So Dear to My Heart

It wasn’t long before Disney decided to produce another hybrid film and So Dear to My Heart was released January 19, 1949. Based on the Sterling North book, Midnight and Jeremiah, the film stars Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten, Beulah Bondi, and Burl Ives.

Set in 1903 Indiana, the film tells the tale of Jeremiah Kincaid and his determination to raise a black-wool lamb that had been rejected by its mother. Jeremiah names it Danny after the race horse Dan Patch and has the dram of showing him in the county fair. To do so, Jeremiah must get around the objections of his grandmother while Uncle Hiram remains the boy’s ally. Eventually, Jeremiah is able to enter Danny in the fair and while he doesn’t win best in show, he wins a special award.  The animation is presented in musical interludes between points in the plot.

Originally, Disney wasn’t going to have any animation in the film, but decided to put it in there at the last minute as people were expecting animation in a Disney movie. It should have been left out. Sure the animated sequences are beautiful and present great music, but they serve no purpose other than to be there. As such, it feels like they ruin the pacing of the story. At least in Song of the South, the animated sequences served as parables told by Uncle Remus to teach Johnny a lesson.

Everything else about the story is fairly decent. The visuals are better than Song of the South, which makes sense since it was supposed to be fully live action. The acting is ok, with Beulah Bondi giving the best performance as a cantankerous old woman.

Final Call: a decent live action film, but the animated interludes feel out of place. It won’t get very far at #11, but it will escape the Edge of Dissatisfaction.