Original subtitles

♪ way back when in 1863, now part of the American lore ♪

♪ a young family must leave their home ♪

♪because of the civil war ♪

♪ living their lives in a brand new town ♪

♪doing the best they can ♪

♪ four little women are on their own ♪

♪ looking to make their stand ♪

♪ 'fortunes of war can change their way ♪

♪we imagine their lives will be ♪

♪ the march family are on their way ♪

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy ♪

Our christmases were usually fun.

We'd have snowball fights, sing Carols

and tell Santa claus stories.

But this year, everything changed.

With father off to the war,

we scarcely had enough money to get by.

Not only could we not afford new decorations,

we couldn't even afford to buy a tree,

so we decided to dig up our own.

Marmee was off doing volunteer work so Jo took

charge of digging up the tree.

Well, at least she tried to.

Jo, we're apt to catch pneumonia if you don't hurry

up. We've got to get out of this cold air.

Maybe you could help me.

I feel like I'm gonna drop at any minute.

Yeah, but you've got the only shovel.

Besides, we're both freezing to death.

I know it's cold, but I need some help.

This mud is frozen solid.

But I'll get my hands dirty, Jo.

So what!

Well, marmee always said that a lady should

never have dirty hands.

Marmee never pulled up a tree with

her bare hands before.

Oh.

Now Jo, don't be so hard on Amy.

She's just a little girl.

Wait, I've got an idea!

Jo, on main street there's a shop that sells

beautiful fur trees.

Let's just buy a real small one.

Oh, come on, Meg. We don't have the money.

You know perfectly well how tough it's been with father away.

Yes, I suppose you're right about that.

Anyway, we need the money for presents.

Yeah! I want a lot of presents.

I want to help the family.

Hmmm, awe, whew!

Maybe you better give up for now.

You're never gonna finish the job before nighttime.

No, I won't give up. The roots are buried deep,

but I mean to bring this tree home today.

I just don't want you to overdo it, Jo.

Yeah.

Thanks but I'm okay, Meg.

I'm determined that in spite of everything,

we're going to have a Christmas to remember

and tell father about.

That's a beautiful sentiment, Jo.

What about gifts?

Is there gonna be enough money for some?

Well Amy, maybe not.

But Christmas is a time for giving,

not about what you get.

Suddenly Meg and I felt ashamed for being

more worried about presents than in helping Jo

make Christmas bearable.

Hey, what are you doing?

You shouldn't have to be doing that.

Wait a minute. I'll help you.

No, thank you. I can handle it.

Come on. If you don't let me help,

people will think you're a tomboy or something.

Let me help, okay?

Jo, please. He's right.

You don't have anything to prove.

Let him help.

Come on. Please? Let me at least help you out a little bit. Huh?

Well?

Oh, all right.

I'm just used to working by myself.

Yeah, I know. But you're not used to this kind of work,

and you could hurt yourself.

Just count yourself lucky that I came along.

We all appreciate your help, Laurie.

You girls have found one of the nicest groups of trees.

They're the best Christmas trees for miles around.

Really?

Yeah, that's why grandfather bought this land

in the first place.

That gave us quite a shock.

We hadn't asked for permission to take a tree,

and we surely weren't raised to be

impolite and mannerless.

Marmee would have said we were stealing and had a fit,

but Laurie didn't seem to mind at all.

He happily used his strong arms and our dull shovel

to help us get our tree.

He even carried it home for us.

I can't tell you how sorry we are for trying to

take that tree without asking permission.

It's really no problem, Meg.

Yeah, but what about your grandfather?

Don't worry about him.

Well, I really like your grandfather,

and I'd hate for him to think of us poorly.

Jo! Hey, Jo!

Don't worry about it, Jo.

He'll be happy to make your Christmas happier.

Don't do that! You'll tear my dress.

Jo, please!

Please stop interrupting.

I will.

- Laurie? - Yes?

I'd like to introduce my little sister, Amy.

Well, I'm very honored miss.

