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.

"Heidi" is a new German(-language) film that brings back Johanna Spyri's title character to the big screen, a little girl who discovers how much she loves live at the countryside/in the mountains. Unfortunately, her aunt(?) who took care of her after Heidi's mother's death is not exactly a great talent in terms of upbringing and literally sells her to a family in the city of Frankfurt, who are looking for a companion for her wheelchair-bound daughter. It certainly is a tough decision who's worse: Fräulein Rottenmeier or Dete? These two sure make Heidi suffer a lot. This movie here has quite a few big names in terms of German cinema: Schüttler, Haase, Mehmet, Lohmeyer are all well-known here and then of course there is Bruno Ganz, who is a big star abroad as well.

However, let's not forget the child actors. I thought the trio did a good job. They all showed that they have talent in terms of acting and that they were deserving to play major characters in such a big film. Nice choices by the casting directors. The story is good as well. I must say that the emotional moments could have needed better elaboration sometimes, like Öhi growing closer to Heidi or when Klara suddenly is able to walk at the end. Then again, this is all seen and displayed through the eyes of children and for them it's more about discovering something new than about feeling something. And it's certainly not that they were free of all emotion, just a case of "is good, but could have been great". There are also funny moments in there. More severe scenes like Peter beating the goats or destroying the wheelchair are mitigated by the "sharing cheese and ham" talk and the boy's guilty conscience.

The movie runs for roughly 105 minutes which is fairly long for a kids movie, but nothing that breaks records or anything. If your kids have the attention span, this film is certainly worth a watch. Maybe my lack of emotional response also has to do with me living in cities for my entire life. People who lived in the countryside or even in the mountains may respond even more positive to this film than I did. Of course, I still managed to enjoy the beautiful scenery and animals in here in the first and last chapters in the mountains. Good movie. Not among year-best for me, but I recommend it.

It's the first time for me to write a review. But I'm very much moved by this movie.

I haven't read the original book, and I read the previous review saying this is supposed to be a movie for children and she doesn't see her son/daughter laugh. I think this is too harsh for the movie.

The scenes are cast as beautiful as it can be, reflecting the pure innocence of the kids for sure. The pure affection among kids are well cast through their innocent smiles. What touched me the most was the nostalgia that Heidi had towards her mountains, and the soft bread that she saved for Peter's grandmother. I hated peter for a while, but the moment he helped Clara stand up. I can see the cute part of a child when he pushed down Clara's wheelchair.

If I have to pick some imperfections in this movie, it would be the quite abrupt ending. Suddenly, Clara can move perfectly, and Heiti got a blank notebook to fill her stories. This setting is diluting the innocence in the movie. Another part, is the relationship between Heiti and her grandfather was only emphasized in the very beginning and left unattended since Clara appears.