Bet you didn’t think this movie was about finding a lost pirate treasure, did you? Last night we watched Disney’s Candleshoe, the sixty-sixth film in the Disnerd Movie Challenge. If you haven’t seen it, we recap it for your below, but if you watched with us you can skip straight to our review.

Synopsis

Orphan Casey Brown is living in Los Angeles with a middle-aged couple and stealing for them to pay her way, but on her latest drop, Casey finds a cop named Mr. Jenkins waiting for her—the couple have sold her out. Mr. Jenkins inspects Casey’s shoulder and finds a scar, then turns over a large sum of money to the couple as he takes Casey away. She’s taken to a fancy hotel and introduced to Harry Bundage. Harry is excited to see Casey’s scars, and when Casey admits she doesn’t remember how she got them, Harry tells her to “keep not remembering.” The two have dinner, where Harry reveals he knows quite a bit about Casey, and when he tells her about his business she immediately realizes he is a conman. He tells her that with his help he can help pass her off as the Honorable Margaret, 4th Marchioness of Candleshoe, a wealthy English estate. Harry tells the backstory of how young Margaret disappeared ten years prior after her father took her away from Candleshoe and fled to America, and he thinks Casey looks just like this girl. The two settle on a deal: Casey will pretend to be Margaret so that Harry can find some hidden treasure, and in exchange Casey will receive 10% of the cut and a red Ferrari. Harry takes Casey to England and brings her to his home to meet his cousin, Clara Grimsworthy, a former staff member at Candleshoe. Harry and Clara believe the long-lost treasure of pirate captain Joshua St. Edmund is hidden at the estate. Clara managed to find the first clue: an old will belonging to the captain with a passage saying “For the sunrise student there is treasure among books,” indicating the next clue is in the estate’s library. Clara and Harry train Casey to act like Margaret so that she can fool the estate’s widowed owner, Lady St. Edmund. Lady St. Edmund agrees to meet Harry and Casey at Candleshoe. There, they meet Priory, the butler of the mansion, and have an audience with Lady St. Edmund herself. Priory serves Casey various dishes as a test based on what the real Margaret liked and didn’t like, but which Lady St. Edmund finds unscrupulous. Casey keeps looking towards the fireplace, catching Lady St. Edmund’s attention. Casey mentions seeing a fireplace like that before which had a hole in it, but then she decides to tell the lady the truth about why she and Harry are there. She then leads Harry out to the car. Lady St. Edmund inspects the fireplace and finds a loose brick with a box hidden behind it. Priory calls Casey and Harry back in. Casey opens the box and it begins playing a song she learned while training with Clara and Harry. As Casey seems to recognize it, Lady St. Edmund joyfully welcomes Casey, believing she has at last found her granddaughter.

The next morning, Casey meets the other children of the house: Cluny, Peter, Bobby, and Anna, all of whom are orphans Lady St. Edmund has taken in as grandchildren. Bobby fears he and the other children will be sent away now that Margaret has returned, but Lady St. Edmund assures him that won’t happen. The lady notices some dying roses in the house and asks Priory why the gardener, Gipping, hasn’t replaced them. She marches outside to speak to Gipping, and Priory and the children hastily rush outside to set up all the gardening tools. It turns out Priory is acting as the gardener, as well as several other members of staff! Meanwhile, Cluny is suspicious of why Casey is at Candleshoe, and schemes with Anna to discover the true reason. Casey and Lady St. Edmund take a walk around Candleshoe, and Casey opens up about her life growing up in Los Angeles and how’s she always had to look out for herself. Lady St. Edmund is sympathetic to the young girl’s troubles and believes Casey can’t go through life all alone. That night, Casey goes to the manor’s library to look for the next clue. Priory catches her before she gets far, and he reveals to Casey that the staff members have all been let go because the estate can’t afford to keep paying them. As a result, Priory pretends to be the other staff members to keep Lady St. Edmund from the truth. The estate is nearing foreclosure since it can’t pay its taxes. Casey is shocked by this, though she continues her search after Priory leaves. She falls asleep, and when she wakes up at sunrise she sees the next clue shining on the library wall through one of the stained-glass windows: “The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” It is a reference to the poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray. Casey shares this with Harry and tells him she’ll find out more. Cluny confronts Casey and demands to know why Casey won’t help with chores and wants to know what she’s up to, but Casey tells the other girl to stop interfering. Lady St. Edmund is driven to the village by her driver John Henry who again is just Priory in disguise. As Priory tries recounting a story of the driver’s dead uncle due to drinking, Lady St. Edmund slyly admonishes “John Henry” for being a drinker himself, catching Priory off guard. Casey asks the children how come they have so much trouble coming up with cash, and Peter states all the money has to go to the bank to pay taxes. Cluny again chastises Casey for refusing to help with any of the chores. An argument ensues and the two girls begin fighting, with Anna also getting involved and Peter intervening to break up the fight. At dinner that evening, Lady St. Edmund asks Casey why she has cuts on her face. Casey lies to cover for Cluny and says she tripped over a garden hose. That night, Casey visits the graveyard where Harry and Clara accost her. The three find the grave of Thomas Gray, which has an inscription on it: “He followed the eclipse for riches and fame; and, if ye would prosper, do ye the same.” Casey has been recently having doubts about helping Harry. She thinks the lost treasure should go to Lady St. Edmund to help the estate. Harry and Clara threaten that they will harm her if she does not live up to her end of the bargain.