I'm sorry I neglected to introduce

the two of you before.

That's my loss.

Wait, let me put this down.

I'm glad I finally got to meet you.

Call me Laurie, Amy.

Happy to meet you, Mr. Laurie.

Amy, his last name is Laurence.

Oh!

Amy.

Hi.

Suddenly I got butterflies in my stomach.

He was so handsome and nice.

Well Amy, what do you think of me so far?

Oh, yuck!

Huh?

Sorry.

Laurie's dirty hand had ruined my idea of keeping

clean, but I managed to wash my hands in the stream

on the way home.

I've got to get back. Merry Christmas!

Thanks for the help.

And don't forget our play is tomorrow.

I'll be disappointed if you miss it.

Oh, I wouldn't miss it for anything.

Oh, you're back.

What a beautiful Christmas tree!

I thought we didn't have enough money

for one this year.

Well, we didn't buy it. We dug it up.

Only we were kind of on private property

so it could be we stole it.

We started trimming the tree right away.

We had to explain to Beth how we got permission from Laurie

to take the tree so she'd stop worrying.

But still a cloud was hanging over our Christmas spirit.

I know I'm acting spoiled, but Amy's right.

Christmas won't be the same without a whole bunch of

presents to open on Christmas morning.

Or wrapping all the presents on Christmas Eve.

Marmee is doing her best to manage our money and to

keep us going while father is at war.

I think the least we can do is try to be happy with what

we have got and remember the spirit of Christmas.

We must keep our morale up for marmee's sake.

I know it's been difficult for everybody,

but let's all just make the best of it.

Amy remember, it's not the presents that count.

Oh, I know.

But I just don't think it's very fair.

Amy!

Amy, we have a whole lot to be thankful for.

A beautiful home, and a mother and father

who love us, and plenty of food to eat.

Love and family and warmth.

Yes, but they're not the same as Christmas gifts.

No, these are much much better.

But you can't unwrap them.

You know sometimes you just make me mad. Shame on you!

Meg did have a point. But I didn't see it then.

While we were having our discussion,

cranky old aunt march was leaving her house.

She was on her way to pay us an unexpected visit.

That visit would change the whole face

of our Christmas that year.

Aunt march, I was coming to see you.

It will have to wait a while, David.

I'll be back at supper time.

But auntie, it's very important that we speak now.

I need to ask you...

Later, David.

But auntie, wait.

Awe!

Just tell me where you're going

and I'll meet you there!

Haha double trouble bubbling blue, i will make the spell come true

piece of fat my vale of purple

vale of blue magic powers i call on you to gather near, now?

Now you can not defeat me, Hugo I'm to powerful a witch for you to escape -

the magic I command now

beast, you are mistaken, I am protected by all the magic of the amulet,

no no Beth, hold it, you have to have more passion, more well, fire! And grief!

Haa haa

ok

I've come for my love, Sarah the beauty, hagar bring me to

meet my true love and please don't torture me any longer

who would dare come under my roof? Is it you my love?

I hear the voice of the awful witch, the one who vowed to end your life,

oh mercy, her curse is awful, it burns my imortal soul!

Yes, be wise and fear my wrath now you two are separated forever!

I'm pleased with the way you have memorized most of your lines.

Thanks, Jo

I just hope I don't forget my part.

Uh-oh, it's aunt march.

I bet she's coming to check up on us.

I hope she doesn't stay long.

Come on, Jo. After all, it's Christmas.

She probably just wants to spend some time

with the family.

I hope she's not cranky.

Aunt march, how good to see you!

You answered so fast.

I hope my sudden appearance didn't upset your plans.

No!

Since Christmas is tomorrow,

I'd like to speak to you about personal gifts.

By all means. We're all happy to see you,

and we do have some free time.

Hmmm...

As usual, Laurie was watching out for us and saw

aunt march arrive and go into the house.

Can she possibly be a relative?

I doubt it.

When she was inside, aunt march studied every inch of

the house with a fine eye.

