March 11 movie: Nancy Drew, Detective. I had never seen a Nancy Drew movie before. And I must say, if this was representative then I never want to see another. Nancy Drew was not a sympathetic character! She was a spoiled, rich little snot who goes around smirking all the time and making sure everyone knows how much smarter than them she is. And she's really mean to her poor boyfriend. Why that kid stays with her I don't know. The scene that pushed me over the edge was when she gleefully humiliates the local sheriff, makes a fool of him in front of his entire staff, just because he had the nerve to try and do his job.
Were the books this bad? By the end of the movie I felt like Nancy Drew was a pretty unpleasant girl.
I don't think the books are nearly that bad, although it's been a really long time (30 years?) since I last read them. Both Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were pretty privileged, but I don't remember any of them being snotty about it.
On the other hand, the Wikipedia article on Nancy Drew has a whole section on the evolution of the character, complete with criticisms that she *was* a horrible, overprivileged -- even racist -- scion of the upper classes. All I can say is that as a child, she seemed pretty cool to me.
(Also, the WP article claims that the films were, at best, "loosely based" on the books.)
I have vague, positive memories of reading Nancy Drew books (like you, about 30 years ago). That's why I was so disappointed to find the movie Nancy so annoying.
Wikipedia mentions that in The Hidden Staircase Nancy calls the police chief "a conceited tweet-tweet" which is about the tone of Nancy Drew, Detective.