The next day, “Colonel Dennis” (a.k.a., Priory) visits Lady St. Edmund, and Casey and the children play a prank on the colonel by having him ride his horse—Priory is terrified of horses. Priory dutifully stays in character, but he’s thrown from his horse. Later, when tallying up how much money they’ve made, Peter sadly states that they are still 100 pounds short. Priory tries to reassure the children, and they all prepare for the farmer’s market. Casey uses her street-smarts and deal-making skills to upsell the items on offer. Cluny, Bobby, and Anna catch on and gleefully use similar tactics. Though Priory is initially shocked, he sees how well this works and lets the children continue. They end up raising enough money to make up the missing 100 pounds! It begins to rain, so Priory tells Casey to head home to keep Lady St. Edmund company while the rest of the group cleans up the market. Once in the kitchen, Casey stores the money away with the rest of the stash. At that moment, Harry sneaks into the manor and demands Casey tell him what she’s found out about the next clue, but Lady St. Edmund is coming down the stairs. While Casey distracts Lady St. Edmund, Harry steals the all the cash, intending to use it to keep the loan sharks off his back. Casey pleads with him not to take it since the manor needs that money. Harry runs off and Casey chases after him as he hops into a car with Clara. The two drive off and Casey is knocked into a tree and severely injured. She stays in a hospital for several days, but eventually makes a full recovery. With all the money now gone, Lady St. Edmund holds an auction to sell off many of the estate’s prized possessions. As she and Priory go over the items, Lady St. Edmund reveals that she knew Priory was pretending to be the other staff members. She thanks him for his compassion. The other children visit Casey to tell her they have to leave Candleshoe. Casey finally decides to share with the children why she arrived at Candleshoe. After she’s released from the hospital, she shows the adults and children the latest clue on Thomas Gray’s grave. Lady St. Edmund immediately knows the clue refers to the captain’s ship, Eclipse. She knows that she had a painting of the captain on his ship. However, the painting was sold at the auction and resold again. It is currently packed on a freight train, so the group rush after the train to stop it. They find the painting and locate the final clue: “Underfoot, in the great hall. Look high, look low, discover all.” They return to the manor and find Harry, Clara, and a bunch of goons searching for the lost treasure. Priory and the children fight off the crooks and Peter tries to call the police. Eventually, Casey tricks Harry and the gang to slide across a highly waxed floor in the great hall, causing the goons to slam into a wooden pillar. The force results in the beam breaking, and a large statue of the pirate Captain Joshua falls to the floor. The treasure chest that was part of the statue breaks open and gold coins fall out—it’s the lost treasure! The police arrive and arrest Harry, Clara, and the rest of the gang. With the gold now found, Candleshoe is saved and the children can stay. However, Casey believes she has no right to stay after playing a part in trying to help Harry steal the treasure. She sneaks away from Candleshoe and goes to the train station. Lady St. Edmund manages to follow her, however. Casey admits she’s come to care for the lady, Priory, and the other children, but still doesn’t believe she belongs with them. When the lady asks if Casey really wants to leave, Casey cries for the first time. Lady St. Edmund tells Casey they’re going home. As Casey walks back with her, she asks what would happen if her real granddaughter were to show up. Lady St. Edmund simply responds: “Perhaps she has.”