We were so afraid she wouldn't approve and go into

one of her cranky moods.

The only time she'd ever been nice was after she'd taken

one of her long afternoon naps and I think this day

she must have had one. She was real pleasant.

Still, there were moments when we really weren't sure.

We held our breath to hear what she'd say.

Well, children, you have a beautiful home

and your Christmas tree is a handsome one.

I think you've all done a marvelous job with them both.

I'm very glad you came.

I'm glad I came too, Meg.

You must be freezing. Let me heat up the fire for you.

Why don't you come and sit down in this chair,

aunt march. We want you to feel comfortable.

Yes, aunt march.

You're very kind.

Where is Mary? Will she be home soon?

She's doing volunteer work and won't be home

until after nightfall.

She left the four of you unsupervised?

Oh, it's all right.

Yes, we take good care of ourselves.

Really?

There's really nothing to worry about.

Marmee feels she could be closer to father

if she volunteers.

Twice a month she makes the trip to the army depot and

helps them put together packages for the wounded

soldiers at the front.

We take care of everything at home.

We make our own meals, clean up after ourselves

and try to keep life as normal as possible.

That's right.

Huh.

Well, you don't look the worse for wear,

I just don't understand why Mary finds the need to go

out and work when she has four beautiful daughters

to care for right here.

After all, charity is supposed begin at home,

but then I'm old-fashioned.

But we're happy, aunt march.

Marmee takes wonderful care of all of us.

Yes, but I worry.

So much can happen you're not prepared for,

especially to one as young and helpless as Amy.

Helpless?

Huh!

Oh, aunt march, did marmee tell you how we

solved our money problem?

Money problem?

Yes, with father off to war,

it's been kind of tough to make ends meet,

but anyway we decided that out of respect for our absent

father, we are going to do without presents this year.

Very commendable. But I already knew about that.

In fact, that's why I'm here, and I'm impressed with all of

you, so I've decided to give you each a gift.

I hope you won't mind they're not wrapped.

Aunt march, thank you but this really isn't necessary.

We're happy to do without this year. We're touched that you should want to...

Nonsense. It's because you girls are willing to have

Christmas without presents that I want you to have these.

Oh, aunt march!

Buy something nice for yourself.

Aunt march, I'll always be grateful to you.

Here's yours, Jo.

Golly! You've just brightened my Christmas.

And now one for you Beth.

Oh, thank you, aunt march.

This means so much to me.

You're welcome, child.

Amy, you're so small i planned on giving you

half a dollar. But i changed my mind.

Golly! Thanks!

Gosh, I'm so happy aunt march. Thank you.

Yay!

I could hardly believe it.

Thanks to aunt march, we were all going to have a Christmas

with presents after all.

Later that Christmas Eve day, a man was seen

creeping around our house.

We weren't even aware he was there.

For all we know he could have been a robber or worse.

But had we seen him,

we would have known right away who he was.

But Laurie spotted him first, and since Laurie felt it was

his duty to watch out for us in our father's absence,

he decided to confront the stranger,

even if it meant putting himself in danger.

Got you!

Hey, stop! Are you mad?

Let me go or you'll rule the day, stop!

Let me go! I'm gonna...

What are you doing sneaking around here?

How dare you touch me.

Stop it this instant! You're crazy!

Help me somebody!

I'm not gonna let you get away that easily, mister,

so you might as well give up.

I can't breathe. Stop!

I think it's time we go to the authorities.

Come on.

You should be the one who's locked up.

Ouch!

We'll just see about that.

What in heaven's name is going on?

David, is that you?

Help me, aunt march. This man's crazy.

He's out of his mind!

Laurie, what's the meaning of this?

This man was peeking into your living room window,

so I caught him.

David, is this true?

Huh-uh, I was just minding my own business

and this guy grabbed me.

Knowing you, David, I find that a bit hard to believe.

David, it's terribly impolite of you to be peeking

through our window, especially at christmastime.

Laurie, thank you but let him go. He's harmless.

