The Impossible Child: Heidi

    So far ETF has never looked one of Hollywood's most beloved child actors: Shirley Temple. America and Hollywood's little darling of the 1930's, Shirley Temple is most remembered for her golden curls and "Animal Crackers In My Soup." She did a good number of films throughout her childhood, and was even considered for the role of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, which would instead star Judy Garland. But that's ok, because Shirley had many other stories to be a part of. In October of 1937, when Shirley was 9, Heidi was released.

     

   
   Once upon a time, a little Swiss orphan by the name of Heidi is brought to her grandfather by her Aunt Dete. Her grandfather, Adolph Kramer, is said to be a harsh old hermit, "feared by everyone." But Heidi, funny and sweet, finds her way into his heart. For a time, grandfather and granddaughter are happy together. But one day, Aunt Dete returns and takes Heidi without Kramer's knowledge AND consent. Before Heidi knows it, she's taken to Franfurt and into the wealthy home of Herr Sesemann to serve as a friend and companion for his disabled child, Klara. Will Adolph Kramer find his granddaughter in time before the evil Fraulein Rottenmeier tries to get rid of her? Or will it be too late? 
 
      As a child, Shirley Temple seemed to give off an aura of endless cheer. Because of that, Heidi does the same thing. It's very to charming for us to see in the film that even the grumpiness of her grandfather does not bring her down, which is could be why her grandfather comes to love her so much. This is also a reason why Heidi doesn't need to be a particularly epic film. It's just an amusing, simple, and fun story.  

   When Heidi first comes to the Sesemann home, Fraulein Rottenmeier, Herr Sesemann's housekeeper and Klara's caregiver, doesn't like her, and tells Aunt Dete to "Take that impossible child back!" Dete refuses of course. 
   What Fraulein Rottenmeier may fail to see is that Heidi is not an impossible child at all. So many things in the film that the characters thought impossible became possible with Heidi. (SPOILER alert!) Heidi learns to read when her friend Peter said she'd never be able to, she reunites with her grandfather when some, including Heidi herself, thought she'd never see him again, and she helps Klara to walk under the wonderfully childish logic that, if Heidi could read if she wanted to, then Klara could walk if she wanted to. When Heidi says that the butler, Andrews, looks like a king, he says to her,"Ah, little Fraulein, if only the rest of the world could see through your eyes." And not just Heidi's eyes, but the eyes of a child. As Master Yoda from Star Wars said, "Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is." This of course, includes the lovely mind of Shirley Temple. 

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