Thoughts Before Watching

Megan: I’ve never heard of this one before. The title doesn’t really say much about it, but from the Disney Plus description it seems to have a mystery component. It also has a female child lead, so that may lead to a Bechdel test win. I’m not gonna hold my breath on that, though. We’ve been burned before.

Kevin: I’d never heard of this before we put this challenge together, so the only thing I have to go off of is the description. It seems interesting and potentially funny enough. And Jodie Foster is back again! Although I didn’t care much for Freaky Friday, Foster was a highlight, so I’m sure she will shine in this film as well. However, most of the live action films have been underwhelming so I don’t have high hopes.

Thoughts After Watching

Anastasia, anyone?

Kevin: As the first act of the movie played out, Megan and I instantly thought this was just like the 1997 Fox Animation Studios film Anastasia (of course, now on Disney Plus since Disney bought 20th Century). Both films do have a similar start: an orphaned girl is persuaded by a conman to pretend to be the long-lost relative of a famous and wealthy socialite. In both films, the missing girl in question is noted to have been lost after a tragic event, and the main characters bear a striking resemblance to the missing girl. The orphaned girl goes along with the plan and ultimately finds herself a family. Now, when summarized like that the similarities are quite clear. But there are some very notable and welcome differences. For one, the styles are different. While both films have mystery elements, I would say that Candleshoe is predominantly a mystery film with a bit of family and Anastasia is a movie about family with a touch of mystery (and a bit of an epic). There are also the differences in how the characters act in each movie. In Candleshoe, Casey agrees to Harry Bundage’s plan for personal gain, making great use of her negotiation skills. In Anastasia, the main character Anya agrees to conmen Dimitri and Vlad’s scheme arguably for personal gain, but it’s understandably a good reason since it is based on her finding her family and sense of belonging. Also different are the character arcs of the conmen. That is to say, in Harry’s case he experiences no arc. He begins Candleshoe as a conniving crook and remains such at the end, whereas Dimitri and Vlad experience changes of heart after meeting Anya and decide to turn their lives around. Lastly, another major difference is that Anya is confirmed to be the long-lost duchess Anastasia (although the audience knows it long before she does), but Candleshoe decides not to answer for sure whether Casey is indeed the long-lost marchioness Margaret. I’ll touch more on this a little later, but it was truly very interesting to see the similarities between the two films. Funnily enough, if you look up this film on Wikipedia and scroll down to the “See Also” section, Anastasia is listed. It seems others have seen the similarities!

Passes the Bechdel test with flying colors!

Megan: Huzzah! Not only does this film easily pass the Bechdel test, it does so with multiple conversations between female characters that have absolutely nothing to do with the male characters! Initially I was worried because although Casey and Clara Grimsworthy are in several early scenes together, they never speak directly to each other. Instead, they speak through Harry Bundage. As the film progresses, though, we see Casey and Lady St. Edmund having conversations about themselves and about Lady St. Edmund’s daughter, whom she believes to be Casey’s mother. We also get several conversations between Casey, Cluny, and Anna. Though some of these conversations are arguments, they still are not about the male characters. What a refreshing change of pace!

A broader definition of what it means to be a girl or woman

Megan: Not only does this film offer us several conversations between female characters that express their own wants and desires, it also shows us a broader range of roles for those same characters. For example, when we first meet Casey on the streets of L.A. she’s wearing what I’d call ‘90s grunge before ‘90s grunge was a thing. In addition to her somewhat shabby yet practical choice in clothing, she sports what you might call an androgynous hairstyle. She’s not much different from Jodie Foster’s previous character, Annabel, from Freaky Friday in her preference for pants over dresses. What’s more, Casey is not afraid to advocate for herself. When Harry Bundage basically has Casey kidnapped for him, Casey turns the tables on him. She knows he’s in this scheme for the money, so she wants a cut of it. She proves a shrewd negotiator, first asking for a third of the action, then 20%, then finally settling for 10% less expenses plus a red Ferrari. She’s also a skilled salesperson. When she joins the other children and Priory at the farmer’s market, it’s Casey who’s able to rebrand their products and upsell them to their customers, ultimately scoring the biggest profit their stall has ever seen. Even better—at no point does anyone tell Casey she’s not being ladylike or feminine enough by doing these things. While Harry Bundage does insist she wear a dress to meet Lady St. Edmund, no one calls her out for being a good negotiator or salesperson—and I love it! It’s such positive messaging about girls and money! We need to see more of this in film!