Well, I'm just surprised you don't

want this man arrested.

I'm a close relative.

Huh.

Jo, who is this handsome young man?

He's a neighbor worth having.

He's part of James's family, auntie.

Laurie Laurence, meet aunt march.

My pleasure.

My, I remember you as a baby.

You were pretty as a plum.

Thanks, ma'am.

Well, what's become of old James?

I haven't heard from him in years.

Just like him.

He's very well, ma'am.

Good. Convey him my very best regards, won't you?

Yes, of course.

David and Laurie settled their differences

after Laurie apologized.

David wanted to see aunt march so he could borrow

some books or something.

As for me, I couldn't think about anything except what

I was going to buy with my very own dollar.

Don't you dare take my dollar.

It's all I've got to my name.

I've just decided what to spend my money on.

What's that?

I'm going to buy a textbook on dramatic acting.

I want to be the consummate performer

of my time and all time.

Thank you!

I was thinking I'd get a few of those

colored pencils at the shop.

That sounds like fun.

I'm going to buy some music.

Beethoven and Mozart.

Uh-huh.

Meg, what's your Christmas dream?

I have so many,

it would be hard for me to pick just one.

You have to have a favorite dream, Meg.

Tell us about it.

There's this pretty hat

and I'm sure it would be perfect for me,

but it's entirely too expensive to buy.

We've been pretty poor lately,

and maybe we should be more careful about

how we spend the money.

But I just want us to spend it on beautiful presents

for all of us and have fun!

The next few minutes were quiet ones.

All of us thinking our own private thoughts about

the joys of Christmas.

I know we were all thankful for aunt march's visit,

for it was she of all people who brightened

up our Christmas. It would be a long time

before I called her cranky again.

We all began to wish it was time for marmee

to return home.

We put her slippers by the fire so they would be warm.

I wonder how many christmases

marmee's slippers have seen.

Maybe we should spend some of the money aunt march gave

us and buy marmee a brand new pair of slippers.

Oh, Beth, that's a wonderful idea!

It is?

I've got a better idea.

Why don't we each buy her a gift.

All of us?

We can afford it now, right?

Uh-huh.

Oh, Jo, that's the best idea yet.

We can each plan a gift for marmee,

and then we'll go to town and buy it.

Marmee does so much for us.

Oh, gee! I want to spend this on me.

I mean, isn't that what we agreed on?

Oh, Amy, try to remember that Christmas is

supposed to be about giving.

Yeah. She's acting spoiled, isn't she?

Well you are.

Hey, don't worry.

I'm confident that Amy knows what's important in life and

that she'll come around.

Oh, yeah? Well, I won't believe that until I see it.

Oh, yeah? I can give presents better than

anybody in this room and a lot better than you.

Stop it. That's not what Christmas is about.

Huh.

Stop the fussing, please.

We need to move onto more important subjects

like who is going to buy what for marmee.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to what we should get her?

Slippers.

Uh-huh. Meg?

I'll buy marmee a handkerchief

with a pretty border on it.

Well Amy?

Well, I'm gonna buy perfume.

I guess that takes care of the three of us.

Now how about you Meg?

Let's see... Perhaps some gloves.

I'm so excited, I can't wait to see marmee's face

when she opens the presents.

Uh-huh.

Yeah Beth. It will be great!

She'll like them so much she'll buy us gifts.

Oh, can you ever stop thinking about yourself?

Now Jo.

Well, it looks like the weather is pretty cold,

but I think it's good enough for us to go into town.

What do you say we go shopping, huh?

Well, if we're all in agreement,

I think Jo's suggestion is an excellent one.

If we hurry, we can get all the shopping done

before marmee gets home.

Uh-huh.

And when marmee does get home,

we'll surprise her with the fruits of our

unexpected fortune from aunt march. Agreed?

Uh-huh.

We still haven't figured out how we're going to give

the presents to marmee.

How do you think we should do it?

Huh. That's no problem at all.

