Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Rudeen: 'Heidi' more scrapbook than storybook

Jan Crain Rudeen, Special to the News

Published July 28, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More Movies

More stories »

Heidi

Warner Home Video; 104 minutes; $19.97, DVD

Grade: C+

You may remember the 1937 tear-jerker Heidi, the first film based on Johanna Spyri's late-19th century tale that cast Shirley Temple in the title role. If so, you won't be nearly as moved by this production, available Aug. 8.

The new film version boasts top-notch actors and scenic locations but misses the popular story's impact. This Heidi feels stilted and episodic, as if its scenes are snapshots in an album that fails to build to an emotional peak.

Orphaned as a toddler and taken in by her selfish aunt, Heidi (Emma Bolger) is 8 when the story opens. She's on her way by train to live with her troubled, reclusive grandfather (Max von Sydow), whom she's never met. But their affection for each other grows, and life together in the Swiss Alps far from the townsfolk suits the pair just fine.

One day, the aunt returns unexpectedly to pack up a reluctant Heidi and take her to live with a wealthy family in distant Frankfurt, where she'll be a companion for a wheelchair- bound girl of 12 - earning Auntie a tidy sum. The transition to city life is tough for Heidi, who misses her grandfather terribly.

Despite her homesickness and the cruelty of the family's dour housekeeper (Geraldine Chaplin), Heidi finds her way around her new surroundings. But while the girl, Clara (Jessica Claridge), thrives thanks to Heidi's adventuresome spirit, Heidi languishes.

Bolger, whose debut in In America was sweetly unaffected, seems less at ease here. Upon meeting her grandfather and others in her new home, she doesn't connect with them so much as use enthusiastic cuteness to win them over. It doesn't help that each scene fades to black before the next one opens.

Shot on location in the gorgeous Slovenian Alps and in Wales, the landscapes and cityscapes set the right mood. And the supporting cast - including Samuel Friend as Heidi's pal Peter, who herds her grandfather's goats; Del Synnott as Sebastien, the kindly young butler in Clara's house; and especially von Sydow - has some fine moments with Bolger.

But mostly, the script is thin and the pace halting. Clara's loving grandmother (Diana Rigg) teaches Heidi to read and tries to protect her from the vindictive housekeeper. But Rigg's on-screen time with Heidi is too brief, so their relationship lacks any emotional underpinning.

The new Heidi could have been a much better movie; instead, it skims the surface of the story. If you plan to see it, read the book first.

Animaniacs: Vol. 1 Pinky and the Brain: Vol. 1

Multi-disc sets; Warner Home Video; 750 minutes and 660 minutes, respectively (each includes 20 minutes of special features); $44.98 per set

Grade: A-

It's clear that producer Steven Spielberg remembers what it's like to be a kid. These collections hark back to the best of Warner Bros. cartoons on Saturday morning TV of the 1950s and '60s.

The Animaniacs video collection is "totally insaney," lavishly animated and full of silly situations and clever quips. The series originally aired on Fox for two years beginning in 1993. Don't miss Yakko's Universe Song on Disc 1.

Lab mice gone bad, Pinky and the Brain tried to take over the world in each episode on The WB from 1995 to 1998. The mad genius, Brain, with his humorous dry delivery, and Pinky, his mindless comic sidekick, nearly always fail at their task: But catch the triumphant It's Only a Paper World on Disc 3.

Roald Dahl's The BFG: Big Friendly Giant

A&E Home Video; 88 minutes; $19.95, DVD

Grade: B+

For the Roald Dahl fans at my house, this video version of his 1982 book The BFG, illustrated by Quentin Blake, can't compare to reading the story. But as adaptations go, it stays true to the tale and vividly depicts the BFG's fearsome neighbors in Giant Country.

Leroy & Stitch

Walt Disney Home Entertainment; 73 minutes; $26.99, DVD

Grade: B

My boys still like 2002's Lilo & Stitch but were disappointed in its first two sequels. This one, however, while not nearly as endearing or inventive as the movie that spawned it, comes closest. It features Leroy, "the evil twin of Stitch," and reunites all the original characters for moments of creative wit.