AllMovie

An A-list cast, with screen legends Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal, Hannah and Her Sisters), Diana Rigg (TV's The Avengers, On Her Majesty's Secret Service), andGeraldine Chaplin (Nashville, Remember My Name), highlights this live-action, feature-length adaptation of Johanna Spyri's much-beloved novel Heidi (1880). The picture -- like the book -- tells the familiar story of the title character (here played by Emma Bolger), an orphaned little girl who goes to live with her grandfather (Max Von Sydow) in the Swiss Alps. Shot on location in Switzerland, against a wintry, majestic backdrop, the picture strives to preserve Spyri's sense of the landscape and her rare insight into the perceptions of children, as well as the book's feel for sweeping adventure and lasting sentiment. Paul Marcus directs, from an adaptation by Brian Finch.