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Shirley Temple - Heidi
Fox // G // January 29, 2002
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
With Shirley Temple cast in more than 30 films between 1932 and 1937, it's almost inevitable that someone eventually had the idea of casting the bright, curly-haired, bouncy girl as the irrepressible Heidi from Johanna Spyri's beloved children's classic. As the film opens, we're introduced to the little orphan as her dour aunt hastens her along, eager to hand her off to the grandfather (Jean Hersholt) whom Heidi has never known. Grandfather turns out to be a taciturn old man who has held a grudge with the townsfolk for years, and who would prefer to be left alone in his mountaintop cabin... but who can resist the charms of little Heidi?
The 1937 film is clearly a vehicle for the uber-cutsie Shirley Temple. One scene early in the movie is a blatant set-piece for Temple to do a song and dance number in a variety of different costumes, and several other scenes are similarly orchestrated for her to have the opportunity to sing at least a short piece. Now that musicals are less popular in film than they used to be, the song and dance segments come across as rather odd; just when we're getting into the story of Heidi, along comes a reminder that we're watching Shirley Temple, child star. However, that's not to say that they're badly done; in fact, they're rather cute to watch.
Having read Spyri's novel, I was of course interested in the way that the story was adapted to film, especially considering that the novel is far more full of characters and incidents than would by any means fit in the 88 minutes of the film's running time. In fact, the movie of Heidi follows the novel's broad outlines, while deviating from it in the execution of several of the major incidents of the story. The film version introduces conflict into several plot points that in the book are not presented as conflicts. For instance, in the presentation of religion (which the film treats rather heavy-handedly), the film version sets up a conflict between her grandfather, who wants Heidi to gain her spirituality through life in the pure wilderness in which they live, and the pastor of the town, who wants Heidi to receive conventional religious instruction, go to church, and attend Sunday school. In contrast, the novel focuses on Heidi's virtues in bringing people together socially and healing others emotionally; religion is presented mostly as a part of the culture of the area, not as a topic of its own.
In general, the addition of areas of conflict into the story helps the film to have a fairly distinct overall plot, whereas the book reads more like a "slice of life." Each style of presentation has its virtues, and I'd say that the adaptation works reasonably well... though I admit that the "sleigh chase" adventure scene in the later part of the film does fit rather oddly with the style of the rest of the film. I suspect that this scene was somewhat of a "set piece" just as Temple's song and dance numbers were; at the time, the horse-chase probably was fairly impressive as a "special effect."
Video
Heidi is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with both the original black-and-white and a colorized version included on the DVD.
The black-and-white image falls short of my expectations. The image is fairly noisy, and shows a smattering of print flaws as well. The heavy edge enhancement shows up in obvious haloes around the edges of objects; it's particularly noticeable in the opening text of the credits, but it's also very apparent throughout the rest of the film. Contrast, which is essential in a black-and-white movie, is only so-so. The brighter scenes come across fine, but darker scenes are heavy on the black and don't show much shading. In general, the picture has a rather indistinct look to it, with the combination of noise, edge enhancement, and mediocre contrast resulting in an image that doesn't show much detail.
Avoid watching the colorized version if you have any respect for the film whatsoever... or any vestige of good taste. The colorized version of Heidi is, in a word, hideous. The palette is very limited, with one shade of red, one shade of blue, one shade of green, and so on, resulting in scenes that might have a character's hat and dress the identical ugly green as the trees in the background. To top it off, flesh tones are a rather unnatural-looking salmon color. The colors in the scene also waver and flicker from frame to frame as the light changes. You may want to play a scene or two from it to get a shudder, but when it's time to watch the movie, the version to choose is most definitely the original black-and-white one.
Audio
Heidi comes with the choice of a stereo or a mono soundtrack. Like the video quality, the sound quality is lower than I would have hoped for. There's a slightly tinny quality to the sound in general, particularly the music portion of the soundtrack. Voices are carried adequately, but the overall soundtrack seems slightly muffled.
