Louisa May Alcott’s classic late 1860s novel Little Women first received a cinematic adaptation all the way back in 1917. For the fifth of these – and the first since 1949 – we go to a 1994 version directed by Gillian Armstrong.

Set in New England during the Civil War, we meet the women of the Marsh family. While they wait for Mr. Marsh (Matthew Walker) to return from battle, Mother Marsh (Susan Sarandon) – known as “Marmee” – holds down the fort.

Marmee lives with her four daughters: 16-year-old Meg (Trini Alvarado), 15-year-old Jo (Winona Ryder), 13-year-old Beth (Claire Danes), and 12-year-old Amy (Kirsten Dunst). Spirited Jo aspires to become a published writer but spends much of her time subservient to wealthy Aunt March (Mary Wickes) to earn money for the family.

Meg also works as a tutor for local kids, whereas Amy attends school. Too shy for classes, Beth helps around the house.

As time progresses, the girls mature and take different paths. In particular, Jo becomes romantically interested in handsome neighbor boy Laurie Laurence (Christian Bale) but finds her interest in a career as a writer takes precedence.

Before I saw Little Women on DVD in spring 2000, it became my first experience with Alcott’s story, and I absolutely hated it. Two decades later, I felt pretty much the same about 2019’s version from Greta Gerwig, but I did take some pleasure from George Cukor’s 1933 edition.

This 4K became my second screening of the 1994 Gillian Armstrong film. Would I like it more almost 25 years later?

Yeah, I guess. The 1994 Little Women certainly annoyed me less in late 2024 than it did in spring 2000, but I still don’t think much of it.

Though all adaptations work from the same source, each generation gives the tale its own spin as a reflection of those times. That becomes the case with the 1994 Women, as it works overtime to bring a “you go, girl!” attitude to the tale.

Granted, a sense of female independence seems to be part of the point of Alcott’s story. Nonetheless, Armstrong delivers the message in an irritating manner too much of the time.

As too often becomes the case with adaptations of Alcott’s novel, the 1994 Women largely ignores everyone but Jo. She appears as the most unconventional of the bunch, and definitely would be the one who the story's fans can identify.

Jo's sisters all seem much more ordinary and/or timid. As such, they often get swept under the rug so we can focus on Jo's ever-so-modern boldness.

As much as I disliked Gerwig’s adaptation, I gave her credit for her willingness to make a story about all the March girls, not just Jo. This one just sticks with Jo to the exclusion of the rest an awful lot of the time, especially in the flick’s second half.

I had a hard time getting a handle on what the point of this film was. It has a lot of that "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" vibe, and the men in the movie are clearly viewed as nothing more than minor characters who are of uncertain usefulness.

Everyone speaks fondly of Father Marsh while he's away at war, but once he comes home, he becomes less than a non-entity. Nonetheless, the film can't quite rid itself of males once and for all, and it betrays an odd sentimentality toward romantic relationships.

The 1994 Women won't go quite so far as to completely slam men, but it heads down that path. Eventually it regains a romantic edge, probably because it allows for more conventionally happy proceedings.

The characters themselves rarely rise above the level of stereotypes. Okay, Jo actually displays more self-doubt than most characters of her type, but she still seems pretty stuck in the "non-traditional woman" category, with all that entails.

Meg never seems like more than a fairly shallow type who wants to marry, and Beth just exists as your sickly, kindly sort who manages virtually no personality at all.

Amy also seems to lack definition, though at least she has a little spunk, unlike the exceptionally bland Beth. Dunst makes her the traditional semi-pesky little sister, while as an older Amy, Samantha Mathis does absolutely nothing with the role, so much that her portrayal equals the emptiness we see in Beth.

Sarandon gets little to do as Marmee other than be the stoic center of the family, and she feels believable as a pillar. In fact, with the exception of the stiff Mathis, all of the actors perform reasonably well in their parts, and the men in the cast adeptly portray the walking mannequins the movie asks them to be.

Unfortunately, even though we find a genuinely strong cast, none of them can overcome the triteness of the roles. They also fail to make the predictable and banal events of their lives interesting or get me to care about the characters.

Perhaps because I’ve seen other versions of the film – or perhaps because 57-year-old me lacks the intense reactivity of 32-year-old me – I can’t claim to find the 1994 Little Women to become a terrible movie. However, it still remains tedious and too stuck in its 1990s attitudes to do well by the source.