Megan: Lady St. Edmund gives us another version of womanhood. Unlike Casey, she fully enjoys dressing feminine and enjoying the finer things in life. She also has a great sense of humor! While at the beginning the audience thinks her to be a simpleton for not realizing what’s really going on in her own home, she proves in the end that she’s been quite aware of Priory’s disguises for a long time—and she got such a kick out of it she let it continue! It honestly gave me so much more respect for her. If she knew it was Priory under each disguise, then she must have been having just as much fun trying to make it as difficult as possible for him to switch personas.

Megan: While Lady St. Edmund is incredibly kind, Cluny can be just as combative as Casey when it comes to protecting the people she loves. Unlike Casey, who fights to protect herself first and foremost, Cluny rises to a fight when she sees injustice or needs to defend those she loves. Now, generally, I’m not a fan of the way films make fights between girls out to be “cat fights”—something ridiculous to be laughed at, while fights between men are “serious.” (Eye roll.) I will say, though, that while Casey, Cluny and Anna took their fight a bit too far, at least the fight started for an emotionally valid reason—Cluny didn’t think it fair that the rest of the kids should have to work to maintain the property while Casey sat and did nothing, and she wasn’t going to let Casey get away with it. Another reason I don’t mind this fight scene so much? The girls ultimately reach an understanding and become friends. There’s no outright apology—that would be out of character for both girls—but there is an unspoken apology in the way Casey lies to cover up how she got her injuries so that all the kids can save face.

Megan: Anna presents yet another version of girlhood. She has the fewest lines of the female characters in the film, which makes her seem like a bit more of an introvert than the extroverted Cluny and Casey. However, when Anna does choose to speak, it is to express her own feelings of injustice, or to reign in Cluny’s or Casey’s misbehavior. It is only after watching Casey throw Cluny into the bushes that Anna joins in the fight—and though she’s the youngest of the girls, she knows how to fight! While there’s still a bit too much conflict resolution through fisticuffs instead of conversation, I do appreciate that the film doesn’t limit the female characters to the sole role of peacekeeper or the sole role of villainous instigator. Instead, each of these girls are allowed to be dynamic, multi-faceted humans. Anna is both peacekeeper and fighter, while Casey and Cluny can be fighters without being villains.

The role of female villain is taken by Clara Grimsworthy. Though she doesn’t do much to change female villain stereotypes, we do see that she can be just as conniving as her cousin, Harry Bundage, and just as big a threat. In fact, in Harry’s big scheme, Clara is absolutely essential—she’s the one with the insider knowledge of the real lost granddaughter to pull off the charade, and she’s the one who does most of the research on each clue as it comes in. Without Clara, Harry wouldn’t have had a viable scheme to begin with.

Priory is such a great butler!

Kevin: Although Lady St. Edmund knew that Priory was disguising himself as all the staff members, I found Priory’s dedication to this task to be so endearing. Bless this man’s heart. Not only he is a dedicated butler, Priory is truly a dedicated friend as he tries to save Lady St. Edmund from knowledge he believes would cause her a lot of stress. I actually did not immediately catch that the gardener was really Priory in disguise because I looked away to take notes on this movie. I caught on once Priory took off his disguise, and I enjoyed all the other moments he played the part. It started becoming more obvious that Lady St. Edmund knew his secret, especially when he pretended to be an experienced colonel and horse rider. It just seemed that Lady St. Edmund knowingly had him gallop around because she was just having some fun with her butler. Priory deserves some kudos here, as does the actor portraying him, David Niven. It takes some serious skill to be able to pull off multiple roles, to basically be acting within acting. This was definitely one of the funnier elements of the film.

