. There is no excuse for the changes made to the series, since at least some of the episodes have been previously released in their original form and quality. True fans should wait for Disney to release a "real" Season 1 set of this show, not settle for this poorly edited "imitation".

105 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disney's Tales are NOT complete, January 19, 2006

By 

V. Garlock "Radical Feminist" (Sandusky, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season (DVD)

I was looking forward to buying this since the dvd packages released in Canada are twice as expensive as this release.

I was planning on buying it and then I started reading reviews on other sites where people have access to both the Canadian dvds and Disney's. While the Canadian dvds do has missing scenes, it is because the scenes got lost due to lack of preservation over time. (Both Sullivan and Disney had access to the same material to produce the dvds, so even Disney would not have been able to recover these missing scenes.)

Disney's contains missing scenes as well--however, these scenes have been purposefully edited out to cut down the runtime. Each episode on the Disney dvd has been edited to take out as much as 15 minutes per episode.

This is a much beloved series and why Disney would edit down the storylines makes no sense at all. I would rather pay more for a dvd that has ALL the material from the episode rather than a cheaper version that PURPOSELY edited out material. Furthermore, Disney is messing with the artistic integrity of the series by editing out scenes. (Disney aired the series commercial-free and with all their content intact, which makes the editing of the series for dvd release even more perplexing.)

Disney may have had very valid reasons for editing the material, however, they can't rightly call it a 'complete' season when it is INcomplete.

If Disney plans to release a season 2 of TfA, let's hope that they include all the scenes.

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money.....buy Road to Avonlea instead., August 8, 2007

By 

L. M. Anderson "movie addict" (Peterborough, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season (DVD)

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.