Heidi

Yesterday, i went to the Cinema to look Heidi with my wife to to please her. Besides of the good reviews and the participation of Bruno Ganz I didn't expect too much. But the film convinced me totally, especially emotional. The film is very faithful to the books of J. Spyri even to small details. They are used very good to compound the overall story. Therefore, the film lacks inventions for the story telling. Instead it is using a proper selection of the original material given. As J. Spyri defined the idealised view on Switzerland, this Swiss film showed it as the story was intended . The looks of the Dörfli, the mountain pasture and Frankfurt are really faithful and believable while idealised as it was intended. The Alps panorama was breathtaking as could be expected from a Swiss film. The casting was very good. The short scene of the Alp-Öhi with the Grandma Sesemann played by H. Hoger showed the great actors chosen. The children were very good, too. Anuk Steffen had to carry the complete weight of the story with leading adult actors and she really did. The facial expressions and the language with the mild Swiss dialect was perfect. The roles of Fräulein Rottenmeier and the teacher was laid out overacted. I think it was made to attract children for this film. For a film targeting only adults this was too much. The story is well known, I think and of course J. Spyris master work making it one of Swiss national epics (Quotation from B. Ganz why he took the role). The film follows this absolutely truthfully. For the content of both books, the time is too short so psychological developments could only be hinted at. Another half hour of an extended version concentrating on the development of personal relationships as Heidi <-> Alp-Öhi would make the film perfect. But then it may be too long for a young audience.

Born in Germany, grew up in North America, lived all over Europe, and am a Swiss (Naturalized) and did not know the story of Heidi. My wife said, "don't you remember the cartoons?" Answer: NO.

It is an excellent movie and being German (born near Frankfurt) / Swiss dual citizen, I actually truly appreciated its reality and adherence to the people and the land. While others may say, "oh where is this", this movie paid attention to how people were of that time. I was surprised by that.

The story itself might not be accurate the the cartoons, but as my wife says, "you know it is a story right?" Well, and here is the thing the movie is very true to the original story, and not the cartoons.

Swiss appreciated the movie because they did not use a German dialect throughout the entire movie. They used a true Swiss dialect when appropriate.

So does the movie skip? Sure, it does, but it only has 2 hours to cover a complicated story. They decided to focus on the main parts of the original story and did a very good job.

Such a beautiful pure love movie. When I saw Heidi's smile, it shined my heart... best movie to relax, leave all your burdens away

Yes, it does have German or English options as well as English subtitles. The best Heidi I've seen; did it cover all Heidi story aspects - probably not, but what it did cover was more than sufficient to keep the viewer engaged. Acting - superb; filming, editing - superb; authenticity and beauty of scenes - superb. Yes, it's hard to go wrong with this story and you already know how it turns out, but no matter it still felt suspenseful and warm and kindly and adventuresome.

You're not going to hear people talking plot twists or modern spins about this umpteenth take on Johanna Spyri's classic children's story. ... Handsomely crafted, if uncompromisingly old-fashioned.