So Dear To My Heart

Nostalgic Disney film highlighted by Burl Ives' songs.
"So Dear To My Heart" is a lesser-known Disney film released 3 years after "Song Of The South". It's one of Walt's loveliest films, with several scenes combining live-action with animation, just like the previous film. What I love and remember most about the film is Burl Ives and his singing voice. His songs here include the Oscar-nominated "Lavender Blue" and his duet with Beulah Bondi "Billy Boy". Bobby Driscoll (Jeremiah) is now close to being my favorite child actor of the past. This film, along with "Treasure Island", showed him real talent. Walt Disney discovered him and Luana Patten in the '40s, and they starred together in "Song Of The South" and this film. They were the first child actors put under contract at Walt Disney's studio. Interesting bit of trivia for film history buffs, huh? Anyway, I think "So Dear To My Heart" should be more widely seen by Disney film buffs.

Family Charmer
Even among Disney films there are few that absolutely everyone in the family can watch without provisos of some kind. This movie is one of those. Fans of classic film stars will find this charming family film to be filled with several actors in the prime of their lives.

Jeremiah Kincaid (Bobby Driscoll, who voiced Peter Pan in the animated Disney movie, as well as appearing in "Treasure Island" and "Pecos Bill" and numerous other films as a child star) lives with his Grandma Kincaid (Academy Award and Emmy winner Beulah Bondi). Jeremiah's best friend seems to be Tildy (Luana Patten, who also appeared in "Pecos Bill," "Johnny Tremain" and numerous other films). Another important character in this movie is Jeremiah's Uncle Hiram (Burl Ives), who sings the Academy Award nominated song "Lavender Blue" in this film.

Jeremiah sees a beautiful and famous race horse near the beginning of the movie. Since Jeremiah and his grandmother are poor, owning such a horse is...

Filled with valuable lessons................
We borrowed this from the library. Although it has cartoon sequences with live action I think that this movie appeals more to the older child and adults. The scenery is beautiful. The cartoons are great with wonderful songs. The actors are great also. Burl Ives does a wonderful job as Uncle Hiram. His natural, effortless, singing ability jumps up through out the film.
The story is about a young boy being raised by his grandmother in the early 1900's. His dreams of owning a champion race horse change when a black lamb is born and is not accepted by its mother. Jeremiah soon falls in love with the lamb and dreams of taking him to the state fair. Without any extra money for train fare Jeremiah must raise money to pay his way.
Strong emphasis placed on faith in God and doing the best with what you got.

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