No Coração da Floresta

Perri is a beautiful movie. It features wonderfully developed characters and some excellent cinematography. What makes Perris stand out above the newer Disney movies is that all of the animals are real. No animation here! Instead we get an intimate look into the life of a cute little squirrel. Who knew squirrels got into so much trouble?!?

Half-documentary/half-fantasy on the life cycle of a female squirrel named Perri, surviving the seasons in the forest, even falling in love! This superb family film was initially to be part of Walt Disney's continuing True-Life Adventures series, yet is (arguably) improved upon with the additions of plot, comedic effects, and a beautiful squirrel-dream sequence. The photography is superb, the bemused narration enjoyable, and (as always) Disney underscores the rote stretches with blissful music. Perhaps a bit lengthy for some viewers, but bright children should really enjoy it. Quite entertaining! *** from ****

A Walt Disney TRUE-LIFE FANTASY.

This is the story of PERRI, a female forest squirrel. We follow her life through the seasons of one year, learning the incredible struggles her kind must make to survive. We watch her deal with fierce predators & a devastating wildfire, before eventually finding a mate.

This is a splendid family film, based on the book by Felix Salten, the author of `Bambi'. (In fact, Bambi makes a live-action appearance). Using great nature photography - and a little bit of Disney special effects magic - it is a heart warmer that is sure to stay in the viewers' memory.

Highlight: Perri's wintertime dream. The story, told entirely in verse, is narrated by Winston Hibler.

There are a lot of very interesting nature shots in this movie, some quite beautiful. It is not an animated movie, like Bambi, and does not approach the truly remarkable beauty of that movie. But there's a lot to enjoy here, if you ignore the one musical number about couples, which is not at the level of the rest of the movie.

I would say that this might not be appropriate for small children, but then, as I still remember almost 60 years later, seeing Bambi was very frightening for little children as well. There are a LOT of scenes of animals hunting other animals, and sometimes they catch them. There is no focus on limbs being ripped off corpses or anything gruesome like that, of course, but you do see wildcats carrying off rabbits, etc. If you feel this would unduly upset your child, you might want to have a talk about nature's ways before letting your child see it.

Our cat, who never pays any attention to the television, watched this film with great interest for about the first hour! He even moved to sit right in front of the TV. It dragged a bit near the end, but was worth watching.