Once the presents are all wrapped,

we'll put them in our Christmas basket

to keep them safe.

Yeah.

Then when marmee's not looking,

we'll put the basket on the hearth by her chair,

so when she sits down to warm herself,

she'll find the presents.

It's absolutely perfect. That's a great idea, Jo.

Thanks Meg.

Before us lie the best shops in town.

Let's buy the very best for marmee.

Gosh.

That looks very good on you, miss.

I was just looking.

Here's what you wanted. Our finest leather gloves.

It's our best lace hemmed handkerchief, miss.

Must be for someone very special.

Shall I box it for you?

That perfume is one dollar.

The other smaller one next to it is 30 cents.

All our perfume is imported from France.

Would you like for me to wrap one of them up for you?

Well, ma'am, do you have a bottle of perfume that's

maybe smaller or cheaper than these two?

No, miss. These are the only sizes we have.

Besides at these prices they're a bargain.

Merry Christmas, Jo!

Merry Christmas, Meg.

My word. Your present looks beautiful.

There. I hope she likes them.

She won't be expecting any of us to give her presents.

So when we present her with the basket,

she'll be completely surprised and she's sure

to love all the presents.

I can't wait.

- Merry Christmas. - Merry Christmas, Beth.

- Am I interrupting? - No, come join us.

Where should I put marmee's present?

Put it in the basket on top.

Sorry it took so long, but i really wanted to make sure

I wrapped it just right.

It's very beautiful, Beth.

I'm positive marmee will love it.

Oh, I hope so.

Hi, Amy. Did you finish wrapping your present?

Yep. Here it is.

One bottle of perfume, just like I promised.

Isn't it a bit small, Amy?

You're making me mad!

Oh, woe is me, for my love has been imprisoned,

held in a trap.

Jo, you're over acting a little.

I suppose you could do a better job?

Remember I'm the director.

Okay, now, where was I?

Oh, yes. And now I'm trapped as well.

My body weakens and I grow faint.

Oh, oh, oh.

Well, you might applaud.

I would applaud if I liked it.

Well, perhaps you should show us how you think

it should be done since you're such an expert.

Go ahead.

Oh, woe is me, for my love has been imprisoned.

And now I'm trapped as well.

My body weakens.

I go faint.

No, no, no!

Hello, girls.

I expected to come home to girls sleeping,

not rehearsing a play.

I'm sorry, marmee but i was worried about Amy's part.

I want to make sure she doesn't give

a bad performance.

Well I'm sure Amy will give a

fine performance tomorrow.

Try to be a bit more understanding of her, Jo.

After all, she's just a little girl

like you were once.

Maybe I am being too tough on her.

Well, since you're all up, i have some news for you.

I've changed my mind about presents.

Oh?

I know your father would want us to have a happy

Christmas while he's away, and what's Christmas

without the joy of giving.

We all felt the same way, marmee,

so we went out and got presents for you too.

I thought about it for a while and realized I missed

the part of Christmas that's meant so much to me,

like my daughters' faces as you open your gifts

on Christmas morning.

I wish there was some way father could share Christmas

with us. If only we could send it to him.

I know. How about if we write down everything that happens.

We'll bind it like a book and mail it to him.

It will be a fine Christmas present.

We all agreed to write down our experiences for

father, and then Beth began to play the piano.

It was one of the happiest christmases of my life.

We listened to Beth play well into the night.

The fire was toasty warm,

and the music filled the room with joy.

The feeling of closeness and sharing was wonderful.

The snow fell gently that night and guaranteed us a

white Christmas to remember.

At last, we went to bed exhausted from our day

of lessons learned.

As for me, I could hardly sleep.

You see, I bought a cheaper bottle of perfume

from another store instead of the expensive one

I should have bought.

It leaked all over my bed when I tried to wrap it,

and I learned something from it.

Generosity not only feels better,

it smells better too.

♪ Fortunes of war can change their way ♪

♪we imagine their lives will be ♪

♪ the march family are on their way ♪

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy ♪