St. Patrick’s Day Family Movies: Leprechauns of the Silver Screen
If you live where its cold, maybe still snowy, wet, dark at night, anywhere, and your family likes to share a movie, here are a couple we’ve enjoyed that fit into a St. Patrick’s Day/Leprechaun theme.
Darby O’Gill and the Little People is a Disney movie from 1959. I recommend this one highly. Its been a family favorite for several years now.
Darby, played by Albert Sharpe, is the old grounds keeper who lives with his beautiful young daughter Katie, played by Janet Munro. Darby hasn’t been too active for the last few years, so the land owner decides to replace him with a younger man, Michael McBride, played by Sean Connery in his first film role.
It seems that Darby is acquainted with Brian, king of the leprechauns, and the two are constantly in a battle of wits, and old King Brian has never had a more formidable adversary. There is also romance woven in, as Katie and Michael fall in love in fits and starts.
If you get a version with the original Disney trailers and the documentary showing how the movie was made, you’re in for more special treats. Many of these special effects techniques are still used today in films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The White Pony is more recent, and very enjoyable, too. Young Leah has gone to spend summer at her Uncle’s farm so that she can learn to ride. On her trip she sees a beautiful white horse running across the countryside. There is conflict immediately, when she arrives, with her cousin Shannon, an insufferable, snobbish brat, who does everything she can to ruin Leah’s summer. Her uncle isn’t much better. It doesn’t look like a fun summer for Leah.
Leah is impatient and not willing to wait and in an attempt to ride Shannon’s horse, she injures it. Shannon must now ride another horse at the meet and Leah is not allowed to ride at all. Then, Leah meets Lucky the Leprechaun, who tells her about the mystery of the enchanted white horse, which together they plot to catch so that they can release it from its enchantment.
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