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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 26968
Released: August 8, 2006 |
| Our Price: $2.26 |
| Used Price: $2.74 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Set in the Swiss Alps 100 years ago, Heidi is the story of a young orphan girl who is sent to stay with her grandfather in the High Alps. A tale of the indomitable spirit of children amid the hardships of an adult world, Heidi has been a favourite childhood fiction for generations around the world.
Description of Heidi:
The beloved tale of Heidi, the Swiss miss whose indomitable spirit touches all those around her, despite having been dealt a harsh hand in life, gets a spunky boost in this 2005 film adaptation. A stellar cast includes Max von Sydow as Grandfather, a roiling-with-inner-rage Geraldine Chaplin as Rottenmeier, and a benevolent Diana Rigg as Grandmamma. At the center of their world--like it or not--is Heidi, played with irrepressible optimism by the adorable Emma Bolger. As the orphaned Heidi is flung from home to home, city to city, valley to mountain, by those who profess not to want her, she accepts her fate and still manages to cast sunshine on her bleak situation. This version features breathtaking scenery--Grandfather's mountain aerie looks more like a Canadian Rockies summer spread than a place of self-imposed solitary confinement. At times the pan-European cast gives the film a feel of being the United Nations on location; Chaplin and Rigg's upper-crust British accents clash with von Sydow's clipped Swedish delivery, and Bolger's accent adorably reflects her Dublin roots. (Only the goats truly look Swiss.) But the story of Heidi has a huge heart, and this film is family entertainment in the best sense of the word. --A.T. Hurley
Heidi Reviews:
The arrogance of filmakers 
2009-10-04 - Yes, the scenery was wonderful, and Max was a good choice for the role of Alm Uncle, even though they change his name to Uncle Alp. But where do the filmakers get license to change the story so? What kind of arrogance might have led them to think that they could improve on the book? How do these changes help anything? Obviously I feel that they don't, and that they should have stuck to the book more closely. Then there are the accents, which are hard to believe in Switzerland. And the grandfather telling her to 'get out!' - yea right. Even the goats got their names changed. Finally, Heidi doesn't look anything like the Heidi described in the book. So, here it is : if you want a good story with a cute little girl in the mountains, it's worth your 100 minutes. But if you're looking for Johanna Spyri's excellent book to come alive, you might be disappointed in the end.
This Heidi Follows Johanna Spyri's Book Pretty Closely 
2009-06-16 - My students spent several weeks reading Heidi. We were thrilled to watch this DVD as our concluding activity. Now there are some differences -- the goats have different names, and the end comes about differently than in the book, but it is much closer than other versions. After reading the book, we enjoyed making a compare and contrast chart between the book and the movie.
This is a great movie. Enjoy!
Grandfather, I'm home and will never leave again.
2008-12-13 - This DVD was very satisfying. It was lovely to see Heidi on some mountains, unlike in the Shirley Temple version. Emma Bolger did a great job as Heidi. The film largely left out the harshness towards illiterate Peter that was in the book and highlighted the misery for the Grandfather of being a social outcast. Geraldine Chaplin was a Frau Rottenmeier that you could care about rather than just laugh at. I would say that this DVD is actually an improvement on the original book. However the wildflowers that garlanded the little Golden Book will always remain in my mind as well as Heidi saying, "Grandfather I am home and will never leave again." Heidi is one of several books in which an innocent child brings hope to a dried up old adult. Others include Pollyanna, The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy (which is worth re-reading).
Most like the novel 
2008-05-02 - I was looking for a DVD most closely related to the classic novel by Spyri. This is it! Other than some artistic cinematography the story is closely followed. I did not even miss Heidi's "curly brown hair".
Family Film
2008-03-08 - This is a wonderful family film. An 'oldie' but a 'goodie'.
Heidi has a wonderful impact on everyone she meets.
My 8 year old son, who has a passion for sports and all things 'boyish' LOVED it!
