Madeline

Tolerable kiddie entertainment based on Ludwig Bemelmans' beloved series of books, this adaptation falls somewhere between the genteel charm of the original and the crude, anarchic humor of contemporary children's comedy at its dopiest. Madeline (Hatty Jones), as legions of little girls, their mothers and their mother's mothers already know, is a pint-sized Parisian orphan. She and 11 other identically dressed little girls board at a Catholic school run by the firm but loving Miss Clavel (Frances McDormand), whose sixth sense for impending disaster serves her well, particularly when it comes to the fearless Madeline. She's stricken with appendicitis, tumbles into t...