Megan: I totally agree! After the film ended, we both talked about David Niven in relation to Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Dick Van Dyke completely fools us into believing his elderly banker character is an entirely different character, and in the world of the story, he truly is a different character. With Candleshoe, however, Priory is really putting on the façades of these various characters, so the audience is let in on Priory’s deception, which honestly makes it all the more enjoyable! Not only do we get the excitement of wondering “how in the world is he going to pull this off?!”, but we also get the humor of seeing how the other characters make his act ever more challenging. Props to David Niven for a job well done!

Stop relying on Asian stereotypes in film

Megan: While I’ll admit that I laughed when Anna went to karate chop Casey during the fight sequence, in the very same moment I was also cringing because of the Asian stereotypes relied on to make that scene funny—especially given today’s conversations around how Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are represented and treated in American culture. First there’s the oriental musical cue. That tells the audience that we’re to see Anna’s stance and attack as some form of Asian fighting style (my first impulse is to say karate, but I’ll admit my knowledge of the different fighting styles is very limited, so if someone knows more about the nuances, please share in the comments!) Why would Anna fight in this way? Where would she have learned such a disciplined fighting style? Why wouldn’t she fight similar to Cluny since they grew up together as orphans? In this case, relying on the stereotype might get you a laugh, but I’d argue that having the tiny kid strike a solid blow against the big kid would be enough to get the laugh. Relying on the stereotype in this instance is just lazy storytelling—it doesn’t make sense for Anna’s character as the story has been set up, and it doesn’t really add anything to the story. Also, Anna (played by Sarah Tamakuni), as I’ve noted before, is the most quiet of the children. While it is not true that Asian girls cannot be quiet and introverted, it is true that not all Asian girls are quiet and introverted, yet the majority of Asian girls we see in film tend to be stereotypically quiet and introverted. This is where the problem lies. If more filmmakers can skip the easy road of problematic stereotypes and instead put in the effort of creating dynamic and interesting characters it will not only enrich audiences’ viewing of those films, but it just might lead to better outcomes in society so that people from backgrounds different from our own are seen as humans in all their complexity instead of being forced into stereotypes.

It’s okay that Casey’s identity isn’t revealed

Kevin: When Megan and I were watching this, and especially as we began making the connections to Anastasia, we were sure that this movie was going to end by confirming that Casey is in fact the long-lost Margaret, granddaughter of Lady St. Edmund. It seemed like the most appropriate choice, right? A street-smart, rough around the edges orphan girl discovered to be a member of a socially elite family seems like a perfect movie plot. To my surprise, the movie does not confirm it at all. Instead, it leaves it ambiguous:

CASEY: Suppose your real granddaughter shows up?

LADY ST. EDMUND: Perhaps she has.

This is the very last exchange in the film. Lady St. Edmund’s remark does not make it clear if Casey really is her granddaughter or not. It can be taken one of two ways—either Lady St. Edmund has realized Casey is her missing granddaughter, or she has acknowledged Casey as her figurative family, much in the same way she considers Cluny, Peter, Bobby, and Anna her grandchildren. I actually like that the movie doesn’t confirm Casey’s identity. I thought I would be disappointed, but the film doesn’t suffer by not answering this. I mentioned earlier some of the differences between this movie and Anastasia, and another difference is that the way the story plays out in the animated film would only be satisfied by revealing Anya’s true identity (since we’ve known it all along). Candleshoe doesn’t need this, and I think it’s because the story didn’t start out as Casey looking for a family. She was part of a bigger story centered on mystery and treasure-hunting. Casey begins her story thinking she’ll take advantage of Lady St. Edmund to make her life better. What she doesn’t expect is to sympathize with Lady St. Edmund’s troubles. As she does, Casey comes to care for Lady St. Edmund, Priory, and the other children, all of whom come to care for Casey in turn. In the end, Casey finds a sense of belonging she wasn’t looking for, and it doesn’t matter whether she is the real Margaret or not. Lady St. Edmund sees Casey as family and welcomes the girl into her life. Casey finds home, and that is what really matters.

Verdict

Kevin: 7

Megan: 7

Final Score: 7

Ways to Watch

Disney Plus

Amazon Digital Video

DVD