Pretty Good

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Heidi as a book was a childhood favourite and still is a timeless classic. This version with Shirley Temple was also a favourite as a child and is still a delight, whether you've read the book or not. It is true that it is not the truest to the book, with some darker elements that didn't feel shoe-horned and far from traumatising, but that really doesn't matter, you can still love the book and also love the film. There could have been more of the relationship between Heidi and her grandfather(but it is still really touching) and the musical number In Our Little Wooden Shoes while catchy, well-staged and cute didn't add a whole lot to the story, in fact really it was irrelevant. Everything else is fine, and I found it superior to the 1993 Noley Thornton version(which was still good), it doesn't feel over-dramatic even with the added darker parts, the characters are far more truthfully and sympathetically written with much more of a character journey with the grandfather and there's more heart. Heidi is a lovely film to look at, being crisply and lovingly filmed, scenery that makes you wish you were right there and the costumes give a genuine sense of time and place(they look good too, yes even Heidi's poor clothes). The music is whimsical and sparkling, the dialogue has a very good balance of funny and meaningful and the story essentially has every bit the charm, heart-warming sentiment and emotion that the book has, the ending is well and truly sweet and not tacky. The sled chase, any scene with Fraulein Rottenmeier and the monkey are standout scenes. Heidi is briskly directed with enough time for the story to resonate and for the actors to really go for it. Jean Hersholt plays grumpy and heartfelt beautifully, while reclusive there is a real sense that he cares for Heidi and she for him. Mary Nash is the very meaning of beastly- living aptly up to her character's name- and absolutely relishes it, while Arthur Treacher is hilarious as the butler Andrews and Marcia Mae Jones is an affecting Klara. But it's Shirley Temple's film, she's adorable and while she manages to be charming and have wonderful comic timing she is equally good at displaying an emotional side, her acting in the scene in the police station(another memorable scene) is just heart-breaking. While she is the main attraction of the film, the other characters and actors are just as believable to not make Heidi too much of a Shirley Temple show. All in all, delightful and a Shirley Temple classic, one of her best possibly. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Yes, another very good Shirley Temple movie. I must say I love all Shirley movies, I don't have a "favorite" one(except for the very first movie of hers I saw, which is very close to my heart), but Heidi is a great movie and I think everybody must see it.Heidi's an orphaned girl who lived with her aunt for six years. Then the aunt got a job and she had to live with her grandfather, a very unsociable man, who have a terrible humor and hates everyone. He lives in the mountains. Later, the aunt comes back to take Heidi to the big city to be the playmate of a girl that can't walk.I think this is one of the greatest(if it's not the best)Shirley's acting performances. In that movie she shows that she's not just a cute little girl that can tap dance and smile! She shows she's a good actress. A very good actress. I just think that only one sing-and-dance number's not enough for a Shirley Temple movie -- but the only sing-and-dance number in that film is great("In our little Wooden shoes").That story was adored by me when I was a kid. I saw an animated version, the 1970's movie version and I read the book. When I became a Shirley Temple fan and noticed that she'd played Heidi, I said "WOW! Shirley played Heidi!" and after I saw that movie I absolutely 'fell in love' with Shirley.There are some parts of the film that make me cry, like the Christmas scene and the ending scene(apart from Shirley's cute smile of course!).Anyway, a very good movie. Enjoyable, happy, and with the great Child-Star Shirley Temple starring in it. Anyone who wants to watch this film with the kids but think they won't like because it's black-and-white, just try. I'm sure they'll get into the story and that they'll love it!

(possible spoilers)Shirley Temple is perfectly cast in this touching version of the oft-told tale. As the uplifting Heidi, she is bounced around from relative to relative before her cruel aunt winds up giving her off to live in a shack in the Swiss mountains with her grumpy old grandfather (Jean Hersholt). Through Heidi's lovable nature, the grandfather eventually learns to abandon his bitterness and becomes a much more pleasant person who is liked by his fellow villagers who once shunned him. But just when things are looking up, the aunt returns to steal Heidi and sell her off to a wealthy family whose wheelchair-bound daughter needs a friend. A good film with a great deal of heart. *** out of ****

One of Temple's biggest hits for 20th Century Fox, this version of Johanna Spyri's much-filmed children's classic might provide suitable entertainment for young children but will prove far too saccharine-sweet for any adult whose critical facilities aren't compromised by watching the film through rose-coloured spectacles…The little moppet plays the eponymous heroine, a spunky little madam with an infectious grin and an abundance of curls, who is foisted upon her grumpy Santa-look-alike Grandpa (Jean Hersholt) by her wicked Aunt Dete (Mady Christians) who has found work in Frankfurt. Of course, it's not long before Heidi has melted grumpy old Grandpa's heart, which is the cue for the wicked Aunt to snatch Heidi back and whisk her to Frankfurt to be companion to Klara (Marcia Mae Jones) the crippled daughter of her employer… Nine-year-old Temple is cute as a button in this one, and has enough screen presence to carry even mediocre material. The story is decent enough, and the production values are good, but the heavy doses of sentimentality injected into the plot at regular intervals really get too much to stomach after a while and are wholly unnecessary. If you can overcome that however, the story does offer a fair measure of suspense as it reaches its inevitably happy ending, and any film with not one but two wicked witches has to be awarded points for originality. Arthur Treacher is also worth catching as an outwardly stiff butler who is really a big softie on the inside. It was a role he would repeat with Temple in the inferior The Little Princess a couple years later.Watch the black-and-white version if you get the chance, because the colourised version is an absolute horror (when are they anything else?). Everybody's lips and tongue are the same colour as their skin