Little Women appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This Dolby Vision presentation excelled.

Sharpness always looked solid. Nary a sliver of softness interfered with the presentation, as it seemed accurate and well-defined.

No issues with jagged edges nor moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain fet natural, and I witnessed no print flaws.

Colors leaned toward a brownish tone, with some reds and grays and blues as well. The hues came across as intended, and HDR brought extra range to the tones.

Blacks looked deep and dark, while shadows felt smooth and appealing. HDR gave added punch to whites and contrast. This turned into an excellent presentation.

Unfortunately, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack came with a major problem related to its soundfield. Bizarrely, material intended for the front right and left channels instead emanated from the rear speakers.

This left the surrounds far too prominent in the mix, with little from the forward domain other than the center. Speech and effects came from the front center as appropriate, but otherwise the rear speakers dominated the proceedings.

And they did so inappropriately, as it felt clear the track reversed the channels. Women came with a low-key soundscape and its heavy orientation toward the back speakers created an awkward imbalance.

For instance, in one scene, a horse-drawn carriage should have crossed from front right to front center to front left. Instead, it went from rear right to front center to rear left.

Because so much of the film maintained a low-key soundscape, these defects didn’t become a massive issue. Still, they created inappropriate distractions.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that sounded natural and concise. Music felt warm and full.

Effects never taxed my speakers, but they appeared accurate and without distortion. Even though the movie sounded good, I needed to dock a lot of points due to the reversed channels.

At least the 4K came with a DTS-HD MA stereo mix that fixed these issues, mainly because it didn’t use the rear speakers. It placed music and effects in the appropriate spots across the front channels.

However, the track offered somewhat weaker sonics compared to the 5.1 version. Actually, music still seemed pretty lush, but dialogue came across as a little stiff and effects failed to deliver the same range, as they could seem a bit tinny.

If forced to choose, I’d go with the stereo mix just because the unbalanced soundscape of the 5.1 became such a distraction. Hopefully Sony will fix the issue and offer a replacement, however, so viewers can access the 5.1 as it should sound.

When we move to extras, we find an audio commentary from director Gillian Armstrong. She delivers a running, screen-specific discussion of the opening credits, the source and its adaptation, sets and locations, story/characters, cast and performances, photography and visual style, music, period details, hair and costumes.

Expect a strong commentary from Armstrong, as she offers a fine examination of the film’s creation. The director touches on all the expected domains and makes this an informative chat.

Two featurettes follow, and Making of Little Women spans six minutes, 54 seconds. It brings remarks from Armstrong, screenwriter Robin Sicord, and actors Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst, Eric Stoltz, Trini Alvarado, Claire Danes, Gabriel Byrne and Christian Bale.

The reel looks at story and characters, cast, and general aspects of the production. Nothing more than a promo piece, it offers little of value.

Costume and Design lasts eight minutes, 10 seconds. It features Armstrong and costume designer Colleen Atwood.

Unsurprisingly, this piece covers the movie’s outfits as well as sets, although we only see sketches of locations and don’t get info about them. Atwood’s parts work well, however, as she explains her choices and work.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get two Deleted Scenes: “Jo Teachers French to the Kids” (0:54) and “Marmee Comforts Beth” (0:53). “Teaches” seems more like a behind the scenes shot in which Ryder plays with kids, so it seems useless as an actual part of the movie.

“Comforts” shows exactly what it describes, with efforts to tend to an ill Beth. It seems odd because toward the end, the camera takes the perspective of a cat and the actors all look right into the lens. It wouldn’t have made a lick of sense in the final film.

We can watch the scenes with or without commentary from Armstrong as she tells us basics about the shots and why they got cut. She adds some worthwhile info.

Note that the 4K drops a few extras from the old DVD. It loses an isolated score, a “historical timeline” and two trivia games. The last three weren’t actually good so they don’t go missed, but it’s a shame the isolated score doesn’t reappear.

Although I loathed 1994’s Little Women when I saw it almost 25 years ago, I can’t maintain the same level of negative passion in late 2024. That said, the movie comes with condescending attitudes and a general lack of real movement that makes it a less than enjoyable journey. The 4K UHD comes with excellent visuals and a decent mix of supplements but its 5.1 soundtrack suffers from damaging flaws. Fans of the movie will love how great it looks but unless they’re fine with the perfectly adequate stereo mix, they should wait for a potential corrected disc to buy.