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Rating:  - Should be required viewing for everyone!!
I was surprised that there were not more reviews for this wonderful, engaging film. After watching it again yesterday on Easter Sunday, I felt the need to write about it. This is a beautiful film that I wonder if a lot of people have forgotten about. It has so much meaning and heart. Every family, adult and child needs to see this and watch it at least once a year. It is a pure masterpiece on every level. Even the adults will cry. With everything bad going on in the world today, this is something you want to sit down and watch to lift your spirits. Without Hayley Mills, this would not have been as effective. She really made the movie in every way. 5 stars!
Rating: - If you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will...
No words that I could write could ever fully express how I feel about this most magnificent motion picture achievement, nor ever do it justice. Simply put, this is movie making magic at its' very best!
Pollyanna is the simple story of a high-spirited young orphan girl who unknowingly touches the hearts and lives of everyone she comes in contact with.
Beautifully filmed, lovingly told. This movie weaves its' wonders in a most unassuming and natural way. All thanks to the superb script and deft direction of David Swift, in this his feature film directorial debut. With impeccable attention to detail, the immense love and great care that have been poured into this project, shows and radiates through in every single frame of film. It is has a richness of heart, and an honesty and integrity about it, that is rarely found in movies these days.
Featuring what is possibly the most impressive cast ever assembled for a Disney feature, this film is filled to overflowing with outstanding performances and rich, totally believable, fully developed characterizations. Hayley Mills shines in the title role, deservedly winning the Oscar for the Most Outstanding Juvenile Performance of 1960. Her performance is brimming with brilliance and believability. Completely captivating, she is most convincing and constantly charming. Jane Wyman's portrayal of Aunt Polly is every bit as powerful as her Oscar winning performance in "Johnny Belinda." The whole cast is exceptional! Karl Malden revels in his role as Reverend Ford. Agnes Moorehead has the time of her life as crotchety old Mrs. Snow. Not forgetting a young Kevin Corcoran, who delivers a delightful performance as the irrepressible, yet irresistible rapscallion, Jimmy Bean, just to name a few.
The period is perfectly portrayed, capturing all the charm, atmosphere, elegance, and nostalgia of turn-of-the-century America. With lovingly lavished sets, stunningly stylish costume designs, the film is gorgeously grand! All being further complimented and enhanced by Paul Smith's superb musical score, capturing perfectly the personalities and spirit of the movie.
Pollyanna continues to remain my favorite film of all time. As time has passed, this movie has only improved with age, and will continue to do so for generations to come. It is a movie that celebrates life. And more importantly, shows us how to live. In this day and age of hustle and bustle, chaos and confusion, the message that lies at the heart of the film is as timely and important as ever. And one that we all need to be reminded of. A perfect gem of a movie and a pure joy! Pollyanna will gladden your horizon, lift your spirit, and win your heart.
PS - This DVD is jammed packed with the most awesome bonus material of any DVD release ever! If you are a fan of this movie, do yourself a favor, don`t delay, order it today!
Rating: - Pollyanna
Great movie if you like movies when they were simple and you didn't have to turn them off when kids came in the room.
Rating:  - Go Ahead, Be A Pollyanna!
It's always a little intimidating to re-watch favorite movies from your childhood. You fear being disappointed by what you found captivating as a child. Oft-times the films seem just a little less "well made" or carefully plotted than films devoted to a supposedly more discerning adult audience. I had fond memories of POLLYANNA, a film my older sister took me to see when I was eight (in fact, I had my first movie star crush on Hayley Milles), but doubted that I'd find it as engaging as a grown-up. After all, the very term "Pollyanna" has certain negative associations, synonymous as it is with "Goody Two-Shoes" or just old "goodie goodie." Naive optimism may be charming in a (fictional turn of the LAST century child), but does it speak to us jaded, post-modern viewers of the 21st century?
Well, the answer is that it CAN, certainly. It's all up to you, the viewer. Pollyanna's sunny disposition, from an adult perspective, is actually an act of sheer willpower. She's an orphan, after all, sent to live with strangers (her reserved Aunt Polly, whose welcome is tentative at best). Her "glad game," which was taught to her my her missionary father, is actually a conscious effort to put the best possible spin on otherwise dismaying events. Positive thinking isn't all that easy in the face of adversity, especially if you're a 10 year old child.
POLLYANNA also addresses, in its own innocent way, some theological or, at least, doctrinal issues. Her gradual influence on the town's minister leads him to gradually disavow the grim fire-and-brimstone preaching that Pollyanna's influential Aunt Polly, who practically owns the town, seems to prefer in favor of a more optimistic--and dare we say, more New Testament--kind of teaching. These were points that went over my head as an eight year old.
What didn't go over my head at the time was the plight of nearly all the children in the film, since nearly all of them were presented as orphans. The secret fear of nearly every small child, of course, is losing his or her parents. I don't think I realized that by 1960, life expectancy had improved for nearly everyone on the N. American continent. It probably didn't help that my hometown had a "children's home," and I assumed (probably incorrectly) that the residents there were all children whose parents had died.
That was such a haunting issue to me then me that to this very day, when I read a story about an orphan to a child, I always mention that nowadays things are different and only very few children experience the tragedy of losing both parents. But the strength of a tale like POLLYANNA is that it shows how even a child can overcome extreme adversity and retain a sense of wonder and optimism.
Hayley Mills received a Special Academy Award for her performance in this film, and she is indeed charming--and quite polished. Her British accent seems to be explained away by the fact that her father is described as having been a "missionary in the British West Indies." (Of course, most of her subsequent Disney roles had her playing American girls, and her accent was always simply ignored). Her speech coaches did take pains, apparently, to coach her on the more-or-less standard pronunciation of "aunt" as "ant," which might have been the one Britishism in her speech pattern they COULD have overlooked. After all, if I am not mistaken, the story takes place in Vermont, and in New England (as in Olde England) most speakers would pronounce that word as "ahnt." In fact, the speech coaches probably should have probably coached all the AMERICAN actors on a proper New England accent.
That's a quibble, however, POLLYANNA is a charmer and well worth seeing after 47 years. And it provides food for thought, for young and old to boot. What's not to like--or to be glad about?
Rating: - *Made me cry*
I watched this movie when I was pretty young. After watching it again...I really understand the concept of the film. This is a great film for family to watch.
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