We viewed this more or less by accident: there was not much in the way of choices. From the beginning, I was impressed by the acting, particularly of the young "Dolly Parton." We are not religious people: you don't have to be to enjoy this wholesome, well acted program with such a message of what we are here on earth to do: give love and support to others even if at first they may seem unloving and not supportive of us. The other message is that people may be poor and struggling yet that does not mean they are not able to give and receive love within and outside of their families.Dolly, you came a long way. And I sincerely hope that "Little Dolly" has the opportunity to pursue an acting and or singing career if she chooses.

This is a Christian family based film with a hint of having faith in one's religion regardless of how hard life can be sometimes. The truth being that life's journey for most of us is in fact a boiling pot of many happy times and memories that we have previously shared with our immediate family, as well as the great loss of life of one or more people/animals that are near and dear to our heart.This is a film based on a young Dolly Parton at nine years of age growing up in the mountains of Tennessee with seven of her siblings. Little Dolly is the apparent apple of her parents' eye, even though she is full of spunk. The acting by all the main characters was more than believable with an admirable performance by a young actress named Alyvia Alyn Lind who plays young Dolly. The young Ms. Lind has already built herself a considerable resume with appearances in 16 various films and/or TV series. With this much work already under her belt I assume she must be home schooled and focused more on her acting career at the moment rather than on a typical bricks and mortar education and a typical childhood.Excellent performances were also provided by Dolly's movie father Mr. Robert Lee Parton played by the seasoned actor Ricky Schroeder who coincidentally also got his first break at the age of 9 years starring opposite the veteran actor Jon Voight in a boxing film titled The Champ. Dolly's movie mother Avie Lee Parton was played superbly by the professional singer Jennifer Nettles, who is a member of the well-established Country band, Sugarland. Dolly's movie grandfather is the county's minister Reverend Jake Owens and played effectively by Gerald McRaney. Dolly Parton herself narrates her own story as a 9 year old girl growing up in the Tennessee hills with her seven siblings, who lived off of the land her daddy sowed, surrounded by her parents' strong love even when tragedy hits the family hard. For those naysayers who prefer to say that this film was a bit hokey please remember this is a 90 minute film attempting to cover several months in young Dolly's life. The coat of many colors is not the focal point but only explains how Dolly wrote such a beautiful and successful song. As such what I am able to draw from this mini-biography film is that strong family based Christian characteristic that helped Dolly develop in to the beautiful and caring country and western singer that she has presented on stage, in public and private for decades, as well as her Christian faith that she has always said provides her with her inner strength.There is good acting throughout the film, it is a good storied family film with some insight in to a young (9 years of age) Dolly Parton's family roots. Sure there are Academy Award dramas out there that are more memorable but Mrs. Sullivan and I were quite pleased with this family based biography film and as such I give it an 8 out of 10 rating.

This movie shows the life of Dolly Parton in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. I lived in East Tennessee for seven years and love the people and the beauty of the area. This movie gives a peek at life in East Tennessee. Clean movie. Use of the word "Hell". Cute little girl to play Dolly. Movie gets me excited to go back and visit the area again. When movie comes to video, it will be apart of our family's collection. Nice to see clean movie on prime time viewing. Hopefully this will encourage the alphabet stations to put more of these types of movies instead of crude humored shows. Cool to see Dolly become a balladeer during the movie and see her at Dollywood.

"Coat Of Many Colors" takes us back to Dolly Parton's girlhood. Dolly is played by the cute-as-a-button Alyvia Alyn Lind, who obviously had parents in the grip of the current vogue of thinking they're being creative by deliberately misspelling their kids' names. We see Dolly at a time in life before she habitually wore wigs and before she developed her spectacular female endowments, when she had only a pretty face, a pretty voice, and spunk. I hate spunk. This TV movie is an example of why: It presents a treacly, sanitized, Life-Saver-colored version of life amidst the fields and valleys of Locust Ridge, Tennessee, when all the family had was love, t'baccy, music, and the Bahble. Jennifer Nettles plays Dolly's mother, a woman whose youth and beauty are ridiculous to behold, seemingly untouched as they are by the Parton family's hardscrabble existence and eight children. In voice-over, the adult Dolly – who is nothing if not a savvy, pragmatic businesswoman – professes a simple-minded faith in a loving Jesus that a lot of people are likely to find more insipid than inspiring. She attributes that faith to her mother's influence; but the glaring inconsistency is that her mother's faith didn't prevent her from languishing in a protracted state of despondency after the stillbirth of a child. It also begs credulity to think that a 15-second admonition from her husband that her family needs her could just snap Mom out of it.Rick Schroeder puts in a dutiful performance as Dolly's father Lee; Schroeder goes through the film with an expression that strongly suggests that what he's thinking is, "Well, it's a living." Singer Jennifer Nettles hasn't acted much, but she does a serviceable job here. Aside from Dolly herself, the other characters are of necessity mere sketches.Dolly Parton is one of the greats of American country music, but this movie is about as convincing as Cinderella. Someone really needed to drill a hole in it and let the sap out.