1908 was the last big year in the film career of director Georges Méliès, and despite being generally considered as his worst year in the entirety of his career, it was also one of his most productive in quite some time. This was mainly due to having two studios by this point - Studio A, that produced films under his own direction, and Studio B, the films of which were supervised by his production assistant Manuel. But quality did not prevail over quantity; the majority of these films were not the usual magic shows or trick films of previous years, instead delving into an infrequently seen genre throughout Méliès's career: slapstick comedies. Not only did many of them rely upon physical gags that, while sometimes creative, did not nearly match up to the humor found within his 'haunted inn' movies, many of them are simply unfunny by today's standards - and possibly the standards of then.
"A Grandmother's Story" is thus seen as a refreshing breath of clean air after many of these poor comedies, reminding one of the greatness of the filmmaker's previous features even if not being especially good on its own. The film runs five minutes and while mostly plotless makes up for it in visual detail. Its narrative is a simple one, focusing on a child (André Méliès, the director's own son) who is read a bedtime story by his grandmother before going to bed. It doesn't take long for him to be transported into the typical dream world of the director that we have seen again and again, as a fairy takes him away to two locations: a toyland setting, and a beautiful woodsy area with flowers and butterflies.
As a whole, very little happens within the film action-wise. The 'story' of the title is unknown, probably related in some way to the dreams that follow, and very little occurs within the dreams themselves, which are mainly there to show off some gorgeous set designs. The toyland is the most rare of any set pieces seen in any Méliès movie, which is very distinct, almost as if it were pulled from a child's picture book. The second set is every bit as beautiful, with some wonderful butterfly costumes and scenery that give it the exact feel it desires. It is unfortunate that these designs were not put to a more effective purpose, as this first scene consists of the child simply wandering around the set, while the other one is mostly dancing. As such, the film is more bland with this in mind, being more visually interesting than anything else, and hence not as good as earlier efforts that told a stronger story which were enhanced through the additionally well-composed imagery.
Furthermore, "A Grandmother's Story", while little recognized as such, is actually a film fragment, not a complete film, with twelve numbers attributed to in the Star Film Catalogue. This indicates the full film was around twelve minutes, a longer effort with probably many more scenes in addition further illustrating the child's dream. This is particularly unnoticeable when one notes that the story seems to be quite complete in itself, having a beginning, body, and conclusion that would suggest it is all there. However, this supposition is incorrect, as half-way through, between the two dream sequences, there is a direct cut (Cineanalyst points out this could be used to show both scenes take place in a dream, while the other dissolve transitions would suggest moving from dream to reality) which definitely indicates missing scenes. However, while a complete print would be nice, it would also needlessly expand on what was already a basic plot; the two dream sequences we already have are fine, and little more is needed to make it better.