So Dear to My Heart Reviews

SO DEAR TO MY HEART is a lovely, heartwarming live-action film with several superb animation sequences perfectly blended in. Set around the turn of the century in Indiana, the film is the story of young Jeremiah Kincaid (Bobby Driscoll), who yearns to own a horse. Jeremiah lives with his grandmother (Beulah Bondi) and lovingly raises a pet lamb, although the adventurous animal is sometimes a problem. Uncle Hiram (Burl Ives), the local blacksmith, supports Jeremiah's love for his pet, and thinks the lamb just might be championship caliber, encouraging the boy to enter it in the county fair. It will cost a few bucks to get to the fair and pay the entry fee, but Jeremiah is determined to showcase his lamb, so he takes a job gathering honey. This simple tale is often funny, always intelligent, and never overly sentimental. The animated sequences illustrate Jeremiah's fantasies as he pores over his scrapbook and a wise owl comes to life to demonstrate the importance of following one's dream; in another animated scene, a souvenir program from the fair comes to life.