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The Little Princess

The Little Princess

Family · Drama · Comedy · 1939

A little girl goes in search of her father who is reported missing by the military during the Second Boer War.

Movie details

The Little Princess

“A great classic comes to life in glorious Technicolor!”

1939 Family · Drama · Comedy 1h 33m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

6.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

89 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A little girl goes in search of her father who is reported missing by the military during the Second Boer War.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Little Princess?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Walter Lang

Written by

Ethel Hill · Walter Ferris

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple

Sara Crewe

Richard Greene

Richard Greene

Geoffrey Hamilton

Anita Louise

Anita Louise

Rose

Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter

Captain Crewe

Cesar Romero

Cesar Romero

Ram Dass

Arthur Treacher

Arthur Treacher

Bertie Minchin

Mary Nash

Mary Nash

Amanda Minchin

Court is in session

Put The Little Princess on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.