Extras
In addition to the colorized version of the film, which is worth looking at only briefly, and only out of curiosity, the Heidi DVD includes a trailer.
Final thoughts
Heidi is a light, mildly entertaining rendition of the famous children's book. It's likely to appeal somewhat more to viewers with young children, as its mild drama and its historical/nostalgic appeal, combined with its fairly short running time, make it a film that's watchable for the whole family.
The 1937 film is clearly a vehicle for the uber-cutsie Shirley Temple. One scene early in the movie is a blatant set-piece for Temple to do a song and dance number in a variety of different costumes, and several other scenes are similarly orchestrated for her to have the opportunity to sing at least a short piece. Now that musicals are less popular in film than they used to be, the song and dance segments come across as rather odd; just when we're getting into the story of Heidi, along comes a reminder that we're watching Shirley Temple, child star. However, that's not to say that they're badly done; in fact, they're rather cute to watch.
Having read Spyri's novel, I was of course interested in the way that the story was adapted to film, especially considering that the novel is far more full of characters and incidents than would by any means fit in the 88 minutes of the film's running time. In fact, the movie of Heidi follows the novel's broad outlines, while deviating from it in the execution of several of the major incidents of the story. The film version introduces conflict into several plot points that in the book are not presented as conflicts. For instance, in the presentation of religion (which the film treats rather heavy-handedly), the film version sets up a conflict between her grandfather, who wants Heidi to gain her spirituality through life in the pure wilderness in which they live, and the pastor of the town, who wants Heidi to receive conventional religious instruction, go to church, and attend Sunday school. In contrast, the novel focuses on Heidi's virtues in bringing people together socially and healing others emotionally; religion is presented mostly as a part of the culture of the area, not as a topic of its own.
In general, the addition of areas of conflict into the story helps the film to have a fairly distinct overall plot, whereas the book reads more like a "slice of life." Each style of presentation has its virtues, and I'd say that the adaptation works reasonably well... though I admit that the "sleigh chase" adventure scene in the later part of the film does fit rather oddly with the style of the rest of the film. I suspect that this scene was somewhat of a "set piece" just as Temple's song and dance numbers were; at the time, the horse-chase probably was fairly impressive as a "special effect."
Video
Heidi is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with both the original black-and-white and a colorized version included on the DVD.
The black-and-white image falls short of my expectations. The image is fairly noisy, and shows a smattering of print flaws as well. The heavy edge enhancement shows up in obvious haloes around the edges of objects; it's particularly noticeable in the opening text of the credits, but it's also very apparent throughout the rest of the film. Contrast, which is essential in a black-and-white movie, is only so-so. The brighter scenes come across fine, but darker scenes are heavy on the black and don't show much shading. In general, the picture has a rather indistinct look to it, with the combination of noise, edge enhancement, and mediocre contrast resulting in an image that doesn't show much detail.
Avoid watching the colorized version if you have any respect for the film whatsoever... or any vestige of good taste. The colorized version of Heidi is, in a word, hideous. The palette is very limited, with one shade of red, one shade of blue, one shade of green, and so on, resulting in scenes that might have a character's hat and dress the identical ugly green as the trees in the background. To top it off, flesh tones are a rather unnatural-looking salmon color. The colors in the scene also waver and flicker from frame to frame as the light changes. You may want to play a scene or two from it to get a shudder, but when it's time to watch the movie, the version to choose is most definitely the original black-and-white one.
Audio
Heidi comes with the choice of a stereo or a mono soundtrack. Like the video quality, the sound quality is lower than I would have hoped for. There's a slightly tinny quality to the sound in general, particularly the music portion of the soundtrack. Voices are carried adequately, but the overall soundtrack seems slightly muffled.
Extras
In addition to the colorized version of the film, which is worth looking at only briefly, and only out of curiosity, the Heidi DVD includes a trailer.
Final thoughts
Heidi is a light, mildly entertaining rendition of the famous children's book. It's likely to appeal somewhat more to viewers with young children, as its mild drama and its historical/nostalgic appeal, combined with its fairly short running time, make it a film that's watchable for the whole family.
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