Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The blockbusters just don’t stop in 2018, and we haven’t even hit the summer movie season yet! Disney’s highly-anticipated big-budget adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time hits theaters on March 9, bringing the beloved sci-fi novel to life with a star-studded cast. Oprah Winfrey! Reese Witherspoon! Chris Pine! Zach Galifianakis! Truly, there is something for everyone in Ava DuVernay’s fantastical fantasy world!
But this ain’t the first time Madeleine L’Engle’s award-winning YA novel has been adapted into a feature film, although odds are the other take on this classic slipped under your radar when it was first released. Back in 2003, another feature-length version of A Wrinkle in Time lit up young imaginations–although it did so via the small screen as opposed to the big screen.
Disney’s made-for-TV version of A Wrinkle in Time is, well, a made-for-TV movie. It is by no means a substitute for going out to the theater and taking in the gorgeous, imaginative imagery of the 2018 version. But if you’re eager to keep the magic alive after you see the movie, then the 2003 version is waiting to be discovered.
Originally intended to air on ABC as part of The Wonderful World of Disney, this Canadian film was eventually released on DVD in the United States in 2004. As you can see in the trailer above, this version is, well, it is very much a TV movie from the early ’00s. You’re not gonna get the dazzling special effects of a feature film from this Wrinkle. What you are gonna get, though, is Alfre Woodard (!) in the Mrs. Whatsit role currently occupied by Reese Witherspoon, as well as two actors with tangential X-Men ties. Chris Potter, the voice of Gambit in the ’90s animated series, plays vanished dad Jack Murray. And Katie Stuart, who played Kitty Pryde in a cameo in X2: X-Men United, takes the lead as Meg Murray.
That may be a weird way to sell this old adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, but I can’t see two X-Men actors in a movie and not point it out.
If you want to know more about this version, you can sample a few more clips on YouTube, like the one where Meg answers the call of duty or this fanmade music video set to Lifehouse’s “Hanging by a Moment.” Or you can watch this clip that literally compares the two with a side-by-side trailer.
If all of this has you intrigued, or if you’re looking for more A Wrinkle in Time content after your adventure to the theater, you’ll be pleased to know that the 2003 A Wrinkle in Time is super cheap to buy or rent. You can rent it for $1.99 on YouTube, Amazon, and Google Play. And you can buy it for $4.99 on Amazon, Vudu, and iTunes.
Make the magic last, at least until the new A Wrinkle in Time arrives on VOD in a few months!
