Rating: 
Summary: A masterpiece!
Review: This was a wonderful movie! It was clever and well-made
Rating: 
Summary: the little surreal rhyming ballet
Review: this was one of my favorite movies as a child and for little girls under 12 i would give it 5 stars! unfortunately it is not as striking as the excellent novel on which it is based; however it stands up for grown-ups nonetheless as a slightly sappy "real-life" fairy-tale. the musical numbers are clever and catchy though not as sing-alongable as some of shirley's more famous bits.notably, everyone should be exposed to the truly bizarre dream sequence near the end of this film which in performed entirely in rhyme. it's a tiny taste of surreal fantasy, like the bluebird, which doesn't often enter into shirley's films.
Rating:
Summary: one you'll remember
Review: This was the one I rememberd most of all. I loved Shirley Temple as a child and still enjoy her films. I would have liked to seen a sequil to this one where the father buys the school and....
Rating:
Summary: This is one of my favorite Shirley Temple movies
Review: Unlike some of the other reviewers, I absolutely adore this Shirley Temple movie. It is one that brings back many memories of watching Shirley Temple movies with my sister when we were little. My favorite parts are when Shirley and her little friend wake up and see all the beautiful gifts that were given to her by the Indian guy, and when she throws the bucket of soot on the snotty Clarissa, but most of all, when she finds her "Daddy" at the end,as he keeps calling "Sara, Sara."
This one is excellent, and I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: The Most Ambitious Shirley Temple Movie of Them All
Review: When I was a very little girl, every Saturday morning featured "Shirley Temple Theatre", which is how I came to see almost every Shirley Temple movie. But every Saturday, I had the same hope, that the movie that morning would be "The Little Princess", and whenever it was, I was overjoyed. And why was that? Because I loved the Victorian setting of the movie. Here Shirley plays Sara Crewe, for the first time in her life being separated from her British officer father, who must report for duty in the Boer War. Sara is deposited in an exclusive girls school in London, where her wealth and manners earn her the monniker, "The Little Princess". Yet in spite of her advantages, Sara is a down to earth girl, with a kind and loving heart, and it is these qualities which endear her to the more sensitive inhabitants of the boarding school. Then, tragically, Sara's strength of character must be tested: on her birthday, word is received that Captain Crewe has been killed during the seige of Mafeking, and Sara is left not only an orphan but penniless to boot. The headmistress forces Sara now to be a servant in the house where she used to be treated as a princess, enduring the insults of vindictive students whom she must wait on hand and foot. What is Sara's response? She behaves like the good soldier her father trained her to be, performing her duties to the best of her ability, with one important exception: she refuses to admit that her father is dead. And so the rest of the movie concerns her stubborn insistence that her father is alive, and that she will find him again. Being a Shirley Temple movie, after all, the ending must needs be a happy one, but achieved through a very special agent--you'll have to view it to find out who. In many ways, "The Little Princess" is atypical of Shirley's movies: it is a costume drama (most of hers are set in the 1930s), there are only two dance numbers in the whole movie, and it is a relatively late Shirley picture, 1939. So while other reviewers have commented on how "cute" she is, at this point Shirley was past the really adorable phase of her career, as evident in "Bright Eyes" or "Little Miss Marker". Yet her performance in this movie clearly demonstrates that Shirley could really act, contrary to what some detractors have said about the post-babyhood Shirley. The expression on her face when the headmistress tells her she should be grateful to assume the role of servant relays shock and disbelief, and in another scene with the same woman, just as that headmistress is able to strike Sara, Shirley gives her an un-cute look that stops her cold. Her near-breakdown at the end of the movie when her fortitude receives its final test also testifies to better acting than she is generally credited with. I loved "The Little Princess" as a child; I still watch it, now with a different appreciation, as an adult. I invite you to do the same.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Ambitious Shirley Temple Movie of Them All
Review: When I was a very little girl, every Saturday morning featured "Shirley Temple Theatre", which is how I came to see almost every Shirley Temple movie. But every Saturday, I had the same hope, that the movie that morning would be "The Little Princess", and whenever it was, I was overjoyed. And why was that? Because I loved the Victorian setting of the movie. Here Shirley plays Sara Crewe, for the first time in her life being separated from her British officer father, who must report for duty in the Boer War. Sara is deposited in an exclusive girls school in London, where her wealth and manners earn her the monniker, "The Little Princess". Yet in spite of her advantages, Sara is a down to earth girl, with a kind and loving heart, and it is these qualities which endear her to the more sensitive inhabitants of the boarding school. Then, tragically, Sara's strength of character must be tested: on her birthday, word is received that Captain Crewe has been killed during the seige of Mafeking, and Sara is left not only an orphan but penniless to boot. The headmistress forces Sara now to be a servant in the house where she used to be treated as a princess, enduring the insults of vindictive students whom she must wait on hand and foot. What is Sara's response? She behaves like the good soldier her father trained her to be, performing her duties to the best of her ability, with one important exception: she refuses to admit that her father is dead. And so the rest of the movie concerns her stubborn insistence that her father is alive, and that she will find him again. Being a Shirley Temple movie, after all, the ending must needs be a happy one, but achieved through a very special agent--you'll have to view it to find out who. In many ways, "The Little Princess" is atypical of Shirley's movies: it is a costume drama (most of hers are set in the 1930s), there are only two dance numbers in the whole movie, and it is a relatively late Shirley picture, 1939. So while other reviewers have commented on how "cute" she is, at this point Shirley was past the really adorable phase of her career, as evident in "Bright Eyes" or "Little Miss Marker". Yet her performance in this movie clearly demonstrates that Shirley could really act, contrary to what some detractors have said about the post-babyhood Shirley. The expression on her face when the headmistress tells her she should be grateful to assume the role of servant relays shock and disbelief, and in another scene with the same woman, just as that headmistress is able to strike Sara, Shirley gives her an un-cute look that stops her cold. Her near-breakdown at the end of the movie when her fortitude receives its final test also testifies to better acting than she is generally credited with. I loved "The Little Princess" as a child; I still watch it, now with a different appreciation, as an adult. I invite you to do the same.
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