Synopsis
When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self-worth.
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Cast
- Liesel MatthewsSara Crewe
- Eleanor BronMiss Minchin
- Liam CunninghamCapt. Crewe / Prince Rama
- Rusty SchwimmerAmelia Minchin
- Vanessa Lee ChesterBecky
- Rachael BellaBetsy
- Camilla BelleJane
- Kelsey MulrooneyLottie
- Lauren BlumenfeldRosemary
- Vincent SchiavelliMr. Barrow
Recommendations
- 90
Variety
An astonishing work of studio artifice, A Little Princess is that rarest of creations, a children's film that plays equally well to kids and adults. - 89
Austin Chronicle
Director Alfonso Cuaron, in his first American movie, has fashioned a world so real and so engaging that you can feel it and smell it and taste it as surely as if you were there. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Cuaron's version of magic realism consists of seeing incredibly fanciful sets and situations in precise detail, and Johnson has provided him with the freedom and logistical support to create such places as the street where Miss Minchin's school looms so impressively. - 80
The New York Times
Shaking off the solemnity that smothers many a well-meaning, high-minded family film, this one revels in an exuberant sense of play, drawing its audience into the wittily heightened reality of a fairy tale. The material, like the title, is a tad precious, but the finished film is much too spirited and pretty for that to matter. - 80
Chicago Reader
The virtues on display are very much those of the heroine: generosity, imagination, charm, and the capacity to keep an audience mesmerized with a good story. - 75
ReelViews
To be sure, A Little Princess has a few missteps. For one thing, Miss Minchin could have been played with less villainy, but younger viewers will probably appreciate the one-dimensional nastiness. There are also a few moments of overt sweetness, but these are easily forgiven. Actually, there's very little this movie has to apologize for -- it's the rare kind of picture that can be enjoyed by viewers of eight, eighteen, and eighty. - 75
San Francisco Examiner
A Little Princess is a delightful film. Bring your children, or just bring yourself. - 75
USA Today
A Little Princess is the first of its progeny to blend brains with entertainment. This stylish sleeper easily outpaces the studio's starchy updates of "Black Beauty" and "The Secret Garden", and even betters Shirley Temple's 1939 take on Frances Hodgson Burnett's Princess perennial. [18 May 1995, 12D.]
